Capstick Cottage: The Kitchen

Capstick Cottage was the perfect place for us to start life in Boroughbridge.  It was a really nice-sized house, and being built in the 1750s gave it a lot of charm and character that was a perfect introduction to English life.  We moved in the winter, so the kitchen was cold at first, especially the stone floors! But as spring arrived I happened to pull the blinds up all the way to clean the windows one day, and I never looked back.  During the long summer days I let the light stream in all day long, and the kitchen became a much happier place.

Our neighbor who lived behind us renovated the house with her husband, and she showed us some of the before pictures at our July 4th party.  They did a wonderful job of taking away some of the more modern things that had been done to it before and showcasing a lot of the older features.

We were told that this little window was used for deliveries a long time ago.  I'm not quite sure, but I do know that once upon a time this house was the servant's quarters to the house of our neighbors next door.

I love the beams on the ceiling and the beautiful fireplace.  Unfortunately, the current owner hasn't had the chimney in here lined and safe for fire-burning anymore.  It would have made the kitchen so cozy if we could have had fires in the winter!  There is also a little cooking space still there; we could have tried our hand at cooking in a fire-operated oven.

There was not a huge amount of cabinet space, so the shelves were nice to have, and when I saw nails in the wooden beams my dream of having my pots hanging in the kitchen came true.  It was also really great to have two ovens last Thanksgiving, and I made good use of the warming area on the stove when we had lots of people over.

This beam was recycled from another house (or maybe even a ship!), and we were told it could be around 400 years old!

It was a good experience for us living in a house older than our country, and we loved our neighbors and being so close to the center of town.

* You might also enjoy a look at Capstick's Garden or the Living Room.

Summer in the Garden

We've really enjoyed our time in Capstick's garden this summer.  It has a very Secret Garden-ish feel to it with its brick walls and ivy.  

This has been my view as I've washed dishes all spring and summer long.  My clump of lavender has given me new insight into the phrase "busy bee."  No matter what the time of day, the bees are constantly at work in the lavender.

When you step out the back door of the kitchen you see where our neighbor told us a conservatory used to be attached to the back of the house.  She and her husband used to own Capstick and did most of the renovations, uncovering a lot of the original structure that had been covered.

What remains is a useful little shed for hiding away scooters, but what we used it for most was the myriad of boxes we had when we first moved in and had to buy so many things to furnish our house.

The Kitchen Door

You can see how the kitchen has been extended beyond the original house.  Capstick was once the servant's quarters attached to our neighbor's house, and the neighbor behind us who renovated it now lives in the renovated outbuildings.  

We borrowed a fire pit for the 4th of July, and it was a fun addition to the garden for a few weeks.

I really like the garden because it has so many different little spaces.  I like having the paved area, the rocky area, and a grassy area.  Buying the swing was such a good decision.  We lived in our house in Alabama for 6 years, and I never pulled the plug on buying any outdoor furniture.  I didn't want to make that mistake again, and we've enjoyed having a place to sit and read and have people over.  I even took a short little nap on the swing this past Sunday!

There's this nice little hideaway in the corner of the garden where that little tree grows.

There have been nice little wildflowers popping up through the summer.

This little low-growing plant has kept its flowers for months!

And the roses keep on coming.

The aforementioned lavender lasted months as well, but it's finally starting to fade.  It is the end of August after all.

Here's to you, Capstick.  And summer.  These long days of summer have been delightful.  I hate to see them end!  Living so far north has made me think more about the official dates of summer more than before.  I tried not to count it as summer until June 21st this year, and I'm going to try to hang on to it until September 22nd.

Franco Fridays: A Visit with the Great Parker Windle

Sadly, all of our time on French soil has been documented, but never fear, I thought I could drag out Franco Fridays by documenting our visit with an American in Paris visiting England.  How's that?

We were really looking forward to a visit from Parker at the end of last month. He flew over from Paris for a church-planting conference, and KJ talked him into staying an extra day before and after with us.  Of course this called for a little exploration.  The very old city of York is an easy drive away, and there was a certain bookstore by the Minster I was looking forward to re-visiting, so while the kids were in school Monday we had a nice little day out.  We had a good explore, and I took my time in each and every bookstore we came across.  It's much easier to do things like that without children with you getting antsy.

When it came time for lunch we weren't quite sure where to go.  It's so easy as Americans in another country to gravitate toward McDonald's.  It would never be my first choice at home (unless we needed a playground and free WIFI stat), but it's so familiar, and you know exactly what you're getting.  But we resisted the pull and found a place with a bit more character.

The Robert Burns Hotel was the perfect amount of charm and good pub food.  KJ asked our waitress if she could recite any Robbie Burns for us, but sadly no. 

KJ snapped this picture in which Parker and I are eyeing his onion rings with a certain amount of regret.

Why did I order the jacket potato?

After lunch we meandered a bit more (more bookstores!) and walked a bit on the city wall.



We ended the day with some good southern cooking.  I don't know what everyone else thought, but I felt like the biscuits were my best from scratch biscuits to date.  James enjoyed wrestling with Parker and having someone to play Super Smash Brothers with. 

I think my mama made biscuits with almost every meal, and I always like the sight of rolled dough and flour on the countertop.

Monday was nice, but then Thursday...look at this day.

The book of James says every good and perfect gift comes from above, and someone in Robin Hood's Bay must have known that, too.

The day couldn't have been more beautiful.  We ate lunch, and there was a wonderful playground for the kids, complete with a pirate ship.  On the way into town we looked up a little history of why this town is associated with Robin Hood and concocted scenarios of how the French pirates could have not made away with their plunder.  French pirates being captured by Robin Hood was the starring role in imaginative play for the day.

The town is charming, and if you have a day with skies that blue and clear, it is a nice day, even if you didn't have a bucket and shovel and had to collect your shells in a plastic grocery bag.

A Look Inside Capstick Cottage

Yesterday was the birthday of a man who lives in one of Florida's magical places.

You can read about the exciting life and times of James Winter (affectionately known as Daddy Jim to his many grandchildren and great-grandchildren) in his autobiography, A Lifetime Remembered.  He's requested some pictures of Capstick Cottage, so this post is for you, Daddy Jim!

I haven't taken pictures of the entirety of Capstick yet, however, so this is just the living room.

By way of a little virtual tour, when you step in Capstick's front door, you have a doorway to your right, leading to the dining room, and a doorway to the left leading to the living room.

When we arrived there was only a bare bulb hanging in this room, so among many other purchases at IKEA, we purchased a shade.

This picture was taken from a second doorway that leads into the kitchen.  I like having the opening to the kitchen, though it does make furniture placement difficult because directly to my right there is a radiator on the wall, and KJ does quite enjoy standing in front of it to keep warm. You'll see here our Alabama pillow we brought from home.  We bought several stools to use as extra seating, and they also make great side tables.  I haven't quite made the time to paint the second stool yet.  When I look at these pictures I see all kinds of projects that need to be done.  Look at those blank walls!  The curtains came with the house, and I love the built-in bookshelves.  If only I had all of my books!

I stay on the lookout for books anytime I'm in a charity shop.  I love my lovely artwork by the talented Hillary Sikes.  It gets lots of compliments and came in the first package we received in England, a mere two weeks after arriving.  Since we moved in during the darkest part of the year, a single bulb in the middle of the room wasn't really cutting it in the lighting department.  IKEA to the rescue again with a lamp and some clip-on lights.

The Lord has abundantly provided for all of our needs here as we came furniture-less.  In this room we've only purchased the chair; the two loveseats were given to us. 

Any of you who are in the know about such things, should I paint the other stool/table the same color or be eclectic and go for a different color altogether?

I first took these pictures back in February, and I realized today I'd made a little more progress, so I snapped these updates with my phone this morning. I found this school room map of the British Isles when we visited Yarm last month. With the exception of the gallery wall on the stairs, we haven't really put any holes in the walls but have tried to use the nails left here by the previous occupants, mainly because this old house is extremely well built of stone and brick, and nails just don't go very easily into these walls.  The glare on that picture really makes the map look 3D, doesn't it?

I found quite a nice stack of old books from Oxfam a couple of weeks ago.  Boroughbridge has a dearth of secondhand shops.

I found this great little table at the YMCA shop.

I just noticed my sideways pillow.  Whoops.

And because I thought a detail shot might be interesting, here's a look at one of the doorknobs.

So there's a little peak into this old house, with hopefully more to come.