Memberships And Annual Passes

We've visited a few places over the last year or two which either gave us unlimited visits for a year included in the admission price, or else we paid for an annual pass. Just like the RSPB and Another Year Of The National Trust, I've kept a note of each time we've visited to see if they were good value.

The Brontë Parsonage Museum. The Brontës were a nineteenth-century literary family, born in the village of Thornton and later moving to the Parsonage in Haworth. Between them, Charlotte, Emily and Anne wrote seven novels including Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. The Parsonage is now a museum which houses the largest collection of Brontë items in the world. They also have items on loan from other collections.

We paid £13 for a standard ticket which is valid for a year. I did wonder if it's worth revisiting a place such as this but the exhibitions and installations change, and you do see things which you missed on previous visits. A visit during the festive season is especially lovely with the Parsonage decked out in its Christmas finery. We visited three times.

The Deep. A public aquarium at Sammy's Point in Hull where the Humber Estuary and the River Hull meet. The Deep opened back in 2002 and we visited not long after but hadn't been since. Their mission: "To create a deeper understanding and enjoyment of the world's oceans and inspire positive change for their survival." There's certainly a lot of information to take on board and plenty to see, everything from sharks to penguins, sawfish to Madagascar hissing cockroaches. There are daily talks in various areas throughout each day. For the most part it's a brilliant day out, especially when you're looking for somewhere to go in wet weather, it's all undercover, but I have to say that I have mixed feelings about zoos and aquariums and the ethical dilemma of keeping animals in captivity. In most cases I can see that the animals are well cared for and their needs are being met, but there were a couple of things at The Deep which made me uncomfortable. I won't say any more about that, you can make up your own mind.

We paid £23 for an  adult ticket which includes free return visits for a year. There's so much to see here that you can return time and time again without getting bored. We visited twice.

Shakespeare's Birthplace. William Shakespeare was a playwright, poet and actor and was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564. Many buildings associated with Shakespeare are still standing and can be visited in the town. Although his career took him to London, he kept close links with Stratford-upon-Avon and was buried in the chancel of Holy Trinity Church after his death in 1616.

When we visited Stratford-upon-Avon we used our Tesco Clubcard vouchers towards payment for entry to Shakespeare's Houses & Gardens. A standard ticket which includes admission to Shakespeare's Birthplace, Anne Hathaway's Cottage and the gardens at Shakespeare's New Place cost us £31, however, the Clubcard vouchers are worth double so the ticket used £15.50 in vouchers. The tickets are valid for twelve months.

We visited Shakespeare's Birthplace and Anne Hathaway's Cottage on our first visit to Stratford-upon-Avon last year, we returned this year and visited New Place as well as making a second visit to Shakespeare's Birthplace. 

Lotherton. We've had joint membership here for many years. An Edwardian country estate, historic hall and Wildlife World zoo, it's just four miles from where we live. It was a great place to walk Archie, he loved the woods especially and we visited once a week at the very least most of the time, often several times a week. We already had membership when Archie died last March, though we didn't visit for a full month afterwards as we just couldn't bring ourselves to go without him. It's such a lovely place though, we knew we had to return. Our membership expired at the end of October and we didn't renew it over winter, we would have done if Archie were still here as we walked rain or shine but we visited other places over winter instead. We've renewed our membership since and now visit with Jack, there's a lovely children's playground which he loves. We also visit on our own as it's such a lovely place to walk, though we don't visit anywhere near as often as we did when Archie was with us.

There are events held throughout the year including Easter, Halloween and Christmas themed experiences and these are included in the admission price or membership fee, though there are sometimes add-ons which can be purchased in addition, such as a visit to see Santa Claus or a tractor ride, depending on the time of year.

An adult ticket costs £10.50 online or £11 on the gate, however, we paid £55 for a joint annual membership. We've already saved a great amount by having annual membership and there's still many months left before it comes up for renewal again.

RSPB. Although we didn't save a huge amount when we had our previous membership, we did renew it again. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds is the UK's largest nature conservation charity. We revisited all the places we'd been before: Sherwood Forest, Bempton Cliffs, St.Aidan's and Fairburn Ings, and we also visited Saltholme this time.

We paid £60 for our joint membership and ended up saving £12. It's not a huge amount but it's nice to know that we're supporting such a good cause. Of course, we also received our RSPB handbook and four issues of the RSPB magazine over the course of the year. We haven't renewed the membership yet but we definitely will, we enjoy our evening walks at our local reserves.

Jorvik Viking Centre. From 1976 to 1981 archaeologists uncovered parts of the Viking-age city of Jorvik under the Coppergate area of York, which was nearly 1000 years old. The Jorvik Viking Centre stands directly on the excavation site and guests are able to journey through reconstructed Viking-age streets as they were in 10th century York. 

There's so much to experience here including sights, sounds and even smells of the Viking Age. Animatronic characters demonstrate the language which was used and show their way of life. There's galleries which display a fascinating collection of Viking artefacts too.

I used Tesco Clubcard vouchers towards payment for entry. A standard ticket costs £17.50, however, the Clubcard vouchers are worth double so each ticket used £8.75 in vouchers. The tickets are valid for twelve months. We will definitely go back again before our ticket runs out next May.

So looking back at the places we've been, what we've spent and what we've saved, I would definitely say that memberships and annual passes are good value for money.

Please note that the prices here are what they were at the time of purchase and may now differ.

Druid's Temple

Back in March we had a trip to Druid's Temple on the Swinton Estate close to Masham. It seems a long time ago now but this post has been sitting in my drafts waiting to be published so today's the day.

Although it looks something akin to Stonehenge, Druid's Temple is actually a folly built somewhere between the late 1700s and the early 1800s by estate workers.

The work was commissioned by William Danby, the owner of the Swinton Estate. It's believed the design was researched meticulously as several elements bear a symbolic resemblance to authentic Druid's temples.

Danby paid local workers a shilling a day for their work at a time when unemployment was high in order to provide income to people in the area.

Druid's Temple is in the middle of a pine forest with walking trails and further stone arrangements scattered throughout.

After the tragedy at Sycamore Gap, Yorkshire artist, Lucy Pittaway, created her Sycamore Gap artwork. For every print purchased she pledged to plant a tree, and she chose Druid's Plantation as the location for her Sycamore Woodland. You can read more about this if you click on the photo above.

This is one of the Nature Gateway arches marking one of the entrance points of the Sycamore Gap Trail. The logs will provide an ecosystem as they begin to decompose, the frames are a permanent structure but the logs will be replenished as needed.

The views overlooking Leighton Reservoir, which lies in the valley below, are stunning. 

We didn't stay very long on this occasion but we intend to return and explore further.

Hamnet

Hamnet was the winner of the Women's Prize for fiction in 2020. I'd seen it around, in bookshops, in charity shops, reviews online, but something held me back, I just didn't fancy it somehow. When I saw that it had been made into a film and that Jessie Buckley had won Best Actress Oscar for her role as Agnes, I thought I might like to watch it. I always prefer to read a book before watching a movie adaptation and that's how I came to read Hamnet.

I absolutely loved it. The book is written in two timelines: as Agnes is meeting her husband, and the death of Hamnet. Historical fiction, based on the death of William Shakespeare's son, what happened before and what happened afterwards. In truth, we know that his son died but there's no record of how or why he died, so it's a work of fiction, but as in most cases with historical fiction, truths are peppered throughout the story. It was only last November that we visited Stratford-upon-Avon, we looked around the house where Shakespeare was born and lived so I was able to visualise the house and surrounding area as it was described in the book, it brought it to life.

I'd been waiting for the movie to be released on Sky but before that happened, I got the chance to watch it on the plane as we flew to Antigua. I enjoyed it but as in most cases, I think the book is far better so I'm glad I'd read that first. 

When we visited Stratford-upon-Avon last November, we bought tickets for the Shakespeare attractions which were valid for a year so we made a return visit last weekend. We'd actually said that it would be nice to see the town in summer so that's what prompted us. This time we just went overnight. It gave us enough time to revisit Shakespeare's Birthplace as well as seeing Shakespeare's New Place, the site that was William Shakespeare's family home for nineteen years. We didn't visit this last time. The house where Shakespeare's family lived is no longer there as it was demolished in 1702 but there are now gardens, which are maintained by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, for visitors to see. Unfortunately, the heatwave seems to have played havoc with the plants and we didn't get to see them at their best, but it was interesting to visit this site as the original house is mapped out on the ground and there is a lot of information and new things to learn.

We visited in November last year and it was rather cold so we didn't take a river cruise but we rectified that on this visit. It was lovely sailing past the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and Holy Trinity Church where Shakespeare's buried. 

We made a return visit to Holy Trinity Church. On our last visit we missed seeing the saplings in the graveyard, two rowan trees which had been planted in 2022 in memory of Shakespeare's twin children, Hamnet and Judith. The grass, as in most places just now, is non existent, scorched away by the relentless heat and dry conditions.

We crossed the river by means of the chain ferry, a hand-cranked pedestrian ferry which crosses the River Avon near the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

We were only there overnight. We stayed in the same hotel that we stayed in last time, it's very handy being centrally located. There was a lovely market which was in full swing when we arrived so we had a look around that. We had a meal out on the Sunday evening. We managed to fit such a lot into two days and thoroughly enjoyed our visit again.

If you haven't yet read Hamnet I can wholeheartedly recommend it, a wonderful read.

Mick's 60th - August

As you'll know if you follow my blog, I've been arranging little surprises each month for Mick in celebration of his 60th birthday, which was yesterday.

I haven't arranged a surprise as such for August, instead I arranged a surprise meal for all the family to attend at our local Italian restaurant (Mick's favourite), so that we could all celebrate together. Mick had taken the day off work and I let him choose how he wanted to spend it, he didn't realise that the meal was arranged for the evening. He chose to have a day at the coast, Saltburn-by-the-Sea to be exact. We love it there, it has that olde worlde Victorian charm about it.

We had an amble around the town centre. It was nice to see independent shops alongside an indie craft market and an antiques centre. Plenty of cafes to grab a bite to eat too and a delightful book shop. Afterwards we had a walk along the pier, the only one left in Yorkshire, before spending a few 2ps in the amusements.

We enjoyed a very drippy ice-cream whilst sitting on the beach. It was a very hot day and the ice-cream was melting quicker than we could eat it. Raspberry ripple for me, Ferrero Rocher for Mick.

The meal was really lovely, as always. Eleanor and Jacob had helped by getting the cake and balloons to the restaurant ahead of us arriving so everything was a total surprise for Mick. Jack enjoyed it too, Daniel enjoys his role as the fun uncle.

Mick was thrilled to bits to have all his family around him on his special day, he had such a lovely 60th birthday.

Of course, the surprises are ongoing, I'm still arranging something each month right the way through this year so the celebrations aren't over yet.

The Stork's Been Busy Again

There was a long time when there were no babies for me to knit for, now there's more and more. I suppose my children are at that age when they and their friends are starting their families.

One of Eleanor's university friends has recently had a little girl so I pulled out my trusty knitting pattern, the Baby Aosta Cardigan by The Knit Purl Girl. This knits up so quickly, takes a little over 50g of DK yarn, and makes a lovely gift when added to a pack of pretty sleepsuits.

It's knit in one piece so there's no sewing up to do, it suits a girl or a boy and the Andalusian stitch just adds a little interest to an easy knit. I'm always pleased with the results. Here I've used Sirdar Snuggly DK in the Rosebud colourway, I prefer a dusky pink rather than a true baby pink and this fits the bill.

Baby Isla was born at the end of July and Eleanor's friend was very pleased with the gift.

Mick's 60th - July

I'm arranging little surprises for Mick throughout the year in celebration of his 60th birthday in August. Hopefully, I'll manage to think of something each month.

We often have birds of prey flying above our house, especially red kites. Mick loves to stop and watch them, he's interested in birds of prey so I thought a visit to a bird of prey centre would be a fun thing to do but then I thought how amazing it would be if Mick got to fly the birds rather than just see them or watch them flying. So I had a look at different centres and finally decided on the National Centre for Birds of Prey which is situated in Duncombe Park in Helmsley.

I booked him on a Raptor Experience, he was in a group with three other people and got plenty of time to handle and fly a variety of birds. I went with him in the capacity of spectator.

The experience began at 10am, we were met by one of the staff who took us down to the flying arena where we were introduced to Charlie, the handler who would be running the session. The first bird we got to meet was a chaco owl. These birds can be found in South America and are medium sized owls.

Mick was given a glove to wear and tempted by a tasty treat, the owl was straight over.

Next, it was the turn of a red-footed falcon. These birds can be found in eastern Europe and Asia, though they migrate to Africa.

It was amazing to watch these birds flying and also to see them so close too.

I did wonder whether Mick would get the chance to fly a kite, and though it wasn't a red kite like we see in the skies around home, he did fly a black kite.

This was a young bird, about a year old. It was the highlight of Mick's day to fly him.

Just after 11am we went to the cafe for a drink and a lovely slice of home made coffee and walnut cake, after which we went back down to the arena to watch one of the three daily flying demonstrations.

Afterwards, it was back to business with a harris hawk. These are medium to large birds of prey which hunt in packs.

I was going to say that I thought this was my favourite bird of the day but in actual fact, they were all beautiful and they all flew so well, it's hard to choose a favourite.

The final bird was going to be a brown wood owl. I didn't get a photo of Mick flying him as it was fleeting, the owl took off up into a tree and wouldn't come down again. Charlie managed to coax him back to his glove and as it was obvious he wasn't feeling it, he was taken away and swapped for a different owl.

So the final bird ended up being an ural owl. Aren't her markings beautiful.

This is a larger owl, though Mick said that all the birds were really light in weight, he was expecting them to be heavier than they were.

The experience ended at about 1pm, after which we were able to look round the centre and see the many different birds which live here. I've never seen so many birds of prey in one place before, the centre holds the largest collection of raptors in the north of England, some of them quite rare. We were able to leave the centre and return later, so that's what we did. We went into Helmsley for a wander round.

We continued with our look around the centre on our return before settling in for the final flying demonstration, each one of the day is quite different from the others. This finale has five kites flying together, black kites along with yellow-billed kites, and there was even a wild red kite circling overhead wanting to get in on the action. It was impressive how they were swooping to catch food thrown in the air and eating it on the wing.

It was early evening when we arrived home so we quickly got changed and headed out for something to eat. We hadn't visited this particular restaurant before but it's not too far away from where we live. The food was excellent, I had lasagne and Mick had penne al forno, classic Italian dishes.

The day was another huge success, Mick thoroughly enjoyed the time he got with the birds and I have to say that if you have any interest at all in birds of prey, you would love one of these experiences.

More Antigua

I started telling you a little about our holiday to Antigua in my last post so I'll continue here.

As I mentioned before, our suite was very close to the main pool which was handy. There was plenty of loungers and an abundance of shade too, no reserving sunbeds here, there was more than enough to go round. The resort actually has four swimming pools but we only ever used the main one. There was aqua aerobics here each morning, though I didn't partake, and low-key entertainment throughout the day.

I have to say that the food was exceptional, we've never eaten so well on holiday before. The Seabreeze is a buffet restaurant with a whole array of Caribbean and international dishes, some cooked in front of you, to suit even the most fussy eater. Portofino is the à la carte Italian restaurant, and Sails & Tales Bar and Grill is an à la carte seafood restaurant and cocktail bar overlooking Lovers Beach. Then there was Papa Ricco's Pizzeria for made to order pizzas, and Café 1761 for coffees, snacks, cakes etc. The Wavy Wicket Pub is a sports bar so it was showing the World Cup games while we were there. Pub Grub could be ordered there too. This Lemon, Thyme & Garlic Chicken - succulent roasted chicken infused with citrus and aromatics, served with roasted vegetables and a savory pan au jus, was just one of the dishes we enjoyed in Sails and Tales. There wasn't anything we ordered during the whole fortnight which was less than perfect, we enjoyed every morsel of food.

The Beach Grill is open for lunch. Situated right on Rasta Beach, it's more informal with the most amazing view. The food here was more casual - chicken wings, ribs, burritos, salads etc.

Then there's Nicole's. This is a fine dining restaurant with a surcharge of $50 USD per person per meal to dine there. It just so happened that whilst we were there, the Seabreeze buffet restaurant closed for a week for refurbishment so we were able to eat at Nicole's without paying the surcharge. We made the most of it and ate here three times. I wouldn't say the food here was any better than the other restaurants, it was just an additional menu so it gave you more choice. The service was better though, the waiting staff were very attentive. When the hostess discovered we were celebrating our thirty-sixth wedding anniversary she had the table decorated with rose petals and confetti, put some complimentary prosecco on ice for us, and when we'd chosen our dessert - Chocolate Lava Cake served with Vanilla Ice Cream, the hostess and waiting staff brought it to our table singing their congratulations. It was nice to be made a fuss of.

We had planned to go on some excursions while we were there but that didn't happen for one reason or another. We did take a taxi to St John's, Antigua's capital. It's the largest city and main port of the country. I would have liked to explore the city more but it was far too hot. We managed to visit Heritage Quay though, the duty free shopping complex where Mick picked up several bottles of Antiguan rum to add to his ever growing collection.

I will never make a wildlife photographer, we saw so many things but failed to get a photo. There were hummingbirds a plenty, more than we've seen on the other Caribbean islands we've visited but they're just too quick for me. We saw lots of pelicans but as we'd left the cameras at home, the zoom on our phones weren't sufficient to get a decent photo. We saw mongooses on our walk to Devil's Bridge but again, they were gone before I'd even got my phone out of my pocket. The lizards were happy to pose for me though, this is a tiddler from our resort but there were some absolute whoppers that we saw in St John's.

We made some friends in the resort, there were quite a few cats around, as I think there are in most holiday places, they know where the food is. We'd taken some cat treats with us, we were very popular in the colony.

I was expecting Antigua to be more lush than we saw, though I believe there's microclimates on the island so the northern and eastern sides, where we were staying, are drier and therefore, more barren. We saw lots of cacti as well as bougainvillea and hibiscus, amongst other flowers, blooming profusely though.

Our resort had areas where they grow food for the restaurants and gardeners could always be seen tending to the plants around the property. Bananas were growing in abundance.

We had such a wonderful time, we'd gone with the expectation of having a relaxing holiday and that's exactly what it was. It was a fairly quiet resort with low-key entertainment, though there was something on every night. There was also an eighteen-hole mini golf course, tennis and pickleball courts, table tennis, shuffleboard and pool if you found yourself getting a little bored, we didn't! We did have a couple of rounds of golf though, and we always enjoy a game of table tennis. The food surpassed our expectations, the water sports were an added bonus for Mick, the suites were better than we thought they'd be, it was wall to wall sunshine. What's not to love. It's definitely somewhere we'd go again.

Daniel and Jasmine are, right now as I post this, at Gatwick Airport waiting for their flight to St Lucia for their honeymoon. It's where we went on our honeymoon too back in 1990 and we returned there two years later. I wonder how much it's changed in all those years. I'm sure they'll have a wonderful time.