It's hard work, visiting me!
Sep. 16th, 2018 06:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pensnestWell! I have had the lovely ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
msktrnanny visiting for a few days. We packed in quite a bit of Stuff!
She arrived on Wednesday afternoon, so after tea and a tour of the mighty Nest, we went to Norwich Castle for the last hour of the day. Yes, there is more than an hour's worth of Stuff To See at the castle, but on the other hand, visiting in one-hour increments means that I am not always seeing things that I've seen before. We caught the display of The Paston Treasure, which focuses on a frankly weird painting of Stuff (and people) that the Paston family owned. Cool stuff.
On Thursday,msktrnanny was force-fed Norwich, The Fine City! We began with the Cathedral of St John the Baptist, ie the Roman Catholic cathedral, a Johnny-come-lately Victorian Gothic edifice which is, in fact, rather splendid. Then we went fifty yards along the road to the Plantation Gardens, in which my chorus sang a couple of months ago. It's pretty, and unexpected, although I was disappointed that there was no tea to be had—seems they only provide tea on Sundays.
Lunch was provided by the awesome Grosvenor F'sh Bar, and Beast availed himself of the Battered Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato sandwich. I have not yet gone along the 'Big Mack' or similar paths, because their fish and chips are pretty damn good without getting fancy.
Our thorough investigation of the town's market yielded loofah soap dishes, yay, and also Norfolk White Lady cheese; via convoluted paths we found our way to Norwich Cathedral, which was begun in 1096, arriving at the perfect time to appreciate the stained glass. There is a big, gorgeously coloured window at the west end, there are three very modern windows which threw really strong colours onto the stone, and there's a piece from about 1901 in glorious blues, greens and people-tones which appears to depict (among other things) a cherubic Justin Timberlake. Hmm. Anyway. It's a really awe-inspiring building. Oh, and the cathedral cat has a fine sense of what is expected of him.msktrnanny has photos of him sitting on an ornate wooden throne.
I tookmsktrnanny to my chorus rehearsal on Thursday evening (we usually sing better when we have an audience, so it wasn't entirely disinterested!). In fact, she'd also been briefly to the men's rehearsal on Wednesday, as I and a few other local ladies went there to have a quick sing of the piece the brand-new mixed chorus have been rehearsing, for the benefit of such chaps as would not be able to attend the First Ever Rehearsal of Mosaic, on Friday evening. Beast and I kindly let msktrnanny off this one. (It went, in fact, very well indeed! And it's kind of exciting to be in right at the beginning of a new thing.)
On Friday morning, we went off to Langham Glass, and watched the chaps create a large lampshade. This was a weighty procedure, and the poor man who had to blow it to size was almost purple with effort (and heat—it ain't cool in there). Beast and I then participated in the creation of a couple of items, I a vase (I blew into it) and he a paperweight (he turned the glass on its rod, and then pressed the glass into its mould). After lunch we walked up to the Britannia Café for afternoon tea and a pleasing view over the city. This is one of the cafés run by inmates of the local prison, but they do a very fair afternoon tea, which is about half the price of what can be got in the Assembly Rooms.
After pruning the copious list of historic houses in the vicinity, we went to Kentwell Manor yesterday, and were charmed. It has a delightful quirkiness, a huge walled garden, a children's book trail, and lots and lots and lots of topiary, various. I long to show it to more people! (I wish we could have Camp there.)
Well,msktrnanny is on her way home now, and my cats are meowing for Fudz, so I suppose I should deal with that.
msktrnanny visiting for a few days. We packed in quite a bit of Stuff! She arrived on Wednesday afternoon, so after tea and a tour of the mighty Nest, we went to Norwich Castle for the last hour of the day. Yes, there is more than an hour's worth of Stuff To See at the castle, but on the other hand, visiting in one-hour increments means that I am not always seeing things that I've seen before. We caught the display of The Paston Treasure, which focuses on a frankly weird painting of Stuff (and people) that the Paston family owned. Cool stuff.
On Thursday,
msktrnanny was force-fed Norwich, The Fine City! We began with the Cathedral of St John the Baptist, ie the Roman Catholic cathedral, a Johnny-come-lately Victorian Gothic edifice which is, in fact, rather splendid. Then we went fifty yards along the road to the Plantation Gardens, in which my chorus sang a couple of months ago. It's pretty, and unexpected, although I was disappointed that there was no tea to be had—seems they only provide tea on Sundays.Lunch was provided by the awesome Grosvenor F'sh Bar, and Beast availed himself of the Battered Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato sandwich. I have not yet gone along the 'Big Mack' or similar paths, because their fish and chips are pretty damn good without getting fancy.
Our thorough investigation of the town's market yielded loofah soap dishes, yay, and also Norfolk White Lady cheese; via convoluted paths we found our way to Norwich Cathedral, which was begun in 1096, arriving at the perfect time to appreciate the stained glass. There is a big, gorgeously coloured window at the west end, there are three very modern windows which threw really strong colours onto the stone, and there's a piece from about 1901 in glorious blues, greens and people-tones which appears to depict (among other things) a cherubic Justin Timberlake. Hmm. Anyway. It's a really awe-inspiring building. Oh, and the cathedral cat has a fine sense of what is expected of him.
msktrnanny has photos of him sitting on an ornate wooden throne.I took
msktrnanny to my chorus rehearsal on Thursday evening (we usually sing better when we have an audience, so it wasn't entirely disinterested!). In fact, she'd also been briefly to the men's rehearsal on Wednesday, as I and a few other local ladies went there to have a quick sing of the piece the brand-new mixed chorus have been rehearsing, for the benefit of such chaps as would not be able to attend the First Ever Rehearsal of Mosaic, on Friday evening. Beast and I kindly let msktrnanny off this one. (It went, in fact, very well indeed! And it's kind of exciting to be in right at the beginning of a new thing.)On Friday morning, we went off to Langham Glass, and watched the chaps create a large lampshade. This was a weighty procedure, and the poor man who had to blow it to size was almost purple with effort (and heat—it ain't cool in there). Beast and I then participated in the creation of a couple of items, I a vase (I blew into it) and he a paperweight (he turned the glass on its rod, and then pressed the glass into its mould). After lunch we walked up to the Britannia Café for afternoon tea and a pleasing view over the city. This is one of the cafés run by inmates of the local prison, but they do a very fair afternoon tea, which is about half the price of what can be got in the Assembly Rooms.
After pruning the copious list of historic houses in the vicinity, we went to Kentwell Manor yesterday, and were charmed. It has a delightful quirkiness, a huge walled garden, a children's book trail, and lots and lots and lots of topiary, various. I long to show it to more people! (I wish we could have Camp there.)
Well,
msktrnanny is on her way home now, and my cats are meowing for Fudz, so I suppose I should deal with that.