I don't much care for formal flower arrangements, and big posh houses aren't my thing either. So I don't really know why I wanted to go and see the Flower Festival at Fairfax House, running last week from 20th-28th Sept. I think it might be something to do with my liking for the idea of living things (in this case flowers) adding life to buildings and somehow melding their energy into them.I'm not the only one to like the idea of living things bringing life to buildings. Our predecessors liked it quite a lot, and it was customary some parts of the country to wall up something living, like a cat, in a newly built house to bring life to the place and protect it against witchcraft. Suffolk is big on walled up cats, and their mummified bodies abound throughout the county - including a couple of discovered ones on display in the Nutshell pub, Bury St Edmunds, suspended from the ceiling.
Anyway, it was the last day of the Fairfax House Flower Festival yesterday, so I guess I can't have wanted to see big posh house + flower arrangements quite enough to bother getting down there and forking out the £5 fee for entry. Now if they'd walled the flower arrangements up, and offered spectators a mug of ale or two to celebrate, I might actually have shifted myself off into to town for a look this weekend.
7 comments:
oh, I wish you hadn't said that thing about the cats. It's really sad.
I got taken for a drink to a converted miil-house in Suffolk many years ago - I can't remember where it was, but I do remember wondering why a large section of the floor was glass. When I went over to have a look, a mummified cat was clearly visible. I found it a little off-putting.
Strange about the walled up cats.
Hi Ruby! I had no idea there was a York daily photo. I used to live in York so I will definitely be back!
Any chance of a photo of (or better yet, inside) the York Beer Shop on Fishergate? I used to live above it. I miss that shop!
(errm, b is the same as beth on ncl daily photo. just in case it wasn't clear!)
Hi Cat, not one of the kindest things our predecessors did, that's for sure.
Jane, eek, a bit of a curiosity in a house but not good! I also visited houses in Suffolk where there were cats paw prints on the bricks, as cats had walked over the bricks when they were still soft. Which is a bit nicer!!
Hi Tanya, I guess it is - although after 11 yrs living in Suffolk, I.m sort of used to the idea now.
Hi Beth! Oo, a beer shop to discover - I shall go and check it out at some point soon. Haven't been on Fishergate yet. There used to be a cheapy Indian restaurant called the Noor there when I was at uni here, but it's gone now - was that there in your time in York?
I don't remember that place... which isn't to say it wasn't there! I was in York 1999-2002. And I will be there visiting a friend overnight 17th October actually - looking forward to it!
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