Photo Greeting Cards - The SUCH Has Arrived!! - And Anglophile Friday

When I opened my Etsy shop, HomemadeSoapnSuch, in 2012, there were several possibilities of what the 'such' would be to accompany my natural, handcrafted vegan soaps. I made many different trial products such as massage balm, lotions, etc. but none of them was exactly what I wanted.

Then it occurred to me that it didn't have to be a bath and body product, and there was no reason that I couldn't include what I really wanted to include, which was photography. Once I got on Instagram, it was evident to me that people are crazy about barns. Living in Wisconsin all of my life thus far, barns are simply part of the landscape. But I have taken a lot of photos of barns simply because I know that although there are as many if not more dairy cows in the state now, most of the small dairy farms are no longer operating. And once the barns are no longer heated by those beautiful bovine creatures, the foundations begin to crumble and soon the barns are falling down.

I decided to make a collection of photo greeting cards with Wisconsin Barns pictured on them. I wanted a card of exceptional quality, so I settled for nothing less. 

www.homemadesoapnsuch.etsy.com

It's pretty hard to stop with just Wisconsin Barns, so I decided to also create a set of four photo greeting cards with Wisconsin Farm Animals, pictured above. Of course I have more than four photos of farm animals, but these are really my favorites.

Each note card is professionally printed on premium matte heavy card stock and has a blank interior, comes with an envelope (always handy) and is enclosed in a cello sleeve, then all four in the set are wrapped with a cigar band label (pictured above). The back of each card has a mini photo of the photo on the front.

Besides Barron County, where I have lived most of my life (except for the year that I was riding motorcycle and shooting alligators in the Beni River in Bolivia), my favorite part of Wisconsin is the Driftless Area, southwestern Wisconsin. There is a huge Amish community there, and we happen to be friends with some of them. Although we also have an Amish community in our neighborhood in Barron County, Vernon County is where the larger community is and where the photos for my photo greeting cards were taken. So that's another set, as you can see: Wisconsin Amish.

www.homemadesoapnsuch.etsy.com

AND NOW we move to England (not literally):

In 2003 I traveled to England for the very first time, with my brave daughter who rented a car and took me touring the country for twelve fantastic days, from Bath to the Cotswolds, to North Yorkshire, to Cambridge, and back to London.  Personally, I think it's nearly impossible to visit England once, and I certainly wasn't going to attempt it. So I have ended up with thousands of photos from various trips to that enchanting land, but I created three sets of photo greeting cards with an England theme.

North Yorkshire:  Pictured above is the photo greeting card set from some of my favorite photos of Yorkshire. (I know I use the word 'favorite' too much, but really I can't think of anything else). It is a magical place, and although some people seem to think that sheep aren't extraordinary, Scottish Blackface sheep most definitely are, and I managed to get a few photos of those beautiful creatures (my favorite is included in the North Yorkshire set).

England Favorites:  Pictured above is the set of four, which includes the fabulous York Minster, a scene from the charming village of Kettlewell in North Yorkshire, High Street in Oxford, and St. Paul's at Night (London). 

Last, and definitely not least, the Sacred Spaces England set (pictured above): This was the most difficult of all to narrow down to just four. But included are two that I took in Canterbury Cathedral (to include the apse and the Becket Flame), York Minster, and the dark and beautiful Ely Cathedral.

All of these photo greeting card sets are now listed and described in full detail in my Etsy Shop.

www.homemadesoapnsuch.etsy.com

Of course, I still sell natural handcrafted vegan soaps too, don't forget. :-)

So be sure to check out my new photo greeting cards. I am thrilled with the finished product and I hope  you'll like them too.

***

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Good Friday

When I survey the wondrous cross

on which the Prince of glory died,

my richest gain I count but loss

and pour contempt on all my pride.

Were the whole realm of nature mine,

that were a present far too small.

Love so amazing, so divine,

demands my soul, my life, my all.

- Isaac Watts

Have a blessed Good Friday, friends.

Photo: Fountains Abbey, North Yorkshire

Fountains Abbey, North Yorkshire, England, Anglophile Friday

I think that Fountains Abbey, the largest monastic ruins in England, was Mr. Cranberry's favorite site.

If we ever get back there, I promise to get new and better photos.

The red dot marks the location of Fountains Abbey

(But no, it's not bigger than Manchester)

***

Joining Beth & Sally

for

InSPIRED Sunday 

Good Fences

On an Amish Farm Near Westby, WI

To be precise, I think this is Sam's father's place. And it's not like he's going to be reading my blog.

Serious Barbed Wire
Somewhere in our neighborhood

On 18th Street.

Neighbors cleared the land. A makeshift hedgerow?

and that reminds me...

No, I didn't get this confused with Anglophile Friday.
It was simply a good excuse to post these fence photos.
South of Kettlewell on the B6160

North Yorkshire

In Kettlewell

Creative Fencing 101
Along the B6160

Getting off the beaten path was the best idea ever. Not ones to join tour groups, we liked renting a microscopic vehicle and traveling out where there are fewer people and many sheep.

 I could hardly mention sheep 

without posting a photo of one, could I?

 I know, you're sick of this fella.

But he's my favorite.

And it's my blog. :-)

***

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...and more! Check out all my handcrafted soaps at

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and at

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This post is linked to 

and  Time Travel Thursday and Freedom Fridays

Rievaulx Abbey, North Yorkshire Moors, Anglophile Friday

This photo hangs on the wall of our 'Yorkshire Room'
These cloud photos were taken just after a downpour.

I know that some of you are probably weary of my photos of Rievaulx Abbey, but many of you are new to my blog since I last wrote about this, and you surely don't want to miss out on Rievaulx Abbey now, do you. Much of this post is a review for those of you who've followed Cranberry Morning quite a while.

Just a little aside here: Have you checked out Mike Biles' blog, Bit About Britain? If you're at all interested in British history, he's a pleasant must-read.  He regularly posts brilliant and witty essays about historically interesting places in the UK. Another great travel blogger from Britain is J_on_Tour who has lots of wonderful photos and blog posts with detailed information on places of interest - with a delightful bit of humor thrown in. So they're definitely the ones to go to if you want to actually learn something. (Be sure to tell them I sent you.)

Me? I'm the place to go on Fridays if you like to see lots of photos and an American tourist's perspective on England's castles, abbeys, cathedrals, churches, lanes, rivers, views, drystone walls, pubs, and sheep - with some London stuff thrown in now and then.

It was in the spring of 2003 (although I took most of the photos you see here in the spring of 2007) that I first set eyes on the haunting remains of Rievaulx Abbey on the North Yorkshire Moors. What an amazing, imposing structure! I tried to imagine what Rievaulx would have looked like in the 12th century when it was built and inhabited by Cistercian monks.

Some of the ideas used in planning the structure of the building, the part of the monastic complex you see in my photos, came from the European travels of Aelred, one of Rievaulx's most prominent abbots. Travel in those days was not by air or rail! Contrast Aelred with the people you know today who've never set foot outside the county in which they were born!

 A dozen or so of the 'white monks,' so named for the color of habit they wore, moved to northern England from France, for the purpose of spreading the Gospel to northern England and Scotland. They built on the thousand acres donated to the order by the lord of Helmsley Castle (subject for a later post), and by the mid 1100s at its peak, there were as many as 650 men living at Rievaulx.

Their economic business was raising sheep and selling wool, so the monastery was greatly impacted when disease decimated the flock. But the ultimate threat to the monastery was from Henry VIII, when he separated from the Catholic Church, declared himself head of the Church of England, and began the dissolution of the monasteries.

All of these photos were taken by me, although if you did a Google image search, you would find many similar photos for Rievaulx. I guess we're all impressed by the same things.

Having read Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, I always wonder if there was a stray monk who's up to no good.

Rievaulx Abbey, built to the glory of God - and without modern equipment! What a testament to the creative ability, i.e. imagination, reason, determination, organization, artistry, perseverance, etc. that God has given to mankind...

...which is almost terrifying when you think that it is just a vague shadow of the creative power the Creator Himself has - and without Whose creative and sustaining power we wouldn't be able to take another breath.

If you can stretch your imagination to see this trip route as a creature with three antennae, 
then Rievaulx Abbey is at the end of the eastern-most antenna.

Thanks to all of you who actually had the patience to wait for these images to load. I suppose I could have divided it into two posts...

***

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Have a great weekend, everyone! 

 

Gypsy Caravans and Shepherd's Huts - Anglophile Friday

 Gypsy Caravan

parked behind The Punch Bowl Inn, Low Row

North Yorkshire

Gypsy Caravan

Waiting for new wheels

Behind The Green Dragon Inn, Hardraw, North Yorkshire

Gypsy Caravan, Somerset

 Gypsy Caravan Breaks, Langport, Somerset

"Perfect for a romantic weekend break with a cosy twist, this picture-perfect bow-topped caravan awaits you in beautiful Somerset. There are hardly any of these caravans available for hire in England, but you'll find this one tucked away in an apple orchard on the edge of a smallholding, so it will be surrounded by apples or blossom depending when you visit. Inside you'll find a ready-made wooden bed to clamber into, and there's not much space for anything else. But don't fret, you'll also find that there's a separate shepherd's hut housing your solar-powered power shower and washbasin, and a 1970s Marshall caravan to cook in.

• Open April-October. From £75 a night, two nights £130, three nights £180, four nights £220, extra nights £55 (sleeps 2); the nightly price gets cheaper the more nights you book; 01458 270044, gypsycaravanbreaks.co.uk"

***

That was from May of 2011, so I would imagine that prices have changed. 

***

At first, it appeared to me that there wasn't a lot of difference between the Gypsy Caravan (Vardo) and the Shepherd's Hut. But after reading the articles I found, it seems that the main differences were permanence and use.

The Gypsy caravan was built for travel, and pulled by a single horse, usually no more than 15 miles a day. Often it was the means of going from one circus or fair to the next, and housed a family. The Gypsy caravan typically had larger wheels than did the shepherd's huts, for they needed to be able to ford streams. And although I'm not entirely certain that the first two photos of this post (which I took in North Yorkshire) are actually Gypsy caravans, I think it's the most likely explanation, although many of the Gypsy caravans, for which I found photos online, were much more ornate. If any UK readers can identify the 'wagons' in the first two photos, I would appreciate a comment with that information.

gypsywaggons.com

 ***

The shepherd's hut (see photos below), on the other hand, was a structure built for the sole purpose of housing the shepherd during lambing season, so he could be out in the pasture with the ewes and assist and care for them as they were ready to lamb. (Evidently, the farmers didn't all just phone James Herriot, which is what I certainly would have done). The shepherd's hut, on smaller iron wheels, was moved from one part of the pasture to the next, but stayed on the farm. Another later use, during the war, was to house a prisoner of war.

Shepherdhuts.co.uk

Ian McDonald and his restored shepherd's hut

from BBC.co.uk

'...It was built more than a century ago to provide shelter and a home-from-home for shepherds tending their flocks in the fields, and a place to nurse sickly or orphan lambs back to health.

'His research into his hut also brought him to the story of Hans Lenzen, the reason the hut had come to School Farm in Barford in 1945. He was one of two Austrian prisoners-of-war who were allocated to the farm to work from the nearby Kimberley POW camp. The hut was bought for £7 from Hall Farm at Rackheath, near Norwich, to house Mr Lenzen and he lived in it for two years...' Read Article Here.

And in case you're looking for a shepherd's hut to rent, here's a whole list, with photos, from Holiday Lettings.

 Shepherd's Hut in Wisconsin

And then there's this shepherd's hut in Wisconsin that's never been occupied. The shepherd would have nothing do do with it, although it has the finest accommodations, is well-built, fully insulated, consists of two spacious rooms, and even has room service.

The shepherd prefers to stay in the big house, where he can keep a closer eye on his flock.

I couldn't resist.

***

'Pears & Berries'

Natural, Homemade Vegan Soap

...and more! Check out all our handcrafted soaps at

HomemadeSoapNSuch

and at

Our ETSY Store 

This post may be linked to some of the following: Mop it Up Monday  and  Cure for the Common Monday and Mealtime Monday and Clever Chicks Blog Hop and Mosaic Monday  and Barn Charm and  The Marketplace  and On the Menu Monday and  Mix it up Monday and Make it Pretty Monday and   What's in the Gunny Sack and  Making the World Cuter Mondays and Make the Scene Monday and  Something I Whipped Up Monday and  Motivate Me Monday and  Making Monday Marvelous and Get Your Craft On and   You're Gonna Love it Tuesday and Tweak it Tuesday and  Coastal Charm Tuesday and  Take a Look Tuesday and  Tasty Tuesday and Tasty Tuesday and Love Bakes Good Cakes and  Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays  and Overflowing With Creativity and Mom on TimeOut  and Adorned from Above and Cast Party Wednesday and  We Did it Wednesday  and It's a Party at Creative Princess and Artsy Corner Thursday  and The Self-sufficient Home Acre and  I'm Lovin' it Thursday and  Mandatory Mooch   and Foodie Friends Friday and  Serenity Saturday and Get Schooled Saturday  and Inspiration Friday(ThursNite) and Vintage Inspiration Friday and Photo Friday and  A Favorite Thing Saturday and Sunny Simple Sunday and  Saturday Nite Special