… except the same walk is never the same walk. Last week, Chris and I walked from Lofthouse to Ramsgill to Middlesmoor and back to Lofthouse. On Sunday, we did the route again, joined by eight friends from our walking group.
It was less sunny. It was more muddy. The intervening week had been largely dry and breezy: but before the walk, it had rained all night. It was a day to pick our way carefully through mud, artfully stamped with the outlines of sheep hooves, tractor tyres and farmers’ boots.
It was a day to notice dry stone walks, scabbed with moss and lichen.
Discarded bits of farmyard furniture and buildings.
Swollen streams, tumbling and scurrying.
All of these were subjects for Jude’s 2020 Photo Challenge, requiring us this week to look for texture – rough texture.
But it was a day too for moody landscape. Look! I didn’t take this view over Gouthwaite Reservoir in black and white. But where’s the colour?

And here – this rainbow appeared more than once on our walk that day, always elusive, always vanishing as we approached.
Join us. It’s a virtual walk. You won’t need to clean your boots at the end.
The view over the reservoir, stunning!
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Wasn’t it a lucky shot?
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Ugh! Clart! 🙂 🙂 But then I love that grey landscape with the particle of blue in the sky, the scurrying water and peeping through the drystone wall.
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Ay clart. It’s not Portugal, is it? But it has its pleasures too, if you look for them. It would have made a good Monday Walk!
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I spent many hours looking for them, and often finding them, on the North York Moors, Margaret. 🙂 🙂 Off ‘oop north’ tomorrow with my wandering hat on. Take care!
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Clart avoidance then, Jo!
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😎😎
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You too!
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Love the moody reservoir view! And the rainbow was rather stunning 😊😊
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Luck x 2!
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Always embrace the luck!
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Beautiful images. Isn’t it amazing how different the same location can look from season to season and even from one day to the next? 😊
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I’ve just fished this comment of yours out of spam! Thank you. Yes, it’s astonishing how different these scenes can look from day to day.
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No problem. I’ve had the same thing happen to me. 😊
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The boot prints in the mud make the perfect textural abstract and I love the well-dressed dry stone wall. How lucky to be chased by a double rainbow!
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Not once, but several times that day. I swear I saw the pot of gold, we were that close!
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Those sheep….. they are gourmet and gourmands….
Beautifully written and presented trip, great observations. It sees to me that your challenges online REALLY give you great brain food too, apart from the fun
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Gotta keep that grey matter moving, and yes, it IS fun. Thank you.
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Forgot that moody shot in NOT black and white 😉 fab….
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Thank you 🙂
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So much to love here, you really have been observant, fabulous moody shot of the reservoir, gorgeous lambies AND you found a double rainbow! Lots of lovely textures, but I still loathe mud 😳
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That reservoir shot was lucky, but I do like it. Remember I’m going for the sympathy vote with that mud, because I loathe it too, so highlighted its gruesomeness.
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You got my sympathy vote!
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Moss and lichen nature’s make-up. Just quietly exquisite.
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They are lovely, and so often disregarded.
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Over the reservoir there was nearly enough blue to make a sailor a pair of pants!
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Itsy-bitsy maybe. Y fronts perhaps. Boxers never. And don’t even think about American pants!
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I especially like the clouds in the reservoir picture.
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A lucky capture. Moody, aren’t they?
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Being in the right place at the right time is luck but you have still got to see the picture and that is talent!
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*blushes modestly* – thank you!
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Such wonderful photos, Margaret! I can almost feel that breeze and smell that early spring tang in the air! Oh to be out on the hills again!
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It was wonderful. But sadly, maybe rare. It looks as if my age group is going to be self-isolating any minute now…
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I do sympathise, Margaret! I am facing having to look after my mother in her home as she self-isolates. I don’t suppose I will be out for very much longer as I am one of the at-risk people with asthma and I take a drug which lowers my immune-system. My husband is feeling very glum!
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That’s tough. In comparison, I am lucky. Apart from my age, I am not at risk, and in some ways feel very fortunate. Good luck. We bloggers are quite good at supporting each other. Long may it continue!
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Hear, hear! I hope Malcolm stays well and safe.
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Thank you. Restricting our social circle should help. Look after yourselves too.
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I’m remaining uncharacteristically positive. But reality hasn’t kicked in yet. Look after yourself.
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Loved this walk and all the photos – so atmospheric and capturing different aspects of the walk and environment. The dry stone walls, lambs, streams, fields, rainbows, and the black-and-white colour picture … they all add up wonderfully and are great individually too. Took my mind off our enormous troubles too.
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I hope that walking in the country will continue to be possible. We need a break!
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I hope so too, and getting outside can make such a difference.
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