Y is for YORK

Yesterday, I had dental surgery and I was trying to figure out a way to incorporate it with the letter Y.  All I could come up with was "yucky."  Luckily for you, that was all I could think of.  So I resorted to my other plan to tell you about York, England and to show you just a few shots I took there last summer.  I stayed with my dear friend Jill Ellis Marshall, to whom I dedicate this post.

York is a historic walled city founded by the Romans in 71AD.  It lies between the Ouse and Foss Rivers and one of the biggest attractions is York Minster.  I won't bore you with details of its history, etc., because if you're interested, just go and check it out on Wikipedia.  The Shambles is an ancient area in York with overhanging timber-framed buildings that date back to the 14th Century. This area was renowned for its open-air slaughterhouse and meat market. My shot below.

As we entered the Shambles at one end, we were greeted with a wonderful flower market and entertained by the local Town Crier.

After purchasing a few tea towels as an easy-to-pack souvenir at a tea towel stand, we began wandering down the main street of the Shambles to search for somewhere to have lunch. We decided on the Café Rouge where we were greeted with great welcomes and seated right at the center front window where we had a wonderful view of tourists passing by.

A street entertainer happened to come by to entertain the tourists even before our lunch arrived. The above shot is from Mr. Google but the one below is mine, taken from our table through the window.

I photographed the above busker right through the window from my seat at the table.  I also shot the frontage of L'Occitane shop directly opposite of us.

 When we left the café, I took a photo of the area above the restaurant, which was lined with absolutely gorgeous flower boxes.

We wandered over to see York Minster, but the lines were horrendous. As I'd been inside before, we just walked to the garden next door where there was a Remembrance Ceremony going on to celebrate the Battle of Kohima in 1944.  It is an annual event and just happened to be that day, so we felt quite honoured to be a small part of it.

However, I did get a good shot at the front façade of the Minster and one of it peeking through the trees when we were in the park next door.  It really is quite impressive!

Then we headed over to the Medieval Guild Hall and poked around there to see the ancient wood beamed ceiling, the dining hall, and the stained glass windows.

Finally, here are a few shots of some gardens thatI couldn't resist photographing.  After all, I'm sure you've heard of the splendid English country gardens....well, these were right in a big city. The first two are the rose gardens in front of the Manor House located in front of the Guildhall.

You often see flowers growing up a rock or brick wall in England and York was no exception.

So there you have it.  We did have some other adventures that I may write about in future posts, but I think you're probably tired of me raving on about England and Wales and my wonderfully memorable trip last year.

Don't forget that next week, the letter Z, is our last ABC Wednesday at this location.  So do come back next week for a final farewell and more details on where to find it starting July 12!!!

X is for eXtending one's vocabulary

Only three more weeks until ABC Wednesday becomes a new and improved way of reaching the realms of the world.  Melody takes over as Administrator with two assistants and a team made up of former ABCW team members plus some new ones.  Our eXcitement builds with anticipation to see how things work out.  But in the meantime, do continue to post as we'd love to see a push of contributions rather than a dismal dying out. 

The letter X is always a difficult week to find a word to fit and having looked through most of my posts, I noticed that 1 out of 2 posts seems to be Xmas.  This time I decided to try to improve my own vocabulary and thus improve yours as well.  So here are my new X words.

XANTHROCHROID refers to the phenotype of persons who are fair-complexioned and light-haired.  A phenotype is the set of observable characteristics of an individual resulting from the interaction of its genotype with the environment.  Both of my daughters fit into the category, being blonde-haired, blue-eyed, with fair complexions.  However, they've coloured their hair so much throughout their lives that heaven only knows what their "natural" colour is now!  The first shot is when we lived in Ottawa and visited Upper Canada Village on the St. Lawrence River (1987) and the second is when we went to Cape Cod and saw President John F. Kennedy's memorial there (1988).

XHOSA are a Bantu people native to the Cape of Good Hope Province in South Africa. Xhosa peoples were well established by the time of the Dutch arrival in the mid-7th century, and occupied much of eastern South Africa from the Fish River to land inhabited by Zulu-speakers south of the modern city of Durban.

XEBEC, also spelled zebec, was a Mediterranean sailing ship that was used mostly for trading. It would have a long overhanging bowsprit and aft-set mizzen mast. It can also refer to a small, fast vessel of the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, used almost exclusively in the Mediterranean Sea.

XESTURGY is the process of polishing stones.

XOANON  is a statue made of wood, primitive in nature, that is covered in gold and ivory.

So there you have it - I hope you've improved your vocabulary somewhat.  I know I have as I'd never heard any of those words before.  Thanks to our eXtra special administrator, the eXuberant Roger and the eXtremely wonderful group of assistants.  Also thanks to the eXceptional imagination of Denise Nesbitt, the creator of ABC Wednesday 10 years ago!

W is for WALES

This week we honour the letter W as in welcome, wharf, wedding, whip, wrestle, and west.  Following last week's post about views of England, I'm showing you a tiny bit of Wales, the country of some of my ancestors.  This small part of the United Kingdom is bordered on the east by England, on the north and west by the Irish Sea, and on the south by the Bristol Channel. It has over 1600 miles of coastline with many of the most beautiful beaches in the entire kingdom; also, it is largely mountainous with Mount Snowdon its highest peak.  In the map below, you can see just how small the country is - the black line on the right is the border with England and you can see just how close Dublin (Ireland) is .

My connection with Wales is most recently through my paternal grandmother, whose ancestors came over from Ireland to the northwestern part - called Anglesey.  They then moved east and ended up in Llandudno, one of the most beautiful cities in the country.  It retains a Victorian appearance in its architecture but is completely modern now.  Also, it boasts a pier that is almost 2,300 feet long, the longest in Wales and 5th longest in all of England and Wales. Click here for more information.

Wales has three national symbols - the leek, the daffodil, and the harp. 

The Leek

According to legend on the eve of the battle against the Saxons St David advised the Britons to wear leeks in their caps so as to easily distinguish friend from foe. This helped to secure a great victory. Today Welsh people around the world wear leeks on St David's Day. It is also a surviving tradition that soldiers in the Welsh regiments eat a raw leek on St David's Day.

The Daffodil

The Welsh for leek (the original national emblem) is Cenhinen, while the Welsh for daffodil is Cenhinen Pedr. Over the years they became confused until the daffodil was adopted as a second emblem of Wales.

The Harp

The harp is regarded as the national instrument of Wales. By the end of the 18th century, the triple harp - so called because it had three rows of strings - was widely known as the Welsh harp on account of its popularity in Wales. The harp has been used through the ages as an accompaniment to folk-singing and dancing and as a solo instrument. HRH Prince Charles appoints a Welsh Royal Harpist on a scholarship programme annually. Past Royal harpists include Catrin Finch.

When I was a little girl, my Nana Jones gave me a doll dressed in the national costume of Wales.  I don't still have it, but I did take a photo of a Welsh lady from Conwy (town next to Llandudno where Nana grew up) as she was standing next to the smallest house in Great Britain. The ladies certainly have a very distinctive hat!

For such a small country, Wales has a lot to offer tourists.  There are castles, abbeys, ancient ruins, rocky coastlines and beautiful beaches, green that never seems to end, modern cities like Cardiff (the capital with its Millennium Stadium and a new waterfront area), older cities like Newport that was built by the Normans and boasts the Celtic Manor Resort, a modern golf, spa, and leisure resort where the 2010 Ryder Cup and the 2014 NATO summit were held.  There are so many ancient towns scattered throughout the green grass and forests where King Henry VIII used to hunt deer (right near my friend Jane's place).  Wales also boasts about past and present famous folk like Dylan Thomas (poet), Tom Jones (singer), Sir Anthony Hopkins (actor), Richard Burton (actor), Roald Dahl (writer), Catherine Zeta-Jones (actress). 

I've put together a very short presentation of some of my photos of areas in Wales that I've visited. This is just a taste and I hope it encourages you to consider putting it on your bucket list.  The music I chose this week is "Eternal Pride" which I thought apt as I have eternal pride in my heritage. Now turn up your sound and enjoy the show!

V is for VIEWS

Welcome to ABC Wednesday where this week we celebrate the letter V as in victory, vehement, velocity, vacuum, vehicle, vote, vixen, and vocabulary!

This week, I thought I'd bring you a few views from my trip to England last year.  I know that every country has its own spectacular vistas, especially my country of Canada.  However, there is something about England that just draws me there.  Maybe it's my ancestry and the fact that the first time I stepped on British soil in 1997, I had a strong sense that I was "home." 

I didn't put any words on the photos because it took away from the actual view.  Instead, I'll just give you a little run-down of what you will see.

There are photos of a grand palace, Blenheim Palace (in Oxfordshire) and Winston Churchill's  palatial home (in Kent) with a view looking out and down the hill from the upper balcony there.

There is a "stylized" photo overlooking Albert Dock (in Liverpool), a shot of the grand entrance to the Beatles Museum, and a couple of shots looking UP at Liverpool's Eye, from which I took the photo of Albert Dock.  Also, there is a shot of the new statues of the Beatles in front of the Mersey Ferry Dock.

There are shots looking up at British chimneys, Chimney Banks in North Yorkshire, and up at the colossal cliff in Staithes, North Yorkshire, where you can see the seagulls flying overhead.

There are views of ancient bridges, churches, abbeys, and castles and their ruins.  See out over the rooftops of the ancient city of Richmond, homes nestled in the surrounding hills, and towers rising high above the forests. 

High on the hill where you'll find Whitby Abbey, you can see for miles over the town and the beach off the North Sea. 

See sheep roaming the moors and dales, and a view of York Minster through the trees, as well as a view of countryside and river as I sped by on the train.

Here is an illustration comparing the size of the entirety of the United Kingdom compared to the size of my province of British Columbia.  I have seen about half of BC and quite a bit of the rest of Canada except for Nova Scotia and Newfoundland/Labrador.  It truly is a vast and spectacular country, but maybe I have the "grass is greener" mentality - even though I feel so "at home" in England, Scotland, and Wales.  For W week, I will show you some wonderful views of that part of Great Britain!

Turn up your sound, make it full-screen, and enjoy!