It wasn’t much more than a year ago. I was walking in the grounds of Fountains Abbey when I heard a vicious one-sided conversation going on above me. It was a squirrel, a very heated and angry squirrel, who evidently had a great deal to complain about. Maybe it was me he was angry with. I never found out. The complaining went on long after I’d gone out of his sight.
Last summer. the gardens of Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal celebrated some of the follies which are such an important feature, with installations by Steve Messam.
Generally, these installations were well received, and recognised for what they were, playful additions and talking points in a garden given over to pleasure rest and recreation. They were indeed ‘These Passing Things’, visible for one summer only.
For Becky’s Square Odds…
… and Marsha’s Photographing Public Art Challenge #36
PS. I prepared this post yesterday, just before I became aware of the devastating flooding at the site caused by Storm Eunice, and which you can see here.
I’m a fan of fog. Not the yellowish throat-catching, grimy sooty pall that that I remember from a 1950s London childhood, which dirtied our clothing and made us cough while we waited in vain for buses, delayed by their headlights’ inability to pierce the gloom with their faint orange glow. Sometimes the conductor, carrying a torch, had to walk in front, picking out a path through the murk. No, now I enjoy peeking through the windows at a landscape softened in a mantle of greyish white. Or walking in the Dales, barely able to distinguish the path ahead, as sheep suddenly loom before us, concealed behind frozen grassy clumps.
These are all from the Yorkshire Dales, in Wharfedale near Burnsall. Here are just a few more – three taken near our house, and one, like the header photo, at Fountains Abbey.
For Jez’s Fan of … challenge
On the tenth day of Christmas my true love gave to me ….
Ten stags in lieu of reindeer.
(and some hinds came along as well)
These deer were photographed at Studley Royal, Knole, and Harewood.
It’s 7.45. Here’s the sunrise on our way to Studley Royal.
And having met the rangers and our fellow walkers – volunteers on the site, here’s who we’d come to see.
Red deer, but ancient trees too. Cherry trees aren’t meant to last 400 years, but somehow this one is clinging on. Whereas the oak nearby is thought to be more than 800 years old, and dating from the days when the monastic community was at its height in nearby Fountains Abbey.
Come with us as we walk past the entrance to the park, framing the view down towards Ripon Cathedral, before we climb uphill to less frequented parts of the parkland, where deer usually roam free and we could enjoy open views across to Ripon and the North York Moors beyond.
And by 10.00, the rest of the day’s our own.
For Jo’s Monday Walk, because I know Jo would love this walk too.
Peeping through the car window yesterday …
Posted for One Word Sunday: Peep
Autumn has only just begun to kick in properly this week: surely that’s quite late? So I’m celebrating the season today for Past Squares, by choosing shots from this week – last year.
A folly bursting forth from a folly, the Temple of Piety, Studley Royal.
Find out more about These Passing Things.
For Brian at Bushboy’s Last on the Card for this month. What was your last photo of August? Why not join in? Good bad, or indifferent – anything goes.
If like me you live in the country, the world does look blue and green. To fulfil Tina’s Lens-Artist Challenge, looking at the cool palette of blue and green, today I’ve rarely looked further than a few miles round our house. All I’m doing today is presenting a gallery of quiet images from the natural world. Most are from the gardens of Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal, and from the Yorkshire Dales. I’ve ventured to the North Sea, and to the Aquarium of the Horniman Museum. That’s about it. I think I qualify for Debbie’s Six Word Saturday too.
From Pyrenees to Pennines 
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