How to celebrate Yorkshire Day - 1st August

This year I will be celebrating Yorkshire Day in Hawes in the Yorkshire Dales. I love Yorkshire so much, I even holiday there! Now everyone makes a huge fuss about St. Patrick's Day when they are not Irish, so why not give celebrating Yorkshire Day a try. I'm sure we can drink just as much as the Irish! Here's some of the key ingredients to a fabulous Yorkshire Day. Ee by gum its going t' be a reyt good un'!

1. Tesco, 2. Amazon, 3. Amazon, 4. Tesco, 5. Tesco, 6. Ebay, 7. Amazon, 8. Ebay.

Food

Parkin
Rhubarb
Pontefract Cakes (Liquorice)
Yorkshire Puddings (How about for breakfast?! - love this recipe from my sister on Bilberry Tart - One of my faves)
Barnsley Chop

Wensleydale cheese - available here

Drink

Yorkshire Tea
One of the many local ales and beers such as Barnsley Gold, Jorvik Blonde

Yorkshire Tea - available here

Decor

White Rose bunting.
Sheffield steel cutlery.
Pit lamps.
Yorkshire pudding pillow.
Nobody's perfect pillow above.

Yorkshire Pudding pillow - available here

Music

Arctic Monkeys
Kaiserchiefs
Pulp
Chumbawumba

Dress

Flat cap and whippet are essential

Games 

Traditional games include Rhubarb thrashing (where you literally stand in dustbins and hit each other with rhubarb!), nipsy, knur and spell. For further info visit this site full of traditional games.

Some slang to try out at your party

laikin' - playing
spice- sweets
wang - throw
bairn - child
bray - beat up
chelpin - talking
gi' or - give over
fuddle - a bring and share type party
mardy - sulky
nesh - cold
a Scarborough warning - final warning of bad behaviour.

Finish up your evening relaxing with a nice film..

Four lions
The Damned United (One of my favourite films ever featuring one of my favourite actors Michael Sheen. Good lad!)
Kes
Brassed Off
The Full Monty

Brassed Off - available here

Or a book.

Any of the Brontë's amazing works.
Dracula by Bram Stoker

Events taking place

If you would like to visit a Yorkshire Day event, there are some suggestions here.

Now all you need to do is practice the Yorkshire mantra whilst sipping a brew of Yorkshire tea.

'Ear all, see all, say nowt; Eyt all, sup all, pay nowt; And if ivver tha does owt fer nowt -Allus do it fer thissen.'

For those of you who are not aficionados with the Yorkshire language, this loosely translates as 'Hear all, see all, say nothing; Eat all, drink all, pay nothing; And if ever you do anything for nothing - always do it for yourself.'

Hope you have a fab Yorkshire Day whatever you are up to. Si thee later!

Rebecca - My Pretty Yorkshire Life

Rustique, York

I met up with a couple of old friends in York this week and for lunch we tried out popular restaurant Rustique, located on Castlegate near the Jorvik Centre. York is a popular city with locals and tourists alike and has a number of fine dining establishments, such as Melton’s restaurant and The Blue Bicycle, but it also has its fair share of chain restaurants too. This means independents need to work increasingly harder to stay open, e.g. just a number of weeks ago, J. Baker’s Bistro Moderne, arguably one of York’s finest restaurants closed down unexpectedly.

As their name suggests they serve rustic French food, in a bistro setting. The restaurant has a pleasant dining room, with walls covered with French prints from artists such as Toulouse Lautrec. 
They offer an extensive ala carte menu, but also a very reasonably priced set menu of 2 courses for £12.95 or 3 courses for £14.95. It was good to see there was plenty of choice available for each course on the set menu too, including French classics steak frites and moules marinière.We ordered a bottle of the house white and some sparkling water, which was brought over promptly. Our starters were brought out and we were all pretty pleased with what we saw: they all looked good and we tucked in immediately. I chose the Basque egg and it was a very tasty starter, even though the component parts were all put together in the same dish, they all still had their own individual flavours and were cooked very well. I really liked the mix of the different sausages with the potatoes, and the paprika with the oil from the chorizo gave it a lovely flavour. It looked like a small tapas-sized dish, but it was a sizeable portion to start off with.  I was reliably informed that the crab cake was crispy on the outside, soft and nicely ‘crabby’ on the inside. Very tasty. The pâté starter seemed to go down well too, to the point that my friend, who had quickly wolfed down her crab cake was then sampling some of the pate and onion marmalade!

Pate de foies de volaille – chicken liver pate with french bread
and red onion marmalade.

Pate de foies de volaille –
chicken liver pate with french
 bread and red onion marmalade.

Basque egg – pan fried Toulouse sausage, 
chorizo, new potatoes and peas cooked 
with smoked paprika and finished with a baked egg

After a good start, it didn’t take long for our main course to be brought out.

Steak frites – pan-fried rump
steak with garlic butter and fries

Tartelette au fromage de chevre
 et tomates séchées – goats cheese
and sun blushed tomato tartlet,
 served with new potatoes and
 a mixed leaf salad

Confit de canard – slow roasted
 leg of duck served with
dauphinoise potatoes, red wine
 and red currant jus

For me it was a toss up between the classics moules mariniere and the steak frites, but I was hankering for a decent steak, so steak frites was the winner this time. It had been really well cooked, medium rare as I’d requested and had a nice garlic butter sauce. The frites were thin and crisp and the portion size was not scrimped on either. The only thing I had a slight issue with, and it is a very picky thing, is I would have preferred pouring the garlic butter sauce myself, rather than having it already done. A nice little jug of the stuff would have done the trick, allowing me to control how much I wanted. Nevertheless, it was a pretty tasty dish and I was wholly satisfied and full at the end of the course. My dining companions also thought highly of their main courses, the goat’s cheese tart new potatoes and a well dressed salad was found to be yummy, its portion size was generous. The duck confit had a crispy skin, succulent meat with good dauphinois potatoes, and a lovely redcurrant sauce finishing it off nicely. When our waiter asked if we wanted any desserts, we all looked at each other and were resigned to the fact that we were all too full!

The staff were welcoming and efficient, our food was cooked well overall. The location of the restaurant is good as it’s in the city centre, but not on the more populated streets and a little out of the way. The total cost of the meal with wine was £58.20 for 3 people, so very reasonable and good value for money. Rustique has become so busy that they are opening another restaurant in Lendal next month, so if your in York it would be worth giving them a go.

Rustique28 CastlegateYorkYO1 9RP01904 612744http://www.rustiqueyork.co.uk

Diane - A Tale of Two Sittings 

Castle Howard

Our day out at Castle Howard last week was brilliant - I am told I went there in the early 80s but don't remember it at all - which made the revisiting even better!

so here are my images of the day in blisteringly hot sun, in preparation for the heatwave we're still experiencing (11pm as I write this and it's Oh sooooo hot!).

beautiful flowers everywhere

secret gates and tunnels galore

and finally the great house itself - and the BBC were filming Death Comes to Pemberley

the amazing and beautiful Atlas Fountain

the wild boar - which it seems is a listed statue!

great old gnarled trees

and to our surprise - a fabulously relaxing boat trip on the Great Lake

 followed by a walk to the rather wonderful 'Temple of the Four Winds'

 and then back to Pam and Graham's in time for a fabulous afternoon tea

Coming home we travelled down wonderful 'Hockney-esque' lanes - blossom just finished and the trees in their full greenery - just like those fabulous paintings at the Royal Academy last year

Gill - Bright Fields

Get involved with Yorkshire bloggers - Weekend Walkabout.

As a great way of supporting each other's blogs, I thought we could all have a weekend walkabout. Basically what I would like you to do is pick another person's blog on the blog list and go and have a little walkabout on their site. It would be great if you could leave them a comment, tweet them some love and just generally show them support. We all enjoy getting feedback, so go on let's try and become a little community and get to know each other better.

A quick reminder that we are currently running a Yorkshire Photography competition (finishing at the end of August), so please email through your submissions.

I'd like to think that you all feel involved in the blog and you think of it as your place to showcase your best posts and bring attention to what is happening where you are. We would love to feature your blogs and blog posts, so if you have featured any Yorkshire restaurants, day trips, recipes, etc please drop me an email or tweet.

I also thought it would be a great idea if any of the more experienced bloggers wanted to share some of their hints and tips for some of the newer bloggers - if you would be interested in doing this 

Anyone who would like to do a post about blogging and some tips for newer bloggers.

Hope you all have a fab weekend. 

York Maze

This weekend Me, Him and the Minis jumped straight in the car to visit York Maze for a fun family day out. The Maze is situated on Elvington lane, YO19 5LT York.
The weather up here in Yorkshire has been glorious and with the maze opening on Saturday we couldn't wait to pay it a visit this year and see the all new attraction the "House of confusion"

The theme for the Maze changes annually and this years maze is a tribute to Dr Who, celebrating its 50 year anniversary since it was first aired in November 1963.

Ariel view of the maze 2013

My Sons and Hubby love Dr Who, so they were all very excited to see what was in store for this year.

Valentino & Lorenzo with a Dalek

There is so much to do at the Maze its certainly is a fun filled day out that's for sure, we took a picnic and plenty of sun tan lotion as it was extremely hot!
Of course there is the maze it self to walk round, with a quiz that you can do and collect answers from the various points on the map.
But their is much to do and the list is very long, things include, The new House of confusion, Crowmania, Cobstical course, Water wars, Sand and water play area, Bale mountain, Maze of illusions, crazy mazy golf, jumping pillow, colour maze, quad bikes, climbing zone, maze field farm, Pig racing and the list goes on!!

Here are some pictures of us all in the new house of confusion.

Some snaps from inside the maze...

And the rest of our day...

Jumping pillow fun

Tino USAIN Ferrari

Inflatable slide

Lorenzo and a super cute Owl

Valentino having a hold

Sand & Water Play area

Sand & Water Play area

We had a fantastic day out, and we will be back for sure before the end of the season.
The Minis defiantly got rid of some excess energy and were very tired on the journey back home. I would recommend if your planning on making a visit then make a day of it (pick a sunny one!) and you can pre-book your tickets online to save some extra pennies. :)

Prices are as follows
Adult £11.50
Senior £11.00
Child (3-15) £10.50
Children under 3 go free 
More information is available on York Maze's website including online prices and group bookings.
York Maze is open from 12th July - 2nd September 2013
Follow York maze on Facebook and Twitter to keep up to date with all the latest information.

Melissa - Mumma Melio

Yorkshire blog : Little Tip Off

This week I would like to feature the Yorkshire blog Little Tip Off. Now I am particularly in awe of this blog, as I am a bit of an anxious nail biter. I wish I could have lovely nails, and every so often I treat myself to fake ones, but nothing this spectacular. Each set of nails is a work of art. They are truly beautiful and I think you will agree Amy is superbly talented. I think she should get tweeting some trendy celebs as I can see Pixie Lott and Fearne Cotton sporting her creations!

Here's a little bit more about Amy and her blog...

Brief description of yourself and your blog:

I'm 23 and currently studying an English Literature MA, and along with writing, nail art is a big hobby of mine. My blog consists of original hand painted designs and step-by-step tutorials, so as well as showcasing my recent manicures it allows to other people to pick up tips and try their hand at nail art too.

How long have you been blogging and why did you start?
I've been blogging since March 2013, so Little Tip Off is still in the early stages. Starting a blog just seemed to make perfect sense - I love writing, and I love nail art, so it was a no-brainer really!

Favourite place in Yorkshire?
Definitely the village where I'm originally from, Askham Bryan, which is just on the outskirts of York. I also love the city centre, it's the prettiest city around!

Favourite place to eat out in Yorkshire?
Askham's Bryan's pub, The Nag's Head. It's a wonderful combination of a good old local and a high end gastro-pub, with an amazing menu and a lovely laid-back feel.

Favourite Yorkshire recipe?
Bora Bora Cocktail Bar's recipes are definitely a favourite! I'm also a big fan of chip spice, which you only tend to get in Hull... If you ever find yourself there, you HAVE to try chip spice!

Do you have any hidden gems in Yorkshire?
My boyfriend and I love going to Fraisthorpe beach in Bridlington. It's much quieter than the main end of the beach, and is a perfect spot for photography.

Favourite Yorkshire celeb?
I could be a massive English Lit. geek and say the Brontës, but I think I'm going to go with Arctic Monkeys!

Favourite Yorkshire saying/slang?
Saying 'dinner' instead of 'lunch' and 'tea' instead of 'dinner'. 

They are so inspiring and she takes you through each design step by step. There is really no excuse for us to not all sport her set of Wimbledon nails to celebrate Murray's win! Please support a fellow Yorkshire blogger and stop by and visit her blog. 

If you would like to be featured on the Yorkshire bloggers blog, please visit the join section and email through your answers to the questions. 

Experience Barnsley Opening

On Thursday I went to the opening of Experience Barnsley. I was really excited to see what our new Barnsley museum was going to be like. Barnsley Town Hall is such a beautiful piece of architecture. Even though I pass the building most days, I still always stare at it. It looks far too grand for my little hometown. I hoped that the modification of this building had been done with great care and consideration. I wasn't sure what the museum would be like, but it exceeded all of my expectations.

The museum's opening was filled with pomp and ceremony. There was music, an animatronic dinosaur, children's carousel, cricket players walking on stilts...what more could you want from an opening! The Lord Mayor and Dickie Bird were also on hand, but they were not alone in cutting the red ribbon to unveil the museum. There was a huge red ribbon emblazoned with the Experience Barnsley emblem, which they invited people to cut and then keep a section of the ribbon. 

There has been a remodelling in front of the museum, which will feature fountains (This part of the building work is not complete). Not everyone is in love with the piece of modern art at the front of the town hall, which has been nicknamed the 'nit comb'. It had not been in situ a day before some bright sparks had attempted to scale its heights. Although it is not necessarily in keeping with the aesthetic of the town hall, I do think it adds something a little different to the town centre.

The museum has been filled with donations from the people of Barnsley, and I think this is what makes it so engaging for all ages. You feel the lovely warm glow of nostalgia from the second you enter the exhibits. Many of the pieces are personal to Barnsley, but there is also a wider narrative of key events in British history such as World Wars, Roman occupation and the Miner's Strikes. As part of my archaeology degree, I did a module on Modern Archaeology, which was fascinating. In this module, we looked at the importance of museums, and what we should preserve for future generations. As I walked round with my 11 week old son, I realised that my own childhood is now history and looked forward to a time when I can show him the artifacts from my youth. Looking at a school shirt that bad been signed by classmates on the last day of school took me back to my own school days. Museums give us chance to reflect on life throughout the ages. 

There was a wonderful atmosphere of community on the day. I enjoyed speaking to other visitors as I wandered round. One gentleman started quizzing me about a photograph of miners, and I was ashamed that my knowledge was scarce. He then went on to tell me many stories as we perused the exhibit. I really think this will be a lovely place for grandparents to take their grandchildren, and to teach them about their heritage. As a Christmas gift, I got my parents a book, available from amazon here, for them to complete for my son about their life, as I regret not sitting and learning more about my grandparent's lives. I cannot wait until my son is old enough to visit the museum with his grandparents.

The museum is free and open 7 days a week. Opening hours are Monday to Friday 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. There is so much to see that I didn't get chance to see half of it. It includes archives where you can look up your family history, investigate what resided on the land your home now inhabits, etc. There is a gallery holding works of art that have been commissioned and take their inspiration from photographs of old Barnsley residents. I was particularly moved by this part of the museum. There is a section that children will love that has a dress up box, puzzles to complete, and an area where children can dig up artifacts. It also has a blast from my own past - some carousel horses and a car that used to form part of the carousel ride in Barnsley market. The staff are knowledgeable and helpful. I was chatting to one member of staff Michael in the Discovery Centre, who answered my questions and enthused about all of the amazing things to see and experience.

I am in love with so many of the items in the gift shop! It has the standard teddybears, pencils, etc with the Experience Barnsley emblem, but also includes so many reproductions of retro and vintage items, and cute little crafty nick nacks. There is also a large range of books about Yorkshire. Speaking of Yorkshire books,  I have been asked to donate the children's books I have written as part of the Barnsley authors section and would be honoured to be included. (I am currently in the process of improving them, but will be donating once complete - plus excited to be creating a Bones The Dog in Yorkshire adventure!)

I really hope that the museum goes from strength to strength and that we all engage with this wonderful project and help it to evolve as our community evolves.

I urge you to go and visit. What is stopping you!

Rebecca - My Pretty Yorkshire Life