Green Roof

 

At February half term, we have often visited Pascoe in Edinburgh. 

Equally often, we have been assailed by snow, sleet, icy winds, hail, freezing rain… you get the picture.

However, forgetful of these drawbacks and Nigel, Carenza and I went to meet Pascoe half way, in York.

Not only did Pascoe turn up, but also our old friends, heavy rain and icy winds.

We found ourselves very interested in any attraction which could boast a roof.

And then, unexpectedly, roofs became the focus of our visit.

At York Minster, we went on a spell-binding tour inside the massive conical roof of the chapter house, all built eight hundred years ago from green oak and pine, the beams braced against one another in an ingenious design so that as they shrank and twisted with time they would pull together into a stronger structure.  At the joints, symbols were carved, showing where the end of each timber should fit, like a gigantic flat-pack assembly project.  The pegs which held it all together were wooden too.  Outside this forest in the sky, there was even the lair of a peregrine falcon.

At the Merchant Adventurers’ Hall, more medieval wooden beams impressed us, and a labelled model of the roof timbers appealed to the nurd in me.

At the end of the weekend, I discovered I had taken more photos of the inside of wooden roofs than of my own children.

But then, it really was not photograph weather UNLESS we were under a roof.