Another weekend

Nothing special happened Friday, some housework, weeding outside, but nothing to write about.

We did however have another great weekend.  On Saturday we left the pups at home and went to explore Pateley Bridge on our own.  I’ve been meaning to check out The Nidderdale Museum, but of course can’t do that with the pups along.  When I looked online to make a plan for the day I found that the museum doesn’t open until 1:30pm.  I wasn’t sure we could fill a morning in town waiting for the museum to open, but we decided to give it a try.

Parking in town is a trick.  There are several car parks, but all require payment.  Each time we drive in Greg goes in search of free street side parking.  This always ends up with a parking space on a steep hill.  Personally, I’d just pay, but Greg is determined to beat the system.  We ended up parked on King Street near the top of the hill. 

We walked past the cemetery at St. Cuthbert’s and noticed they were decorating for something so I decided to wait to explore the cemetery until later in the day and headed down the hill toward High Street.  We had decided to try a new (to us) Tea Shop down near the river, but since we were parked at the top of town I thought I’d check out a few shops along the way.  

The first stop was a consignment store that reminded me a lot of my friend Stella’s place, One Petticoat Lane in Annapolis, except, as with all shops along High Street, this shop was very small.  I’m disappointed that I didn’t take note of the name of the shop.  It was a great shop with some interesting and unique pieces.  There was a pair of country boots I would have snatched right up with they hadn’t been so small. 

We kept to the same side of the street walking down hill checking out a little hardware/sundries type of store, the post office, which had some note cards, stationery and Christmas cards and the pharmacy.  I thought pharmacies were called Chemists here, but the door said Pharmacy.  I’ll have to clarify that.  It was also a small shop but had a pretty good selection of basic things one might need.

We then crossed the street for a quick stop at the pet store.  I’ve been in here a couple of times picking up treats for the pups.  They do carry the same dog food we used in the US, but it’s very expensive here.  We’ll have to make a decision on whether to stick with this food or change to something else that we can buy at the commissary.  This pet shop reminds me a lot of the one in downtown Golden.  We’ll definitely want to shop here when we can to support them. 

At that point Greg’s stomach was starting to rumble so we skipped pasted the next few stores and walked down to Wildings Tea Shop.  It was an adorable restaurant and a great menu, though I’ll admit, I had no idea what some of the stuff on the menu was.  I had my heart set on a pot of tea and scone or I would have ordered something unknown just for the fun of it.  I did however, in addition to a plane scone with strawberry jam and cream, order a savory scone.  I’d never had a bacon and cheese scone, but it was very good.  We’ll need to visit this place again to explore the menu further. 

Back outside we still had time to fill before the museum opened.  We started back up the street on the opposite side.  Every time I’ve been in town I’ve walked past the first store, I think mostly because from the door all I could see was candy, but we decided to step inside this time.  On the side wall they had magazines, books and several local newspapers.  I picked up a Nidderdale paper and a Harrogate paper.  It’s been forever since I read a newspaper!  I also found a book on birds in England.  Maybe I can identify some of the birds on the reservoir.

We started to step into the next shop and realized that this is one we checked out once before.  It’s a small grocery store, though they did have some interesting produce.  Next up the street was the butcher.  This is the shop we purchased meat pies from last weekend.  This time we thought we would try the butcher on the other side of the street.  We tried their traditional pork pie, pork and chutney pie and pork and mushy peas.  All were good but I think my favorite was the pork and chutney.

One last stop before heading to the museum was at The Oldest Sweetshop in England.  We had stopped here once before and bought some candies with the intention of mailing them home to Colorado, but unfortunately they never made it to the post office.  This time I tried to think a little better about what things might ship well.  It was tough though because the shop was PACKED.  It’s a tiny shop anyway, but there was hardly room to move around with all the people.  This is one popular place!  But I made my purchase, now to get it mailed quickly. 

Up the hill and around the corner we headed back toward the car to drop our bags off before going to the museum.  As we approached St. Cuthbert’s we found out what all the decorations were for, a wedding party was just exiting the church.  What a gorgeous day and place for a wedding!

We had to discretely wind our way through the wedding guests to get to the Nidderdale Museum.  The realtor who worked with us on the house had suggested that I stop by the museum to ask about the history of the house we are renting.  That was the main reason for stopping by.  I have to say I was surprised by the size of the museum.  Walking in it looks so small, but turns out that it winds all through the building.  We didn’t have near as much time as I would have liked to explore.  Someday I’ll need to go back with more time.  I asked the lady at the entrance if she knew anything about the history of the house but she didn’t have any information for me.  She did take down my name and email in case someone else had some information.  We live in what seems to me to be a very unique house, it seems strange to me that so few people seem to know anything about it.  …or maybe they’re just not willing to share with strangers, but I wouldn’t think that would be true at a museum.  Hopefully I will hear something from them. 

From there Greg and I headed home to have our meat pies for lunch and hang out with the pups for a couple hours before our evening got started.  A couple from work were hosting an open house welcome party for us.  These parties are traditionally called ‘Hail and Farewells’, though at this one no one was being ‘Farewelled’.  It was more of a ‘Hail’ to us and one other new couple.  It was great for me to have an opportunity to put faces to all the names that Greg talks about all the time.  I was also able to glean some good information about places I’d like to visit.  And got to spend some one on one time talking with other wives about their moving experiences.  I met one other wife who attends the Bible Study on base that I’ve thought about attending.  I met one couple who are getting ready to move to Colorado.  It was great to also be able to share some of my knowledge with someone else.  All in all they are a very nice group of people.  I’m looking forward to getting settled in so that we can start hosting fun events in our new home.

Sunday morning we decided to step outside of our comfort zone and attend a church that we would not normally consider.  The area we are living in is John Wesley country.  It’s were he preached and founded many churches.  So our options for churches in Pateley Bridge are Anglican or Methodist.  Neither are what we are accustom to, but we thought we would check out the Methodist church today. 

They were an extremely friendly church.  It seemed to be made up of older people and children, though a young lady did sit next to me.  She introduced herself as Anna.  The heat was out, which they apologized for profusely.  And the service was a children’s service, which the minister also apologized to us for later.  She said that’s not normal.  After the service we joined them in the back room (where there was heat) for tea and biscuits.  We sat at a table with Anna and an elderly gentleman named Sam.  He was very interesting, though it took me a couple of minutes to understand his thick Yorkshire accent.  …or it could be that he graciously adjusted his accent to accommodate me.  =)  He told us he had moved to the area when he was 5 in 1930 and had lived in the same place since.  Anna was also great to talk with.  She gave us the scoop on some great places to visit.

Apparently the church does not always meet in this building.  The various Methodist congregations meet in different communities around the area each week.  They do have a ladies Bible Study that meets during the week.  I may call to ask more details about that.  As we were leaving we met another lady, whose name I won’t even attempt.  She was very nice and asked if I would like to meet for coffee sometime to talk about the area.  Absolutely! 

We’re not sure yet where we will end up with Church.  To attend a church service like we are used to we will most likely have to drive thirty minutes into Harrogate.  If we want to be involved in our own community we will need to adjust and attend something a little different.  We’re just waiting for God’s leading on this one. 

The rest of the afternoon was spent checking off a to do list.  Greg suffered through another trip to B&Q (Home Depot) to pick up some supplies, replacing light bulbs, hanging a rack for day packs and leashes in the closet and assembling my bicycle.  (YAY!)  Now I just need a helmet before I can legally ride my bike into the village. 

The whole weekend was just gorgeous!  I’m wondering how long this will hold out. 

Oh, btw, I’ve decided to keep up the daily (almost) logs until our one month anniversary.  I’m working on ideas of what to write after that.