Day 8 ( July 22): Return to Ripon

Last night was actually more like a nightmare. I had gone to bed around 8:30, anticipating an early departure this morning. Arielle, however, stayed up late reading. Around 11 p.m. she heard a rustling in my tote bag and discovered a mouse eating through my bag of almonds. Yikes! She went into high gear, managed to free the mouse outdoors, and then proceeded to clean up any and all mouse turds in sight.

In the morning, she also discovered mouse turds in her suitcase, so put all her clothes in a plastic bag to launder when we got to Ripon. This was an upsetting end to our stay at Gilpin View, and a little grey cloud followed us all the way to Malham Cove, where Arielle planned to hike. Off she went, with sunshine and the beauty of the Yorkshire Dales to cheer her up. I could not walk (bum knee) and had already done the hike with Wes, Enrique, Katie, and Gayle seven years ago, so I wandered the small hamlet of Malham, which is quite picturesque. 

I also sat and read Homecoming, appreciating the deep quiet of the moorland in spite of a fair number of tourists and hikers striding around. Arielle returned an hour and a half later, and we once again loaded up our faithful car and drove the curving roads of the moorland toward Grassington, the village in which the latest series of All Creatures Great and Small was filmed. It’s a delightful town, and after a brief cafe lunch, we explored the bookshop that had served as a green-grocer’s shop in the series. Across the square was the pub (now a hotel) and on the other side the house that served as the surgery. I would not have recognized them. Can you?

The bookshop with blue awnings was the greengrocer. 

The entrance to the hotel pub, lower right, was used as the Drovers Arms. 

This house was given greenery and used as the outside of Siegfried’s surgery. 

On our way back to the car park, we passed a bench with an orange tabby lolling in the sunshine. Someone had painted a sign with his name (Chuffers) and portrait. Apparently he sleeps on this bench most days—so often that he has become somewhat of a local attraction. 

Leaving Grassington, we had planned to stop at Fountains Abbey so that Arielle could explore the ruins, but her lack of sleep made for bad timing. So we continued on into Ripon, to Gaslight Cottage at 1A Victoria Street—a cute terraced house within five minutes’ walk of Ripon Cathedral, Sainsburys, and the city square. No mice here, but Arielle did find a dead bug under one of the coffee tables. I unpacked the groceries and got settled in while Arielle did laundry, and then we headed to the cathedral for evensong at 5:30.

A visiting choir did the honors in music, and the liturgy was calming, as always. I spoke with a man from the US who’d grown up in Minnesota and was now touring the UK with his family, worshipping in as many places as possible as they explored Scotland and England by train. Nice to meet other travelers and believers.

Then to bed, with a prayer that Arielle might get a good night’s sleep and wake up happy and refreshed.