A week or two ago, I went to York to meet with Penelope Walton Rogers who is a major name in my field of study, and also happens to be one of my thesis advisors. We were to meet on a Wednesday, but I couldn't take a train there and not spend a day playing tourist. I brought my friend Janilee Plummer, also an American PhD working under Gale, who did her archaeological dig work in York as a guide. We took a room in The Dairy Guest House, just south of the walled medieval part of the city, and spent Tuesday and Thursday looking around the city and meeting with her friends.
A picture of the walls, of course. It constantly astounds me how close modern living is in relation to all these medieval landmarks I've seen only in pictures while I was in the States. I think, because there is so much space in America, and we tend to protect our national monuments by buying up the surrounding land to put a buffer around them, that I expect the same here on this small island. The image I put up shows one of the major roads in York and its proximity to the old walls. You can walk on the walls by going up through one of the gate towers.
I didn't go up...this time. I really am going to have to go back. Lots. I need to see the Minster, go on a Ghost Walk, check out the Roman Bath museum. They also have Craft Walks that include shops like Duttons for Buttons (I found the craft walk pamphlet on Thursday and showed it to Janilee, then got roundly cursed for not finding it sooner). And this shop, which I passed coming from Penelope's work:
Of course I had to get a picture.
I saw the Jorvik Viking Center first thing. They don't allow pictures on the tour, but I did get some of the combs they had on display. I also talked for a bit to some of the people that worked there who were in garb, including one gal who was doing some naalbinding. We got around to the topic of my thesis (I was about to say dissertation, but that's American) and she started asking questions, which led to brainstorming with others that worked there, and eventually I got a list of six books to investigate. So, do I count my time there as research or tourism? It's a puzzlement.
This guy was in the window of the gift shop there at Jorvik. Obviously, he his modeled after a Viking longboat prow. He was donated by the artist, Pete Bowsher, the UK International Chainsaw Carving champion, from wood cut away from electric wires. W-O-W.
When I was done with that, I waited for Janilee in a small brick courtyard in a bit of a drizzle (big surprise). Under the branches of a large tree, a guy was talking about owls, and had brought along some specimens to demonstrate. You could also get your picture taken with one or more of the owls. Here's Gizmo.
This one is a 14 week old snowy owl, who was doing very well for being in public at such a young age. She did get a bit miffed with her handler, as he demonstrated the noise they use for training, which is usually followed by her favorite treat, a chicken foot. He didn't have one, so she demonstrated her feelings by turning her back to him and stretching her wings.
The picture isn't great because she didn't hold still very much.
This one is Buzz, as in Buzz Lightyear.
And this owl is the largest predatory bird known. The handler was telling a story about that type of owl (I'm sure I'll be hearing from my husband shortly as to what exactly it is) was captured on film by a BBC documentary team working on a piece about wolves. They were filming a pack of six wolves, when suddenly an owl of this type flew into the shot. It was only on tape for about 32 seconds, but in that time this single bird killed three of the wolves and carried off a fourth. Apparently, there is a copy of this on You Tube, but I haven't found it yet. Anyway, here's the owl.
That was all within the first two hours of arriving! I'm going to have to continue this next week, I think. I'm really trying to update every Sunday...at least that's the goal.
