Wednesday 11 May 2016

Holy Water

Monday was another lovely warm sunny day and we made the most of it planting carrots and peas on the plot. Our apple hedge is coming into flower and like the pears the trees are covered in blossom.
Our early potatoes Casablanca are just pushing their first shoots through the soil. The forecast for the weekend is for temperatures down to near freezing so I'll have to make sure these tender new shoots are covered over by then to protect them from the cold.
The forecast for Tuesday was for rain spreading up from the south by mid afternoon. To make the most of the fine weather we planned a trip up to North Yorkshire to visit the National Trust's Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal a World Heritage Site.
Monks came to the valley in 1132 to build the abbey which survived until the dissolution of the monasteries  by King Henry VIII in 1538. It must have been an even more impressive building in its heyday and is one of the largest ruins of a Cistercian abbey that remain.

Studley Royal is a spectacular Georgian water garden built around 1718 by John Aislabie who had been Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1718 and when he was disqualified from public office he returned to Yorkshire and set about creating the water gardens.
Unfortunately the weather forecast turned out a little inaccurate and despite our best attempts to miss any rainfall until late afternoon it started to rain just after lunchtime. We will have to visit again soon.   

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