Spofforth Castle & Plumpton Rocks (or wearing the boys out so Mom can rest at home)

Here we are at Spofforth castle — the manor house of the powerful Percy family who later built Alnwick — the Harry Potter castle.



On the way home, we noticed a sign for Plumpton Rocks and decided to investigate. We soon found ourselves squeezing through the crevasses of the large moss-covered rock formations. Although quite a bit smaller than Brimham Rocks, Plumpton’s formations overlook a small lake and wooded area of tall trees. We hiked around the lake and climb to the top of the rocks for a view of the surrounding area. Both boys had a grand time chopping trees with their sticks, poking their sticks in the water, and using their sticks to find cob webs inside the smooth cave walls.




After all our hiking the boys needed a nap. Back at home, Luke has been telling us that a troll and a monster live in his dress closet with him. They are his friends. Sometimes they eat dinner with him. They like Pez for dinner.

Red Nose Day

The boys were up early on Friday morning excited for Red Nose Day at Isaac’s school. The idea is to dress funny for money, or in other words, save your school uniform for a day and donate the money for charity.

Fair Maids and Crocuses

Spring has started and I am intrigued with the small white flowers blooming near grave sites at the village churches and along people’s garden fences and the white, yellow and purple flowers growing around Harrogate. A friend told us that the flowers are called snowdrops and crocuses respectively. Further research unveiled that Monks laid snowdrops on the altar and they were associated with the date of February 2nd, known as Candlemas Day and were once known as Candlemas Bells. Other names given to snowdrops include Fair Maids of February, Purification Flower, Snow-flower and White Ladies. I managed to snap a few pictures of the snowdrops in Dacre Banks.




We did some shopping in Harrogate this weekend and when the boys got restless we walked over to Parliament Street for a treat at Bettys. Their giant chocolate easter eggs were on display. Isaac and Luke got white chocolate swan lollipops, Dionne had a caramel shorty, and Josh tried a rhubarb and marzipan tart. We enjoyed our treats next to the long belts of white and lavender crocus flowers blooming along the Stray.