Cast of Musical 'Armada' -John Dee in centre

Sometimes  you  learn by coincidence and this happened to me  with the name of Tudor astrologist  John Dee. I am trying to remember whether I was listening to Radio 4 or listening to the TV whilst C watched and I was here on the PC, when John Dee was mentioned and I started listening.  What struck me was that the narrator was saying that Queen Elizabeth 1st never made any decisions without consulting the  occultist. C has always been very keen on anything to do with the Tudors, every film and TV series, book and magazine is devoured.  I must have listened vicariously to Bette Davis, Cate Blanchett, and Glenda Jackson and Helen Mirren scores of times without hearing a word ,from my corner of the sitting room and facing away from the set. But remember HE does not do Wallender or University Challenge . He is therefore very disappointed that His Heroine could not make decisions using her brain , as he has always assumed. She has I am afraid joined the ranks of Indian businessmen  with their fortunetelling before deals, Madame Arcarti and all other send-ups and  his reticence to buy a Rosa diablo, Gloriana  has fallen from his grace. I add here that my own god-daughter has unfriended me on Facebook just because I warned her of doing online Tarot Cards, as any Christian Godmother would do I hope.

Queen Elizabeth  in Armada

We were in York having lunch in the Spurriergate  Centre just as the York Musical Theatre Company were  giving the people that lunch  a sampler of their musical Armada  which is next week 28/29/30th July at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre. Our daughter in Sussex is a keen  singer and was Mabel in G and S Pirates recently, and we know just how hard a cast will have to work  , not least those making costumes and working behind the scenes and front of house. I hope the production of Armada goes well, the costumes were great and a preview of the sound may be heard on their own website. John Dee plays a part in this musical, so I am off to look him up and see what I can find out about him from the books on Tudors in this house. Usually I get all my facts from Horrible Histories or Sellar and Yeatman. I want to get them straight this time incase we end up talking about him in our homegroup  or  reading Blessings and Curses again. 

August in June

Epilobium angustifolium

Fireweed

Rosebay Willow herb

County Flower of London 2002 

with this view

from this road

Another lovely day at the seaside

Actually we never went down to the Chalet today  as we had lent it to a friend . I did want the weather to be glorious for her with her family and small grand-daughter, as Filey simply comes to life on a gorgeous sunny day.

• young day trippers are all smiling at the promise of a  paddle  in the sea
• aged day trippers are all smiling at the promise of a sit on one of the scores of benches in Crescent Gardens with the panorama 6 miles of golden sand , sea and Flamborough Head to the south and Filey Brigg to the north
• small shopkeepers are all smiling at the ringing of tills
• cafe owners do what they do best, with scones  and pots of tea
• the fish and chip shops positively welcome from afar with the aroma of cod and vinegar
• buckets , spades and windbreaks and camping chairs are wheeled in specially adapted shopping trolleys down to the front by huge family groups
• weekly visitors thank God they don't have to go to Scarborough to the indoor swimming pool
• the locals are glad they did their shopping at eight o clock

Small boys away from parents woke C up at 5am , and all the neighbours up at 6am . I managed to surface at 7.30, not at my best in the morning but mindful  the right time for change of shift. Predictably I let them have 90 minutes of Moshi Monsters. My street cred is very high at the moment since I accidentally discovered this must visit site.

Nature walk!

Filey Bird and Animal Garden opened at 10am and  we were there with the boys as it opened. We have been here lots of times since it opened , and its the perfect place with lively small boys to enjoy feeding goats and pigs, play , and run around , and enjoy seeing the progress their lovely  garden is making. This year Reuben (4) showed us the Secret door to the viewing platform over the pond .The boys wanted to move on , but I could have stopped for ages watching the dragonflies and waterboatmen.

C and I have often said that we love sitting in a rose garden , where the roses are all fragrant. Hunmanby Grange and Burton Agnes are a drive away, Sewerby too, but this little rose garden in Filey was at its peak, and we just stumbled upon it, remembering that we have never visited this park in June before. The small boys tore round the beautiful enclosed garden, and coming out I read the sign about not letting children run around, too late then . So we went to hurl round the designated tear round space. This unsophisticated but engrossing play area kept the boys occupied for ages, and only C and I needing a coffee , (remember C had been up since 5am) drove us to move on.  The sandpit , kitted out for toddlers was a bit hit. I couldn't believe it. Our not toddlers , who spend hours a week , every week on the real beach loving the sieves and hoppers for dry sand.

Play area

I would like to say that the boys were really interested in the pigs and sheep, turkeys, Llamas and exotic birds, but today they weren't. As soon as all the bird food had gone  and we remembered to clean their hands the tearing around became the most of fun. Bribery came into the mix now , as icecreams were mentioned casually.This kept us going until after 12 and even the little cafe patio next to the turkeys intrigued the boys, so interested were they in the way the water flowed through the 3 tank pond system, cables and  all next to the tables.

The vernacular Curate asked in one of his posts last week What is a blog? I realised that when I look through posts I wrote years ago, they recalls happy days, spent with family ,and  friends, times spent in trains and museums, and thoughts on my many drives to visit Aged Parent across the Wolds in Beverley. For me the Weblog diary part of blogging is just for me to enjoy over and over again. I know my family sometimes like to read about themselves, AP loves to receive print outs about herself! 

Yesterday was just a perfect day spent at the seaside,  without ever going to the beach, so it could have been any where, but it wasnt. The sound of seagulls, the lovely still but clean air, the light quality, the shops full of day trippers was just something that was experienced from the home of a fileygardener.

Postscript. I have wanted to use this photo from  Yahoo for ages. Yesterday I was in the queue at Mills behind a  lady Filey visitor whose tattoo covered the whole of her back , as bare as it could be for the sake of decency. It was such a beautiful  work of art that I would have loved to take a photo of her but didn't dare ask.