A wee bit 'o Stratford

Another day trip we took with the program was to Stratford-upon-Avon. Carter and I go to Stratford frequently for theater, but it's been a while since we did the tourist sites. These include Shakespeare's birthplace, where he was born to a glover, John Shakespeare, and his wife Mary Arden in 1564:


One can also visit the site of the New Place, the lavish property that Shakespeare purchased for his retirement. Sadly, one of the house's later owners, who is justifiably hated by Stratfordians and Shakespeareans to this day, had the house razed rather than pay the taxes on the property (!) , so all that remains is part of the garden and some of the foundation:


That big tree you see in supposedly the descendant of Shakespeare's own mulberry tree....


However, the house next door was owned by Shakespeare's grand-daughter and her husband, Thomas Nash, and this has now become a museum devoted to all things ShaKespeare.


The grounds have also been turned into a lovely enclosed garden complete with flowers...



cute little wooden arches and walkways...


with benches where one can get away from it all and listen to the Open Championship for a few minutes...

... and some of the coolest statues ever! The eight Greg Wyatt pieces in the garden, each based on a specific play, are a marvel of ingenuity, craftmanship, and creativity. Here's part of Lear:




Midsummer Night's Dream:


The Winter's Tale:


and Henry the 4th Part One:


We also visited Mary Arden's house, which is about 3 miles outside of town, and is a true Elizabethan farm complete with farm animals and costumed interpreters who actually work the farm as they would have in Mary's day. We were lucky enough to catch them at lunch time, and they explained all the food as well as the processes used to make it. They actually make their own ale, grow their own apples, raise and kill their own meat, etc. It was fascinating! First, some of the animals (the ones they WEREN'T eating at the time...)

Frankie the goat:


An unnamed sheep:



The Head Rooster, who was big and showy and amazingly calm:


Then, lunch, which looked pretty darned good.

The staple of the meal was what they called potage, a savory meat, vegetable, and barley stewy soup:




They also had bread made on premises, savory pies, and fruit tarts for dessert:

That pitcher in the front is full of double cream, milked from their own cows, to pour over the tart. YUM!


Here's Mary Arden's flower garden:



Somehow I didn't get a picture of the house itself...probably because I was distracted by the birds of prey. The farm raises falcons for falconry as well as rehabilitating hurt raptors of all sorts. A few pictures of these amazing creatures:







In a future blog, I will show some more pictures of Stratford. For now, I will end with Shakespeare's grave, at the lovely Trinity Church in Stratford. First, a misericord showing how he DIDN't die:


No, his wife didn't grab him by the beard and beat him upside the head with a pan, as you see above (at least, he didn't DIE that way, if it ever happened). Rather, he apparently succumbed to fever after a night spent drinking and talking with, among others, Ben Jonson.



Not too flashy, considering. Which he would have appreciated, I think.