Sunny Seattle Sojourn

Indian paintbrush, Mt. Rainier

Even though I saw English garden flowers at their best in Cambridge, Oxford and Bath in July, I hate to see a summer pass without hiking among American mountain wildflowers.  So, planning a trip that packed a number of highlights into a week, I flew to Seattle.  First stop:  Woodston Cottage (named after Henry Tilney's home in Northanger Abbey), in Snohomish.



Woodston Cottage

 



Me at Woodston

Woodston Cottage is the home of Laurel Ann Nattress of the Austenprose blog, but her justly renowned blog is not the only work of her heart:  Woodston is also her beloved creation, labor of love, and, it is not too much to say, a work of art, of English style and gracious living, albeit on a small scale.  But I, who have adored Little Houses since Laura Ingalls Wilder days, find in Woodston Cottage no less than an enchanted dream. 





Dinner table at Woodston

 

 Dinner at Woodston:  fresh picked local corn, salmon, salad, sourdough bread...Yum!

 Chandelier and sunflowers

The fortunate guest at Woodston Cottage is pampered like a queen, or at least as Jane Austen herself would be, could she come back to life.  Laurel Ann has the gift of knowing exactly what people like to eat, and of making her fresh and exquisitely prepared food look as beautiful as it is good.  Her breakfast table, out in the garden, is delectable to contemplate:

 



English breakfast in an English garden

 

Her home-made scones are the best I've ever eaten, and I speak as someone who has eaten a Bath cobblestone mile paved with them in England.  As for the garden:  Laurel Ann was a horticulturist in another life, and it shows!  The hollyhocks, the foxgloves, the roses...Agnes de Mille wrote of her mother's famous garden in 1910 California, "Many a homesick Englishman has stood silent before those beds until Mother led him in to tea."  They would feel that way at Woodston, too.

 

Evening at Woodston

 

 

Companion at Woodston - the beautiful, shy Herman

 

 Essence of Woodston:  flowers and cat

 

Snohomish is a famous antiques town, and we spent a day doing the rounds almost to my heart's content!  Here's just the yellow glass section at the Star, the biggest and most overwhelming shop:

 

 

What did I buy?  Why, Sadler teapots for my copper luster porcelain teapots collection, of course.  Here they are at home:

 

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 On Sunday, Laurel Ann drove me to a meeting of the Jane Austen Society of Puget Sound, at the lovely home of Kimberley Brangwin, overlooking the Sound.  I gave a short talk, and then enjoyed reuniting with friends in the chapter.  Lovely glimpse of Seattle social life by the sea!

 

 

Laurel Ann and I with author Katherine Reay.

 

Me and Laurel Ann

 

Kimberly, our lovely hostess

 

After the meeting Laurel Ann (who had been madly driving me around all weekend) kindly took me to the airport where I picked up my rental car, and then I took off for the second half of my trip:  Mt. Rainier!

 I was to meet my longtime hiking friends Mike and Leelee, with their daughter Karen, son-in-law Matt, and granddaughter Bridget, at Alta Crystal Resort near the Sunrise entrance to Mt. Rainier National Park.  It was a lovely drive as the roads became more rural and after passing through the town of Enumclaw, I started driving up the mountain.

 

The inn's pussycat welcomed me, sitting on top of Mike's car.

A much wilder feline than Herman of Woodston.

 

Our first full hiking day, we hiked the Tipsoo Lakes-Naches Peak Loop, a relatively short and easy trail, very beautiful with everything I was hoping for:  wildflowers, lakes, views of Mt. Rainier, and none of it too hard on my bad knee.  Here are pictures from that hike:

 

 



 

 

  

 

Me with Leelee and Mike

 

The next day's hike was not as good for me; it was to Summerland, and was about 8 miles with switchbacks, so I bailed out halfway through and walked back by myself (having a narrow encounter with a bear).  After making myself eggs for lunch at the condo, I sallied out again and went up the gondola at Alta Crystal, for some nice views of Rainier and Mt. St. Helens. 



 

 

Afterwards I rejoined my friends for a very good hamburger dinner at a pub down the road. 

 



Me with Leelee, Mike, Bridget and Matt

 

Leelee, Mike, Karen, Matt and Bridget

 

And we finished off the day with a campfire and S'mores back at the Gateway.

 

 

The last day's hike was the best.  We drove around the mountain to the Paradise entrance, and the hike on the Skyline Trail was like Paradise indeed.  It was a loop of about five miles, with an altitude gain of 1,700 feet, up to an elevation of 7,100, so even though my knee kept me hiking very slowly, particularly on the downhill, I was no end chuffed to see that I could do it - anybody who could complete this hike, is still a hiker, no question!

 

Lupines

 

The wildflowers were sublime as heart could desire, as witness this field of lupines.  More pictures from the hike: 

 

 

Matt and Bridget slid down the snowfields

At the top!  The Upper Skyline, above Panorama Point

Me and Mike, old hiking friend and fellow wildflower enthusiast

Flowers and snow - typical on Mt. Rainier

Alpine phlox

Peevish looking Western Marmot

Paradise Inn

 

Owing to my slowness, it was late when we got back to Paradise Inn, but we had a wonderful dinner in the elegant old dining room there - I had wild mushroom soup, salmon with wild rice, and blackberry pie with ice cream.  We hadn't been able to get rooms there, so we drove out the park entrance to the Gateway, comfy kitchy old cabins, spent the night there and had a good breakfast. After that we parted and I had a very fraught drive to the airport - got lost in a heavy rainstorm (good thing it didn't rain earlier and spoil our hiking!), was stuck in massive traffic in Tacoma, occasioned by the start of some outlandish Hemp Festival.  Made it to the airport with only half an hour to spare, but had a swift smooth flight back to my own dear home, boys, and cats.



 

 



Chawton, Cambridge, London - and Home

Chawton House Library

 

Sunday, June 23.  Despite the ball ending late last night, I had to be at Lucy Cavendish at 8 AM to get the coach for Chawton, the conference's last event.  So I checked out of the Arundel hotel, left my bag there for the day, skipped breakfast, and high-tailed it over. 

A cottage in Chawton village

The coach took a couple of hours to get to Chawton, but it was a pretty ride through verdant landscapes, smooth enough to doze, and people had made friends by now so it was relaxed and pleasant. Lovely to see Chawton again, and we were welcomed at the Chawton House Library by Gillian Dow. We were given a truly fabulous lunch, all manner of English delicacies, ham, quiches, cheeses, apple pie, lovely country produce, just the best. 

At lunch, Chawton House Library

 

Flowers at the Library

 

Then Stephen Lawrence, the library's CEO, gave us the most informative tour I've ever had of the house - he had to talk fast to get in all the wealth of fascinating background he imparted, focusing especially on the paintings in the house.  

Then we were free to walk over to the cottage museum and enjoy it in our own individual ways, after which I had a cup of tea and (what else) a Victoria sponge, at Cassandra's Cup, with a visiting Canadian lady.  Here are a few pictures from the cottage...

 

 

A painting by Cassandra, 1802

 

This is the portrait Paula Byrne claims is Jane Austen, but it's very naughty of her to have affixed the label, when it is far from proved.  At least the museum has placed an explanatory card next to it in the case, but really one is dismayed by Byrne's self-serving marketing approach to historical research!

 

In the garden

 

 Boarding the bus at 4, we were back in Cambridge by 6, and had sandwiches at the college.  I'd been worrying about dragging my suitcase from the hotel to Jan's house, but Derek kindly drove me to get it, and I was soon settled in the lovely bedroom that had most recently been inhabited by P.D. James! 

Marshall House 

 

Garden roses

Monday was a greyish day, but it never rained, and Jan and I set off on a walk to Grantchester. It's 5 or 6 miles round trip, and I was a bit worried about my knee, but was relieved that it was no problem at all - walking on grass is so much easier than on concrete. Julian joined us on his bike and I enjoyed the Rupert Brooke atmosphere, watched chaffinches peck at scone crumbs, and tucked into smoked salmon sandwiches and cream tea under the lovely trees.

 On the way to Grantchester



 The Orchard

Is there honey still for tea?  But of course

Greedy Grantchester chaffinch

Tuesday the sun shone all day, lighting up all the green grass and flowers with that luminous English effect; pity it wasn't like that for Grantchester, but lovely anyway.  I walked slowly over the bridge to a cafe and had a cappuccino, then down the Queens Road to the Trinity Backs, so grassy and beautiful. Then met Jan and we did a bit of shopping; I was shocked by dress prices - an unwashable schmata of Italian silk chiffon for 300 pounds.  Bought nothing.  We lunched with Julian at Cafe Rouge.  Divine salmon fish cakes and chips. 

 

After lunch we went off in different directions, me to the Pepysian Library at Magdalene - small but wonderful. I was the only visitor, and the young librarian (what a job!) told me all about the collection.  The oldest glass-fronted bookcases in England, made by a ship's carpenter.  Early incunabula; drawings of machines invented after the Great Fire; one of Pepys' diary volumes in shorthand; copy of an engraving of his wife where the original was destroyed by a family member who thought her too décolleté. Great stuff; and then I walked a bit in the Fellows garden.

 

Fellow's Garden at Magdalene

Walked back, stopping at Kettles Yard.  Fascinating place; old, linked cottages where H.S. Ede collected early 20th century art and furniture, and entertained the artistic community for many years. Works by Miro, Brancusi, Henry Moore, Hepworth, Ben Nicholson, and more.  Although such a homely, simple series of spaces, there were too many beautiful objects to take everything in during one visit; what stood out for me were the sculpture of a dancer by Gaudier-Brzeska and a couple of paintings by David Jones.  As for the objects, I loved the old chairs, one 300 years old from Orkney with a "Bible drawer." The ancient nearby church, surrounded by wildflowers, was lovely, as was its "performance art" piece, a necklace of fossil beads  hanging in mid air.

 Dancer sculpture

 

Ancient Orkney chair

 

Painting by David Jones

 

The church at the Kettle

Walked back, and after a little rest we went to Clara's, where I had the delight of meeting little George, 23 months, and one of the most beautiful bright children I've ever seen, even if he's Jan's grandson, not mine!  He played intelligently with my collection of rhinestones, while Clara cooked a beautiful Portuguese fish stew (which I later was able to replicate quite satisfactorily at home).  Then we walked back in the late evening summer light.

Meeting George

George inspects rhinestones

In the morning took the train to London, parted from my friends, and walked the short distance with suitcase from King's Cross to Cartwright Gardens - only to discover the hotel had me for another date! My mistake, I had booked online while in a state of desperation at finding every hotel booked solid for Wimbledon.  I thought I was in a nasty pickle, but the hotel held my suitcase while I started going down the row at Cartwright Gardens. The Judd had a room - and were charging 300 pounds! But the Crescent had a lovely double, though at the top of the house, for 100. So I'm happily and relievedly ensconced up several winding staircases, under the eaves. They let me store my main heavy suitcase downstairs, so I've just taken my little bag up all the stairs.

Now I have a big decision - the V&A, or the Royal Academy exhibit Jane Odiwe went to, followed by high tea at Fortnum? One thing's for sure - Indian Dinner tonight!

 

Swans on the Serpentine

 

(Later)  Not able to decide, I did them all!  Took the tube to the RA, interesting because I'd never been there or seen their Summer Exhibition before, but a bit disappointed because I'm not a huge modern art fan anyway and it all seemed a lot of things crammed together, with a showing-off feeling.  I stopped at Fortnum's, but it seemed less grand than when I was there last decades ago, and I couldn't fancy high tea alone.  So, tube to South Kensington, and a lovely cozy reunion with dear old favorite V&A, where I had a superb lunch, lovely selection of salads and cakes.  Walked it off by entering Hyde Park at the Albert Memorial, and walking the entire length of the Serpentine, slightly bemused by seeing squadrons of heavily draped Muslim women, covered even to the eyes, passively watching flocks of swans.  (Would have made good photos but too intrusive.)  Took the tube the rest of the way back to Russell Square, and a final satisfying tandoori dinner.

 

 After a good sleep high up in the Crescent, I went out for a farewell peep at the British Museum, then collected my bags and boarded the tube in the first lap of my journey to Heathrow. Then out over Iceland, Greenland and Northern Canada, heading west down to Los Angeles and home...



Done walking