Another Cathedral

I have never yet been to the city of Lincoln, which is sad. I had a chance to go last year and didn't, which makes it even sadder. But perhaps I shall be able to make up for that moment of weakness this time, and take the plunge!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/60099286@N00/5888117702

Every cathedral seems to have something unique within its walls, something that no other cathedral has but that you really must see. Truro Cathedral has more than one of these special uniquenesses, causing you to remember it forever. I, for one, certainly have never forgotten it and will almost surely go back to it. The list of its beauties goes on and on, but the one particularly fabulous item is the Terra Cotta Frieze by George Tinworth. It was sadly easily overlooked, as it is placed in an obscure spot behind, of all things, a pillar. Clearly a misjudgment. When I mentioned this to our cathedral guide, himself a brilliant man, he was baffled that I thought it a misstep. Why find fault inside a cathedral, seemed to be his thought (and he does have a point).

Therefore I will travel to Lincoln Cathedral to discover its own mysteries, and tell them all to you. But besides the cathedral itself, there are other treasures in that lovely place. Lincoln Castle looms large, towering over that medieval city and drawing thousands of its own visitors. But chief among the important things to do in Lincoln will be, for the SconeLady, enjoying an afternoon tea. The search is on! Since friend Rosie will be with me, I do not think we will have the least bit of trouble finding the finest.

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And the time is quickly passing, my dear Readers. Day by day more and more plans are made, and reservations arranged (poor the SconeLady's husband). But what fun it all is! One oft repeated decree here in the SconeTherapy offices is that 'planning is at least half the fun of travel'. 

Never forget that. Poring through Wikipedia, or Google, or youtube in order to pre-view an exciting spot along the way is all well and good. But it is truly only fulfilled in seeing the Real Thing. 

It's like the difference between theory and truth.

See you along the way!
the SconeLady















photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/60099286@N00/5888117702">Lincoln Cathedral</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">(license)</a>

photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/63122283@N06/6017155130">Grand cannon</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">(license)</a>

The Things Dogs Find

When the temp looks and feels like this:

It really is time to snack on something like this:

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches

Children of all ages just love this! It is so easy, and something you must not figure calories into. It is so hot outside that those particular calories simply evaporate away, leaving you only refreshed and light as a feather.

Even the dog wanted one but was of course refused. They were so delicious looking that she hovered near the feet of the children, hoping for a stray drip. I am not positive but suspect that she was successful in this endeavor (she has excellent timing).

This kindly pup, now visiting for a few days, is very jolly with us and has actually become quite protective. Grandma had figured a nap into her day, and awoke to find the Athena-dog splayed out in a protective manner just outside the bedroom doorway. It was really quite sweet and made me feel wanted. So she must be adjusting to life at Grandma's house. I was expounding on this theme with quite a lot of pride when suddenly I noticed something in her mouth. What - was - it..? The thing was white and made of some kind of stretchy fabric. Something in my voice made her uncertain about this item. Was she not supposed to have it? And what was it that made Grandma approach so quickly? She clamped her teeth down even harder and made a dash for the table.

It was underwear.

A long time passed before I retrieved it, a mere form of its previous self. The fragments ended up in the bin. That's life with a dog. Dogs always manage to find just the thing they aren't meant to find and then bring it proudly out to wherever people are enjoying their dinners or their evenings or their visiting friends. I should be grateful it was something as innocuous as underwear. It could have been worse.

Far, far worse.


See you along the way!
the SconeLady

Cure

When mommy and daddy are away, this Athena-dog gets to come for a visit. The SconeLady has a welcoming spot for the (still growing) pup where literally anything might happen. She thought all of the things would be quite pleasant and fun. Treats, and walks, and cuddles by night that would warm her heart. Certainly all of these things are going to happen, never fear, darling doggie - the best is yet to come. But among all these expectations, she had probably not counted on..

a BATH.

But it was just such a lovely hot day, the first of many to come, and I thought it would be fun. Athena was perfectly clean and nice-smelling, don't get me wrong. This desire comes, I suppose, of years with Golden Retrievers who think highly of water and wouldn't mind a simple plop! into the old pool (non-chorine, BTW).

And then - try as the SconeLady might, Athena won when it came right down to getting in. She just wasn't going to. Normally, one can get her to come, and go, and sit, and stay, and lie down, and even shake, just fine. But when she figured out just what was in store for her sweet little hide, she instantly made herself HEAVY. Urging and ordering made no difference to this great lug which lay there staring up at me inert, unmoving and unmovable. 

I was beaten.

And then sitting at the side of the pool, an idea was born: how about a good old-fashioned leash-bath? Tie her up and she thinks she is conquered, becoming the most humble, self-effacing doggie a person could ever hope to know. Water, suds, scrubbing, all of these things became abruptly agreeable in her sight. What a change.

Success!

It's grand to find a solution that suits both parties, isn't it? The pup who is at first resistant and uncooperative launches into a submissive little pooch. 

Sometimes mothers and grandmothers simply have to find the right 'cure'. Without all the muscle and mass, it's how we survive.

See you along the way! 

the SconeLady

Salisbury Cathedral

Dusk, and the Cathedral stands majestic and silent as its illumination begins. There it stands as a testament to Christendom. It almost looks unreal. This is what I look to as summer folds into autumn and the SconeLady makes tracks to Salisbury.

The Cathedral sits in the midst of the vast Salisbury Plain, a 300 square mile chalk plateau containing strange stone groupings that attract millions of visitors worldwide. One summer as the lovely daughter accompanied me across that plain, we crested a small hill and came upon a strange sight. There were standing in a field what looked like huge stones, gathered into some kind of circle. "What is that?" I asked, staring.

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"What is what?" said one of the girls, who hadn't noticed it yet.

"That ... group of odd looking stones.." I murmured, as a memory of high school geography suddenly flashed at me. "Umm, is it..," and I gasped, "Good grief, can it actually be - STONEHENGE??"

And the girls burst out, "Stonehenge! It's Stonehenge!"

We hadn't planned on seeing it, had not even dreamed it would be near our location. But there it was in all its massive glory. We quickly zipped toward the exit, approached the lot, and parked. "What shall we do?" I asked the girls. We did, after all have a plan for taking ourselves down to Cornwall and time was ticking away.

"Let's have our picnic lunch here!" they said enthusiastically.

So we opened up the boot and grabbed out fresh bread, strawberries, cherries, cheese, apples, and meat, spreading it out in the shade of the car. We ate, staring all the while at that strange and surprising grouping of stones. Soon we finished and walked somewhat timidly over towards it. It was incredible.

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I will be excited to see it again, to visit the Plain, and wander through the Cathedral. They are antiquities. After all, the Cathedral was begun in the year 1220 AD. And Stonehenge began to appear in 3100 BC! I don't think California could scare up a pile of ancient rocks all standing impossibly at attention in a magnificent circle without so much as one neon light trained upon it. If Stonehenge were in California, it would be flooded with lights, and signs, and trails, and lunch boxes, helicopter pads, and McDonalds kid meal toys, and gift shops touting the marvel of it all. Poor Stonehenge would never be the same.

We just can't seem to let things be. 

See you along the way!

the SconeLady

photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/78135748@N00/3022612775">DSC03025</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">(license)</a> 

The Bath You Will Never Forget

I'm going to go to Bath Abbey. Eep!

I recently mentioned trying to visit as many Cathedrals in England as possible, here. It isn't possible to visit very many in one trip of course, what with travel, and accommodation, and so on. But this trip will include several of them. And Bath is the one I look forward to the most.

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I have visited it before, and that experience made me long to find my way back. The last foray there was the summer of 2003, during which visit I (and the lovely daughter) felt actually changed by the experience. Walking in was an Encounter. How might I explain this? Who were we, exactly, Encountering? I will tell you what the people in the Abbey itself would say. They would say, 'You are Encountering Christ. Plain and simple.'

So, yes! that was Who we encountered, in the form of the lovely Christians who were there, ministering in their gentle way. Their eyes welcomed ours, their hands reached out, and they sat listening to those whose hearts were wounded and needing comfort. It was the sweetest thing.

The city of Bath, itself, is fabulous of course. On offer are the Roman Baths, which you must not miss seeing, as well as the Royal Crescent and the Pulteney Bridge. All of this, and more, I shall see as well as the golden stone out of which almost everything has been crafted. Photographs will be taken and placed here, my dear Readers, so that you will not miss even an inch of it.

The Royal Crescent, Bath UK

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath,_Somerset

This will be only one of many Cathedrals I visit, or at least wish to visit. Another is Salisbury Cathedral. You will hear something of it shortly, as I make my way there and discover its own wonderful secrets. Have you ever visited England's magnificent Cathedrals? If you have, be sure and tell the SconeLady all about it. I love hearing about what you have seen, and learned, and gathered along your own way.


See you along the way!
the SconeLady

(P.S. There must be a delicious scone in Bath, and I aim to find it, slather it with jam and cream, and savor every single bite.)


photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59372616@N00/14690775192">Bath Abbey</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">(license)</a>

photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/7451276@N08/14713676123">IMG_3802</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">(license)</a>

His Poor Mother

https://www.flickr.com/photos/11698201@N00/4819635644

We had been hearing about some outrageous stunt Tom Cruise was performing for his new movie, and we really wanted to see the movie. His handlers had urged him, "Let a stunt man do it! Please." But Tom was having none of that. Freakish stunts like that were his trademark. I remembered that he had hung off of the tallest building in the world for another movie, completely freaking his poor mother out. And so this new stunt wasn't terribly surprising.

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Burj Khalifa in Dubai

But it freaked her out even more than the tallest building. I truly felt for the poor woman. Imagine giving birth to someone like Tom Cruise only to have him leaping about on a 2,722 foot high skyscraper in the wind, or strapping himself to the outsides of gigantic airplanes as they take off multiple times. It just doesn't bear thinking about.

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But off we went to see it: Mission Impossible, Rogue Nation. Have you been there yet? If so, way to go! If not, get out there right now and do it. You will have fun. We did. For once I did not have to shut my eyes tight as angry men relentlessly beat the absolute tar out of one another. Well...men were, actually, hitting each other lots of the time. But - I could take it. Recently while watching the new Arnold Schwarzenegger Terminator movie there were entire swathes of the film I could neither look at nor listen to. But Rogue Nation got it just right.

The heroin in this film -Rebecca Ferguson - was unbelievable. I mean that quite literally. There is no girl anywhere that I have seen who could do what this girl did. And she wasn't even blond. Wow. An almost exact match to Cruise's own amazing prowess. As she so succinctly stated, "We could become anybody." They really probably could. His wife must be nervous.

But the movie was this in a nutshell: 

Somebody horribly mean is coming after Ethan Hunt (played by Tom Cruise), and he knows what that feels like because he has been come after in every single one of the Mission Impossible flicks. The scariest villain-who-came-after, I thought, was played by Philip Seymore Hoffman. Now that was where I might have had to shut my eyes. Just a teensy-weensy bit. It appeared that Ethan had met his match, seen his last, lost the game. But he squeaked out and now another horribly mean man was coming. And coming. And not giving up.

The heroin was fabulous but you could never really tell whose side she was on. She could look super nice and friendly, and even huggy, and then she would do something completely un-huggy, and you were left uncertain. I can't tell you which side she was really on (plot-spoilers!) but I can tell you that we went to the movie AGAIN. It was irresistible.

So for your latest summer blockbuster fix, take yourselves down to the local and buy your ticket, your popcorn, and a coke. Even the previews of coming attractions and some of the pre-movie ads were decent and interesting. It was altogether a smashing evening.

But I still felt sorry for Tom Cruise's mother. She seems like a real nice lady, but she'd best give up trying to save him from himself. That Mission is Impossible.

See you along the way!
the SconeLady

photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/69362954@N00/12509106925">Dubai Burj Khalifa</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/">(license)</a>

photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/42658343@N07/4816222382">Airbus A400M</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">(license)</a>

photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/11698201@N00/4819635644">Tom Cruise</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">(license)</a>

Beach Boys Grasp Straws

A lovely night on the lake, resting out back gazing at it all and being amazed. Today I thought of things like fame, and drugs, and failure. Sounds depressing! It is, a bit - all to do with a good solid band with good solid songs that made us sing along. And then things like LSD came (they could suddenly afford them) and wreaked havoc. Ack!


So I came out here to be distracted from those thoughts by all of this beauty, something we all have at our fingertips somehow. Even here, just a few miles from the Asphalt Jungle that capture the thousands who are compelled to go somewhere, seeking success. I am just glad I don't need to. Far better, this.

As the sun settles down behind that hill, the idea of 'success' persists. What does it look like? How do we know if it has been reached? The man who built more barns to contain all his success ended up dying as soon as the barns were built. Yikes.

I don't have a million-selling album or a Rolls Royce. But next to me is a kind and generous man who asks if I am too cold, and actually cares. 

Ahh, sweet success.

See you along the way!

the SconeLady