Yesterday we hit the road and headed to Yorkshire. Lewis took us to Bolton Abbey and its beautiful surrounding estate. It was magic, I love old stone buildings. It had so many beautiful nooks and interesting motifs.
Look at the many little arches here, the swirly iron on the door, the beautiful little fountain alcove on the wall.
This is the entrance to the priory.
Details, the little three and four grouping of that motif:
On the side of the abbey is an active church, the priory, it was very nice. Look at the back wall; 11 symbols with different plants growing out of them, every second one is a type of lily.
Zoom in and have a look; the third one across is the Chi Ro symbol, the one that looks like an X over a P. It’s the ancient Roman symbol for Christ and Christianity and was used a lot in British Roman mosaics to indicate places of Christian worship, when it was all a bit secret. The plant climbing above it is an olive tree, a plant symbolising Rome.
I’d love to sniff out all the other symbols, but the plants hint at where they’re about; blackberry brambles above the cross keys, a passionfruit above the Star of David, and at the very end, a date palm above the Alpha and Omega symbol.
I watched the Da Vinci Code on the plane and now I think I’m Dan Brown. But thanks to all the gardeners in my family, the girl does know her plant.
Back in the car and listened to the Off Menu podcast, and we headed to the multicultural town of Bradford.
We went to MyLahore and ate our own weight in curry, it was excellent.
This is the best chicken tikka masala I’ve ever eaten. Honestly, if you’re in Lancashire or Yorkshire, go to MyLahore and have a tikka masala and then go see the Science and Media museum for a nice day out.
Once we were full, we walked over to the museum and it’s probably the best thing in Bradford. I was told The Wombles were on display, but when I enquired they said they were in storage being conserved BUT, we could email and request a special viewing! Haha.
More to come.
