Katharine of Aragon and Ludlow Castle

Well, I have had a very busy week since the last Handmade Monday! I spent a long weekend in beautiful Suffolk visiting my friend and his partner who have bought a lovely little cottage in the countryside. I am a total convert....I absolutely loved it. What a beautiful part of England and such a well kept secret. I now feel totally refreshed after a weekend of relaxation and peace and quiet. My home......under the flight path to Manchester Airport and near the West Coast Mainline seems REALLY noisy now in comparison. 

On the way home we called in at Peterborough Cathedral to break up the journey and I visited the final resting place of Katharine of Aragon. I have long been interested in Medieval and Tudor history and have had more time lately to read more about it. I think Henry VIII and his wives are really interesting and I would love to visit more parts of the country associated with them and their story. I was surprised to find that Mary, Queen of Scots had been buried here for a while too. Her body was moved to Westminster Abbey on the orders of her son, James I when he became King. She had lain in Peterborough Cathedral since her execution at nearby Fotheringhay Castle. 

Former grave of Mary, Queen of Scots

Earlier in the week I had been down to Ross on Wye with my Dad.....another beautiful part of the country. He is interested in old cars so we went to the old car auction to hvae a look. He particularly like the car pictured below :

 On the way home we called in at Medieval Ludlow......which I absolutely loved. There isn't much left of the castle (where interestingly enough Prince Arthur, the first husband of Katharine of Aragon,  died after they had only been married 4 months) but there is an interesting audio tour available. The town itself was beautiful....medieval and Tudor buildings everywhere and a beautiful church too. They had a market on in the market place and it had lots of lovely stalls selling handmade things and home grown plants, vegetables etc. Not a tat stall in sight!

Ludlow Castle

Ludlow Castle

Me at Ludlow Castle! 

 With all this touring England I haven't done much making this week, although I did make a 'Hummingbird' cake....as in a recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery - not actual hummingbirds - and some courgette and carrot muffins so I will claim those as my makes for this week. I have had a lovely delivery of findings and inspiration packs so I will get playing with them. I think I will have a piece of that cake and a coffee and check out the other blogs on Handmade Harbour to see what everyone else has been up to for Handmade Monday.

Cake makes!