Jeremiah Watt

The crew and I are out of steam, so we get a late start and are not out on the TOURIST trail till 10am. We head to York to see the Castle Howard which was indeed pretty, but a NO CAMERA stop. The castle is currently being lived in so we tourists do not have access to all the house.

GARDEN GATES AT CASTLE HOWARD

The gardens are huge and the house is an equal to the Gardens. The house is under a lot of restoration and renovation, so some areas that are usually open are also closed off till the work is done. Funny to hear from Curator of fine art and Architecture about such thngs as replacement costs and the ability for instance to have Frescos painted that are of the type and caliber from the days this castle was built.

ONE OF THE FASTIDIOUS GROUNDS KEEPERS PREENING HIMSELF.

The conversation went something like this, #1: there was a huge fire that burned out the main entry dome and damaged two of the 4 Citrine Marble Columns. To replace the two columns today required $257,000.00. #2, during the fire water was of course sprayed onto the fire to put it out, doing so damaged 3 of the Frescos painted in 1485 the third of the frescos was also in need of cleaning…………and in the curators own words, we do not produce visionary artist with a Biblical understanding these days. Further more the artist of this day are hopelessly impaired with unleashed creativity and cannot work within the confines of what the application requires. The cleaning bill alone was $475,000.00 #3 and last was some plaster work that required being redone and the reproduction had to faithfully mimic that of the existing work which again proved to be almost impossible to bring in, finally an aged artist is found in Russia with the skills.

FRONT VIEW OF CASTLE HOWARD, AND THE REALIZATION THAT I DO NOT OWN ENOUGH CAMERA NOR LENSE FOR THE JOB AT HAND. THINK I WILL PETITION THE WFC FOR A NEW CAMERA.

According to at least this one person, she longs for a Raphealian Resurrgence, similar to that of Raphael himself, or in much later years the Morris Co. of Scotland. Raphael believed that an artist was first to be a craftsman and then an artist, meaning that he needed to have his hands on the work and understand the nuances of the medium and not merely be a conductor of artistic works.

We are done in York and headed to our next nights stay which will be a sort of COWBOY stay, since the owner of this fine Bed & Breakfast fancies himself somewhat a Cowboy. If the title of Cowboy can be earned with hospitality, then Louis and Rita are indeed Cowboy at heart. Louis and Rita Stottard, along with daughter Franchesca live in a Farm house converted to B&B. The Stottards are all involved in the medical profession, with Loius being a foot and ankle Surgeon, and Rita a traveling in home Nurse.

JUST A LITTLE GARDEN VASE..............ALMOST 20 FEET ACROSS.

Louis a student of good horsemanship methods, likes to talk about all things Cowboy and would have talked all night had it not been that he also had surgeries to perform the next day. We talked till . The late, but only after a fine supper prepared by Rita, the ladies enjoyed Rita’s homemade San Gria while preparing supper. Darren had a brand new experience this time around since there was more that one set of cutlery set on the table. At first he thought the extra set was a mistake, but we finally walked him through it. Then we had some new food, he had to get bay the dreaded CHICKEN in a puff pastry pie crust with the GRAVY STUFF ON IT. FOUR helpings later and we could have once again fed our pal CROW instead of CHICKEN and he would have scarfed it like a coyote on road kill. But what was even funnier was desert, now Kim I am telling you this kid could starve to death in a grocery store. Rita brought out two deserts, one a simple chocolate cake done very nicely and the other was Crème Brule’. When we got to Darren he froze, and then stammered something only Big Bird could have understood about foods and what he could/would/can/might/ and lastly maybe could try to eat. And in all of that he felt his personal safety lay in eating something he could buy at Perkos like Chocolate CAKE……………….but he also got a portion of Ritas Crème Brule’ and her syrupy sauce over it of burnt sugar…….oh WOW Mrs Stottard that is delicious what did you call it????????

LOUIS & RITA STOTTARD AND THIER SPACIOUS BED & BREAKFAST

Finally the day had to close, and we turned in rather late but all of us where ready.
Good Night and God Bless