Jump Back Up July: Shut Up Brain (Rievaulx Abbey Part 1)
I'm just back from a week staying at Rievaulx Abbey - we had a cottage on site, so we were able to walk around the abbey ruins every evening.
Stopping at service stations on the way wasn't much fun, mostly because they were quite busy, and it feels like I'm the most anxious person about maintaining the social distancing. We got coffees/drinks at both service stations, and looked for somewhere outside; at one place, we sat in our car out of preference.
I didn't feel I was doing too well with Plastic Free July; all our plastics ended up in the bin after we couldn't find any opportunity to recycle them.
I tried to maintain "Connect Monday" by messaging a few friends on my way. I wasn't feeling great still after the vaccine; somehow my arm pain was becoming a neck pain.
I got a picture of Rievaulx Abbey from our first evening walk; my understanding is it was destroyed as part of Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries.
Our cottage was nice - most of my pictures of it were slightly naff, but I liked this one.
I slept okay on the first night (I don't always) but possibly as a vaccination after-effect, I just felt like I was on a roller coaster as I lay waiting to go to sleep; it was a weird sensation. My shoulder pain was just about gone the next day.
We had a walk to Helmsley, the nearest town, which gave us an excuse to walk along one of the slow ways. I was struggling a bit that morning with some of my thoughts, mostly about things I should be doing; I was trying to challenge them all the time - it's difficult at times.
A lot of my apprehensiveness is about other people; I have negative ideas about others at times, but as soon as I realise that just about every person we passed on the slow way was friendly and acknowledged us (bar a few people) I realised that I was worrying about nothing. I should keep trying with that new years' resolution to see the best in others.
We stopped for lunch at Helmsley, and then walked back, realising that much of the day was now gone - the odd thing was seeing many of the same people who we had passed going the other way, once again, including a big party of school kids. I managed to confirm the kids had been visiting Rievaulx Abbey by asking a man who worked there.
I got some pictures; here are some of the best:
Flock of geese.
Some nice scenery.
Thistle.
Sheep.
Helmsley Castle was interesting; we didn't stay too long though.
Same geese from earlier; they were in what I reckon was the sheep dip.
We drove around for some time trying to find a decent pub that evening; we got to one where they only had seating outside if we hadn't booked - we didn't turn down the chance to have a seat outside. The food was decent, though we went back to the cottage for dessert.
We spent Wednesday morning at Nunnington Hall - it was both amusing and annoying to see other people not undertsanding queuing systems. The social distancing inside the house wasn't too great - I was just glad to get out of doors, and it was a good way to clear my head of my negative thoughts.
Nunnington Hall has some nice gardens, though it is quite small. I was trying to spot things as usual (Notice Wednesday).
Mum spotted the peacock on the roof!
We drove to Hutton-le-Hole that afternoon; despite the car park being full up, it wasn't too bad with numbers of people; it was the most picturesque place we visited on the trip.
The main attraction is an outdoor museum that recreates old-fashioned ways of living; it was a nice way of learning about how people used to live, and we spent a lot of time there. My success while we were there was logging my 30 hours of activity for Strava.
They also kept animals!
We sat outside afterwards, and ate ice creams.
The pub we had booked that evening was next to this amazing building - the remains of another abbey.
It was a good three days, and Mum did point out that I was getting less stressed as time went on.
Stopping at service stations on the way wasn't much fun, mostly because they were quite busy, and it feels like I'm the most anxious person about maintaining the social distancing. We got coffees/drinks at both service stations, and looked for somewhere outside; at one place, we sat in our car out of preference.
I didn't feel I was doing too well with Plastic Free July; all our plastics ended up in the bin after we couldn't find any opportunity to recycle them.
I tried to maintain "Connect Monday" by messaging a few friends on my way. I wasn't feeling great still after the vaccine; somehow my arm pain was becoming a neck pain.
I got a picture of Rievaulx Abbey from our first evening walk; my understanding is it was destroyed as part of Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries.
Our cottage was nice - most of my pictures of it were slightly naff, but I liked this one.
I slept okay on the first night (I don't always) but possibly as a vaccination after-effect, I just felt like I was on a roller coaster as I lay waiting to go to sleep; it was a weird sensation. My shoulder pain was just about gone the next day.
We had a walk to Helmsley, the nearest town, which gave us an excuse to walk along one of the slow ways. I was struggling a bit that morning with some of my thoughts, mostly about things I should be doing; I was trying to challenge them all the time - it's difficult at times.
A lot of my apprehensiveness is about other people; I have negative ideas about others at times, but as soon as I realise that just about every person we passed on the slow way was friendly and acknowledged us (bar a few people) I realised that I was worrying about nothing. I should keep trying with that new years' resolution to see the best in others.
We stopped for lunch at Helmsley, and then walked back, realising that much of the day was now gone - the odd thing was seeing many of the same people who we had passed going the other way, once again, including a big party of school kids. I managed to confirm the kids had been visiting Rievaulx Abbey by asking a man who worked there.
I got some pictures; here are some of the best:
Flock of geese.
Some nice scenery.
Thistle.
Sheep.
Helmsley Castle was interesting; we didn't stay too long though.
Same geese from earlier; they were in what I reckon was the sheep dip.
We drove around for some time trying to find a decent pub that evening; we got to one where they only had seating outside if we hadn't booked - we didn't turn down the chance to have a seat outside. The food was decent, though we went back to the cottage for dessert.
We spent Wednesday morning at Nunnington Hall - it was both amusing and annoying to see other people not undertsanding queuing systems. The social distancing inside the house wasn't too great - I was just glad to get out of doors, and it was a good way to clear my head of my negative thoughts.
Nunnington Hall has some nice gardens, though it is quite small. I was trying to spot things as usual (Notice Wednesday).
Mum spotted the peacock on the roof!
We drove to Hutton-le-Hole that afternoon; despite the car park being full up, it wasn't too bad with numbers of people; it was the most picturesque place we visited on the trip.
The main attraction is an outdoor museum that recreates old-fashioned ways of living; it was a nice way of learning about how people used to live, and we spent a lot of time there. My success while we were there was logging my 30 hours of activity for Strava.
They also kept animals!
We sat outside afterwards, and ate ice creams.
The pub we had booked that evening was next to this amazing building - the remains of another abbey.
It was a good three days, and Mum did point out that I was getting less stressed as time went on.