I'd like to add some space at the very top of the page.

So, I made my way to:

header.php

and found the following code:

<?php wp_head(); ?>

and pasted together a line of made up code without any real idea what I was doing:

<?php header_items( $horizontal_bar1 = ' '); ?>

I can't be too far off, it seems, because it turns my home page into one big blank horizontal bar - in the appropriate color.

Could anyone suggest a way to have a regular height %bar1 above the Header area?

Why not add %bar1 as the first item in the 'Configure header area' option and then style it the way you like? Then it is part of the theme options.

in the bar1 options use 'height 150px; background-color: red;' and you will have 150px red banner at the top

Oops. I neglected to mention that I have a plugin which has inserted itself into the header.php file, which is why I was mucking around in there to begin with.

My two choices for user selected placement of the plugin are:

[horizontal-scrolling group="GROUP1"]

<?php newannouncement( $group = "GROUP1" ); ?>

Neither of which can be dropped "naked" into the configure header space - or so my very quick test would indicate.

So, I either need to learn how to insert php into the configure header space so that I can then add a bar above the plugin, or I need to get a bfa horizontal bar into header.php

I think.

I neglected to mention that I have a plugin which has inserted itself into the header.php file,

you have a plugin that is updating the themes header.php????? Very bad for...unless it told YOU to update header phe.

what is the plugin??

Well, I don't remember how the bit of code that calls for a Horizontal Scrolling announcement got into the header.php file, but that doesn't mean I didn't do it. This is one of about a dozen completely unrelated projects...oh nevermind.

Here is the site, I can learn to live with the scroll smack up against the top, but thought this might be a good-for-general-knowledge type endeavor:

https://ctsaspen.com

go to ATO->Add HTML/CSS Inserts->HTML Inserts: Body Top add a <div...>...</div> and add CSS to style it the way you want.