My 634 post – All my Yesterdays? well, a few of them

 

Beautiful rafaela just one of my many past posts

I thought that I’d do an update as I haven’t done one since my 550th in June.  I am glad that the experiment in cutting down my blog post by posting every few days doesn’t seem to affected my views.  Posting every day (which I managed for a full year) was getting very time-consuming: life  and Bookstains were suffering!

Hogarth another past post (birthday I think)

What I thought I would do for this post is look at some posts going right back: posts that never really got a proper airing in the early days. 

My Bronte bites (must update these with another trip to Haworth)

My blog has changed completely over the a few years – so much added; so many categories.  The book reviews and poetry have had to be accommodated in Bookstains where I’m  hosting poetical challenges based on paintings.  But just for fun and because I’m feeling nostalgic –  here area tiny minute fractionof my early ‘Yesterdays’  Please feel free to comment:-)

Foundation Stones McGuire

A very early post about Irish artist Brian McGuire and why I love his ‘Foundation Stones paintings

Just a tick – just getting the lay of the land(one of my very first blog posts…….

euphoria-borealis

Euphoria Borealis An early painting (and why)

99 cent pop Gursky

Andreas Gursky Go BIG

Hepworth garden

A Cornish Garden of hidden delights (Barbara Hepworth)

unusual ceramics and teapots have features

Teapots (not done any posts on these for a long time) go all political

PS Theres two more entries in the Weeping Woma poetry challenge (including mine) on Bookstains HERE

A postcard from Yorkshire

We’re always going off to Haworth, (famous for being the home of the Bronte family).  Nothing much changes in Haworth.  We’ve even stayed there a few times, at the bottom of the hill in a 16th century hotel called Haworth Old Hall.  One time, a bat flew in to the bedroom – so I bit it, and it soon flew away…I AM joking, but not about the bat visit.  Here’s a little slide show I’ve put together using some of our photo’s including York.  This time I have not overladen the slide show with images – so I’m hoping the page will load easier than last time 🙂

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Haworth Old Hall, read about it here

Legless fish and other food oddities

Haworth Old Hall a lovely place to stay

I had a few nice meals whilst I was away.  One of them – a Venison Noisette in red wine, bacon, onion, mushroom and juniper (Haworth Old Hall) was absolutely delicious.  Another contender was something called Lamb Jennings – described as being slowly braised until it falls of the bone lamb, in rosemary and red wine.  But the thing that intrigued me and put me off a little and made me opt for the venison was not knowing what a Lamb Jennings actually was.  What I mean to say is – what part of a lamb is its Jennings?

Jennings ale

It turned out that I needn’t have worried.  The ‘Jennings’ referred to is actually the name of the ale (beer) it is infused with!  Why not say that?  It sounds delicious!

Pacific cod loin

Another food oddity I have noticed everywhere is ‘Cod Loins’.  I am at a loss with this.  How do fish have ‘loins’?  I can see how a loin or two can be taken from pork – an animal with four legs, but not a fish.

chicken McNuggets in 1997 packaging

My husband always asks what part of a chicken is it’s Mcnuggets?  Well what part of a chicken is it?  Has it seen a chicken?  The thing that has always put me off Kentucky Fried chicken is that some of it has no bone.  How and why does the bone jellify?   Sure, its artistic liscence to include ‘infuse’ or ‘on a bed’ or ‘wild’ rice/mushroom etc. Perhaps it’s just me, but I like to know what I’m eating (and which bit), 

pork cuts as I understand them

Haworth Old Hall where we stayed (home of the Lamb Jennings)

Pork prime cuts here

PS

My new poem on Bookstains is called Last Impression

Jorvic Calls

shambles york

I will be back by the time your read this post.  I have been away celebrating my birthday.  Where have I been?  Where do you think?  To one of my favorite cities ever York – that’s where!

Alice in wonderland

I never get sick of going to this place and we always eem to find new and exciting things to do.   I will be going to see the new Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland movie in 3D whilst I’m there…well I am back now but this post is scheduled and I haven’t been yet.  Confused?  You will be!  I’ve never seen a film in 3D before so I’m quite excitied.  Someone my husband knows said watching it in 3D was ‘better than real life!’  I thought all life was in 3D? lol!

Haworth Old Hall

Of course I have to spend one night in Haworth again….I think you know why.  As it was such a success last year, we are stopping at Haworth Old Hall and hope to have a super duper time.  We may even encounter the bat we saw last year!

Haworth Old Hall

PS

My new poem on Bookstains is called Last Impression

What I’m Reading at the moment; ‘Branwell Bronte’s Barber’s Tale’ by Chris Firth

Branwell Brontes Barbers Tale by Chris Firth

I am  in that inbetweeny period where I have no new books to read (sob) so I’m having to rely on old ones: ones I have read years ago, like ‘Samuel Pepys’ Diary’.  Occasionally I come across a book I’ve bought and for some reason or other, haven’t got round to reading.  Well, such an occurence happened today!  I found a bag I’d forgotten about containing reading matter!  The bag contained stuff we had bought on our recent visit to Haworth including a book called ‘Branwell Bronte’s Barbers Tale’ by Chris Firth, where apparently ‘Fiction collides with history…’ and it is a ‘literary thriller that will explode the Bronte myth’ according to the Bradford Observer June 12th 1867 (yes, that’s what it says on the back).  So great stuff, looking forward to reading this!  By the way, the book was entered for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 2005.

The other reading material is in the form of an old ‘Everybody’s Weekly’ from the 1950s.  I thought it would be interesting to see the sort of fashion and advertisements that were going in the period I was born, and see exactly what has changed (me, obviously, lol!) and how much.  So plenty to be getting on with.  I will report my findings of the book an magazine when after I have read them.

Haworth Revisited

haworth in the rain

It’s been yet another sunny day!  I can’t quite believe it.  Now why couldn’t it have been like this when we went to Haworth last week?  Here’s another couple of pics we took in that wuthering place:-

disconcerting Bronte bronzes

 More posts about Haworth

Staying at Wuthering Heights (as one does)

Did the REAL Charlotte Bronte just Stand up?

Black Sheep Branwell – It wasn’t All Rock and Roll

Haworth STIL Wuthering and Very Much So!

Black Sheep Branwell: It wasn’t ALL Rock and Roll…

Branwell Bronte self portrait

It’s Sunday, so it’s just a quick post again. Whilst in Haworth I visited Branwell Bronte’s exhibition.  It’s a small one, but it at least affords us a more rounded picture of Patrick Bronte’s tragic son.  There were small water colours, poems both in tiny form and a more ordinary format.

branwell bronte sketch

Small plays and even Branwell’s wallet were displayed.  I couldn’t get an image of it, but it was larger than I thought….and probably empty for many a long year lol!

tiny tiny writing

Amazingly, Branwell was once a member of the Temperance Society, and once presided! A couple of his Temperance cards are on display, signed by himself and his father Patrick.

More tomorrow

More of my recent posts relating to Haworth and the Bronte’s;-

Did the REAL Charlotte Bronte just stand up?

Staying at Wuthering Heights (as one does )

Haworth STILL wuthering and very much so

Wuthering Heights 2009 ITV version

Sex Drugs and Literature – Branwell Bronte gets his place in the sun

Staying at Wuthering Heights (as one does…..)

the old hall by day

We stayed over night in Haworth for the first time.  It was wet and windy, living up to it’s wuthering reputation.  We stayed at Haworth Old Hall, built in the 1600s and full of atmosphere.  This was the original Wuthering Heights!  I’m talking about the very first  film  of Emily Bronte’s book, made in the 1920s of course.  Apparently this film has disappeared and the Bronte Society would very much like to get hold of it! Read about it HERE

the window above the door was our room. You can well imagine this as Wuthering Heights!

The place itself is full of character and serves wonderful meals.  Flag floors, stone, wooden floorboards, mullion windows and big fireplaces – what more could you want?  A bat did lose its way and fly through our window..but that only added to the visit!  We were assured that this was VERY unusual and NOT an everyday occurrence (I don’t want to put anyone off staying here – it’s fab and the staff and hosts are very friendly and generous!).  So I suppose that the bat must have been an omen of some sort meant just for us …hope it was a good one lol!

old Hall by nigth, a rainy one at that

 

So many mysteries lately, disappearing films, visits from bats and the unearthing of a possible Bronte painting!  Lots to think about.

Haworth Old Hall – A Great place to stay, read about it HERE