Not a lot of people know this, it's not a particularly well known, but I, James have completed marathons on more than one occasion. Okay, so not that kind of marathon. I'm talking about a TV marathon, where you watch an entire series of something in one sitting. Take, for example, the Sharpe marathon. We watched every episode of Sharpe in one go, that's more than twenty-four hours of Sean Bean killing the French. Brilliant.

Then there was the Lord of the Rings marathon where we watched all nine plus hours of Peter Jackson's movies back to back (the extended versions no less). The Lord of the Rings marathon was less good and we all got bored and fell asleep, I think because Sharpe was a collection of short stories with a beginning, middle and end while Lord of the Rings almost entirely consists of middle. Also, we had all seen all of Lord of the Rings lots of times so it was nothing new. Ben was watching Sharpe for the first time.

Anyway, Ella and I are members of English Heritage which means we get free (as in, we already paid for it) entry to English Heritage sites across the country. On the way to Durham the other day we popped in the Richmond Castle for a quick visit - it's not worth paying £4 each to run around a castle but if it's free then why not pop by? Also, July 30th was our wedding anniversary. We have been married for two years and we wanted to do something to commemorate it. I couldn't get the day off on our anniversary but I could get the day after off. Does anybody remember what happened the day after our wedding? I do, we went to Whitby. So, a trip to Whitby is in order, but come on, we've been to Whitby, several times.

It didn't take long for these thoughts to brew in our minds and the obvious answer pop out. Why not do an English Heritage marathon? We looked at the book of sites and determined that there are way too many. English Heritage takes care of over 400 properties across England. Okay so what about Yorkshire? Still too many? We decided to narrow it down to properties within the North York Moors National Park. That's still a fearsome list (off the top of my head) I can think of three castles (Scarborough, Pickering and Helmsley), three abbeys (Whitby, Byland and Rievaulx) and Mount Grace Priory. The window of opportunity is tight as well, these sites open at 10am and close at 6pm. Some of them are a good hours drive apart. Scarborough is a nightmare to drive through. Some may say visiting all seven of these sites in one day is improbable, even impossible. We had to give it a go.

Having learned nothing from our trip to Durham we got up at 6:30am and left home at 8am. We haven't streamlined the getting up and out process at all. Babies take time to feed and change, that's just the way it is. If we want to get out earlier, we need to get up earlier. It takes two hours to get to Whitby, if all goes well we will be there for 10am, on time for opening. No problem.

St. Mary's Priory, Old Malton

So confident was I in our ability to complete the challenge that I pulled over outside the Royal Oak in Old Malton to take a look at a historic site not on our list. The parish of St. Mary the Virgin is built on and incorporates the ruins of a Gilbertine monastery. The Gilbertines (founded by St. Gilbert) are the only entirely English order and as such were wiped out in the dissolution of the monasteries. Gilbertine houses were usually largely for Nuns with a smaller number of male cannons and were designed so the two would never meet (except when a canon said mass for the nuns). St. Mary's Malton is a rare example of an all male Gilbertine priory.

The western end (front) of the church is the best preserved part of the priory with an entire tower and section of wall remaining. Taking a quick walk around the south side of the church we find that the wall of the church has been built in to and encompasses the arches that once separated the Nave from the Aisle. It is here that it is most obvious that the church is build on the ruins of an older building.

It was only a quick visit and after Ella noted her pleasure that the Royal Oak had an oak tree growing prominently outside, we departed and continued towards Pickering. As fortune would have it, this weekend (4th-5th of August) Pickering is having it's annual Pickering Traction Engine Rally. We sat in the already hot sun and watched as the workmen chose this moment to stop the traffic and erect a sign over the road. Eventually we got going again, the A169 over the moors is a beautiful drive and he moors were looking especially nice today but it always takes so long to get across them. We arrived in Whitby at 10:30am.

Whitby Abbey

I have written about Whitby Abbey before, it is a stunning place in a great location with easy access to fish and chips and lots of history. St. Wilfrid, who came to the Synod of Whitby in 664 would probably not approve of the visitor centre where a fictional monk by the name of William moans a lot about having to go to mass and pray. Our visit was to be quick so we missed the visitor centre and looked at the abbey ruins and fell in love with them all over again.

We came to Whitby the day after our wedding and we were also here in February for a last break before the baby. Now we are here again for our second anniversary, it's a beautiful day and we teach Leona about the different styles of arch. She won't remember of course but neither does Ella. There's a bench at the end of the lake that's only there for taking pretty photos and we sat there for a moment to enjoy the sun and give Leona a change and a feed.

Those of you who have been to Whitby (or those of you who have read Dracula) will know that the route from the Abbey to the Harbour includes the famous 199 steps. We didn't attempt the steps with the pram, instead, we took the donkey track which runs alongside, getting a pram down there is no mean feat. Ella carried Leona separately for minimum risk taking lest the pram escape my grip. We made it to the bottom for my favourite part of the day... er... Whitby Jet shopping.

Whitby is famous for Jet, formed from dead wood over thousands of years and carved in to pretty shapes for girls to yearn for. Ella has had one eye on the jet shops every time we have been to Whitby and what with it's association with the day after our wedding it seemed an appropriate anniversary gift. The problem is, the people who carve Jet have two styles: Victorian (in which the jet is a polished oval shape in a large ring) or Novelty (in which the jet is shaped like a Whitby Abbey or a frog). Ella loves the novelty things but doesn't want one as a piece of jewellery. She also doesn't want old lady jewellery. This presents a problem. An hour passed. Eventually we located a necklace that Ella liked, one that looked more like jet and less silver with black bits.

We hoofed our way back up the donkey track, James feeling more donkey like the higher we got until we reached the top. We passed through the Abbey grounds again where we realised that Leona was minus her hat. Her two in one (reversible) pink hat that godmother Katy bought. It must be somewhere down in Whitby. Daddy must have lost it. We drove down to the little car park down by the harbour where you can never park and Ella slowly drove the car around in circles while I ran up the street past all the jet shops. In the shop where we purchased Ella's jet I asked if they have found pink baby hat (I thought it likely as we spent a long time in that shop). The answer was no, but a man entering the shop overheard me and said that he had seen such a hat outside a shop farther up the street and had thought it was for sale. I ran back up the street to find Leona's hat hanging on the end of a sign outside a shop, I picked it up, painfully aware that nothing about my person made me look like I should be picking up babies hats, and ran back to the car.

Madonna House

Time, I am sorry to say, was not looking good. The original plan was to arrive in Whitby at 9am, buy Jet and get to Whitby Abbey for opening at 10am, quick visit, leave Whitby at 10:30am... we left Whitby at 12:30. Ella said she didn't mind how the challenge went as long as she got to Rievaulx Abbey. We decided to drop the castles from the itinerary.

Our next stop was the Madonna House community in Robin Hoods Bay. A visit to our friends at Madonna House is always a pleasure and it is wonderful to visit a living religious community living so close to the departed one in Whitby. They were pleased to meet Leona and we were pleased to have a cup of tea. I wondered where Charlie was but forgot to ask, I hope he is okay.

We also spent a few moments in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament in the chapel. As wonderful as Whitby Abbey is, the small chapel at Madonna House has something better. Christ himself is physically there. You can't really better that.

We would have loved to linger longer at Madonna house but time was already drifting away and we had to move on. We were given a tip to avoid driving through Whitby but something went wrong and we ended up driving through Whitby anyway which is nice because you go over the new harbour bridge and get good views but bad because you are rapidly running out of time to visit abbeys.

As we drove over the moors we realised we could hear a strange sound, we looked around and realised the boot of the car was open, by some miracle despite driving uphill the contents had not spewed on the road and we still had our pram, camera and Whitby Jet. Phew.

Parish Church of St. Peter and St. Paul Pickering

It's not an English Heritage site and it's not an Abbey but despite pressing time we decided to pop in to the Parish Church in Pickering. Someone once told us it was worth going in there to see the medieval frescoes, that someone was right.

For some reason we've stopped painting on church walls. When Fr. Massie was planning the redecoration of St. Joseph's he laughed at my suggestion that we paint the wall around the altar blue with clouds and angels Sistine chapel style. We laughed as his suggestion we have it painted green. The green works, but angels would have been better, especially ones with swords.

The main thing I miss about paintings on the walls of Churches is the catechetical value. Standing in the nave of the church in Pickering you can't help but ask questions, who is that? what is he doing? There are so many saints I had never heard of until I went to Italy, yet here they are, in Pickering of all places. Why are they not to be found in my parish church? I feel robbed. Some day I should sneak in to St. Joseph's in the dead of night and paint my angels. Just as soon as I learn to paint that is.

We grabbed some lunch in Pickering. Coopland's Chicken Bake and a Cherry Danish. Classic. Time ticking ever forward we now had a tough decision to make as we drove towards Helmsley.

Byland Abbey

If you are ever travelling through the moors you might find it handy to remember this simple rule: driving from Pickering to Helmsley always takes twice as long as you expect. By the time we got to Helmsley the clock was frighteningly close to 4pm. Two hours. Two abbeys. Ella really wanted to see Revaulx so should we skip Byland? Our appetite for risk coupled with our blind optimism and our commitment to the challenge gave us no choice. Byland, here we come.

On a map, Byland isn't too far from Helmsley. In real life though it seemed to take forever to drive there. The winding roads are such slow going and the signs say 2 miles and then four hours later they say 1 1/2 miles. We weren't even sure it was worth it, Byland is barely there we were told. The west wall with it's half hole for a rose window is all that remains. Well, we disagree. There is lots left.

Unfortunately, today it was closed. It's only open at peak times (Thursday-Monday I think). Still, we got a good photo from the entrance and we get to remember the tale of Bishop Wimund, the pirate bishop who became a "seafaring warlord adventurer" and lived out his days at Byland after being captured, blinded and castrated.

It was probably for the best that Byland was closed, we might have been tempted to stay too long, as it was we were soon on our way to our final abbey.

Rievaulx Abbey

The final few grains were slipping through the hourglass as we drove from Byland, through Helmsley, to Rievaulx Abbey. Ella would have killed me if we'd missed it (at the very least I would have expected a light maiming) but here we were. 5pm. One hour to go. Rievaulx. Home of St. Aelred.

St. Aelred of Rievaulx was abbot at a time when life for Cistercian monks was hard. The monks spent most of their time in their cells reading and praying and speaking to one another at the times when they came together in the Church was discouraged. Aelred changed all that, he said that friendship between the monks was important and afforded them a better vision of friendship with God. Naturally, modern day 'scholars' think he was gay.

The car park at Rievaulx was a scare and a half. Parking at Richmond on Saturday cost 50p for an hour. In Whitby I paid £1.50 for 2 hours. The price at Rievaulx? £6. Flat fee. I almost fell over. Nevertheless, we had come this far and Ella was not about to miss Rievaulx Abbey. I went in to the ticket office to ask for change and they told me that on entry to the abbey the car parking fee is refunded, furthermore, if you are an English Heritage member (as we are) entry is free anyway so parking is free. A sign explaining this on the car park ticket machine would be nice.

The abbey buildings are beautiful and quite a remarkable amount of the structure remains. Most of the south end of the church (liturgical east) still stands. The layout of the church and cloister is identical to the layout of Durham cathedral, the chapter house is in the same place and the same shape. Of course, the Roman/Norman arches are replaced with Gothic ones and it's got more of a girly french feel about it but it's beautiful all the same.

Cue ad nauseum questions about why we don't build them like this anymore. People seem to prefer sports halls these days.

We escaped the abbey under warning that the abbey car park closed at six and drove slooooowly in to Helmsley because the Cyclists were cycling two by two (hurrah). We parked up in Helmsley and just enjoyed being there (I like Helmsley) for a moment while we changed Leona and prepared for the drive home. Said drive was fairly uneventful save for the fact that it didn't mark the end of our day. We picked up Ella's mum and brother on our way in to Hull and headed to Hedon for the last Morris dance of the Green Ginger season at the Shakespeare in Hedon.

Did we succeed in our challenge? Well, we certainly had a good day and seeing so much of our regions christian heritage in one day definitely helps see it in a new light. We missed an abbey, albeit a closed one, Mount Grace Priory (which is beautiful). I'd love to try again sometime, to visit in one day all the Abbeys and Castles in the North Yorkshire Moors. Is it possible? We'll all just have to wait and see.

Every other week Wednesday night mass at St. Joseph's is in Latin. The week when it's not Latin is the week we practice Gregorian Chant. Fr. Massie is so committed to the use of Gregorian Chant that he made other plans tonight, he went off colluding with the people that brought you Catholic Christianity Today. He said feel free to go in the house and sing but than he locked us out, we might have used the hall but slimworld were in there. We were scuppered.

So what to do? Attention naturally fell on Michelle who, considering the circumstances, really aught to have made a cake. She had not. Ella offered... I can make scones in twenty minutes.

Whatever.

Every time we are late for anything and have twenty minutes to go before we have to arrive and we look in despair at our empty cupboards and rumbling stomachs Ella always says: I can make scones in twenty minutes.

Tonight, we decided to find out.

With twenty minutes on the clock we tried our best to simulate normal regular scone making conditions. The ingredients Ella had just bought were put in the cupboard and she wasn't allowed to search for the recipe. Everything had to be just like it was all those times she promised she could make scones in twenty minutes. So, just like twenty minutes before I leave for work on a Monday morning, Ella stood in the kitchen door while we said: Three, two, one, go!

Running is it? Strange behavior for one so confident in her twenty minute scone making abilities. Perhaps Ella is concerned because our mixing bowl is in use as a fruit bowl and she needs to wash it before she can begin. Still, it's not long before the flour is being weighed in...

It was not until James started taking photos and the jury were sat watching me that I started to get a bit nervous, but I knew it only took 20 minutes. I tried to ignore them.

Adding the butter was a challenging part of the challenge. Firstly, the butter was hard. Ella expressed regret at not having time to microwave it slightly but that was probably as blessing in disguise as the butter always melts in places and goes horrible. Ella used a sharp knife to cut off a knob of butter and (to save time or add excitement) she went for cutting towards her fingers. Mixing in the butter looked like hard work and time was ticking...

My first concern was the butter. Usually the butter is a bit softer when I make them... the ice on the cheese this morning should have been a give away, but it did not take too long so I thought disaster averted.

Then as I was adding the additional ingredients it dawned on me that I usually make cheese scones, which does not sound like its that different but when making these from memory, well, I knew that you needed an egg but was is flour or water and how much sugar!! I did the usual method... make it up as you go along and luckily it worked.

A little rummaging later and Ella found all kinds of pieces of paper but no recipe. She would later discover that the milk she had added to the flour was supposed to be water, or at least some milk and some water and not just milk. She was soon running around some more and adding, well, whatever that stuff is in that little tub.

In go the sultanas. Ella usually makes her scones with either cheese (savoury) or cherry (sweet). Michelle's daughter Jessia doesn't like cherries (which is madness of course) so Ella went for sultanas this time. Now was also time to add the egg which was messy. Especially the 'mix it all up with your hands' part.

Soon though as if by magic the messy eggy, floury, milky ball started to look less like a mess and more like dough. We don't actually own any shape cutters so Ella used a glass to cut the dough in to scone sized circles and then plonked them on the oven tray.

Ella quickly painted the of the scones with a little milk and slapped them in the oven. Leona waited nervously (as did we all).

This part was extra exciting. Ella had said that scones took twenty minutes to make, ten minutes preparation and ten minutes cooking. But, she had already used more than ten minutes in preparation. The clock gave her 9 minutes 30 seconds remaining. Would they cook in time? Fortunately, Ella had an ace up her sleeve. The cooking time is actually seven to ten minutes.

The timer Ella usually uses to time the scones in the oven was being used by James to time Ella making the scones so Ella asked me to tell her when seven minutes were up.

Seven minutes later...

Decisions decisions, with only two and a half minutes left on the clock are they cooked or not? Ella decides to leave them a bit longer while she makes the tea. Scones are always eaten with tea (and jam, but that came pre-made). Eventually we hit the one minute and twenty-three seconds mark:

She made it! Just... There was some discussion about if the scones were cooked throughout and if the tea was supposed to be made within the twenty minute time frame but I think we can allow Ella a victory this time.

I have since found the recipe and I should have used water rather than milk and I think that would have helped with the binding process (as they were slightly more crumbly).

I would have this to say I would probably have left them in another minute to brown but as the challenge was you have 20min to make and have ready to eat a scone they were ready and edible.

I would have probably made them in 21-22 min and used a rolling pin to make to tops nice and flat rather than knobbly, if the Queen was coming.