Category: North Yorkshire

Thorp Perrow in Monochrome

There’s an arboretum just along the road from here: Thorp Perrow. It’s the perfect place to wander along quiet paths between glades of trees. These days of course, it has to attract a wider audience than the botanist or the poet. So it now includes a rather good playground; a birds-of-prey centre; and slightly randomly, an area of woodland where meerkats and wallabies make ther home. Oh. And a cafe, of course. Come for a quick tour.

I’ve neglected the trees – in favour of one dead trunk carved to make a housing estate for pixies – to show instead the blossom that’s been at its best. But only a couple of shots – because really, who wants to see delicate pink blossoms in black and white?

The bird is a ferruginous hawk. In case you were wondering.

For Leanne’s Monochrome Madness.

A Bench at Dawn

On May morning, I got up at 4.30, to celebrate daybreak, sunrise and the dawn chorus. Here is the bench I found almost at the end of my walk.

And here is the story of my walk, from my home in North Stainley to the next village along, West Tanfield: then back along the River Ure – in pictures.

For Jude’s Bench Challenge.

And if Jo will accept a virtually Wordless Walk, for Jo’s Monday Walk.

Mirror

Today, it’s my turn to offer a theme for Leanne’s Monochrome Madness. And I’ve chosen Mirror.

‘Magic mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?’ So asks the evil queen in the classic 1937 Disney film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

I haven’t used my mirror to find the answer to this question, largely because I haven’t got a magic one. But I have found some mirrors in a junk shop in Harrogate, reflecting both some of the goods on offer, and the Victorian street where you’ll find it. In fact the shop window itself serves as an extra mirror.

And here’s another street mirror, helping the motorist out into a busy road. And a car’s passenger-side mirror in Lancashire one winter’s morning.

Lee, London
Near Ramsbottom, Lancashire

Let’s default to shop windows as mirrors.

Views in and out of a Barcelona grocery
A view you’ve seen before of a bar in Newcastle

And the Baltic Gallery in Gateshead makes a ceiling into a mirror, while outside the VA in London is one in marble……

Water is an old favourite for a reflective surface. Let’s go to Studley Royal, Seville, a humble puddle in Masham, and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal in Gargrave.

…. and finally, an impromptu wintry lake mirror near home.

Oh, and finally finally, a bit of fun. Two little lambs spotted last week. Using a pre-digital film analogy, one’s a negative of the other. Not quite mirror images, but please don’t quibble when they’re so sweet.

A Monochrome Look Back at Lockdown

Browsing through my photos of five years ago, it was soon clear that they were all local views. Scenes taken during my solo Covid Lockdown wanderings exploring every local path that I knew, and some that I didn’t. We’re limited by having a river near our house, with no local bridge. So instead of having a whole circle of walks at our disposal, it’s only a semi-circle. That didn’t stop me discovering woodland I hadn’t explored, hitherto uninvestigated quarries and farmland, secret tracks near the river. I didn’t always take my camera, because I preferred being ‘in the moment’ as I tried to identify birdsong, enjoying clouds, grasses, emerging blossoms and flowers.

And just one from our village, where families got busy confecting scarecrows celebrating all the keyworkers who kept on working while we all stayed at home.

For Leanne’s Monochrome Madness.

Burgeoning Blooms at Beningbrough

Beningbrough Hall is one of our local stately homes. An English Baroque masterpiece, its real delight lies in strolling round its gardens. Let’s do that now, for Dawn‘s turn as host of Leanne’s Monochrome Madness.

There are tulips …

…. and magnolias …

… and apple and pear blossom …

…. and so much else besides. But I’m keeping it simple today. I may take you back there another day.

Back in the Valley Gardens

A fortnight ago, I took you to Harrogate’s Valley Gardens to view a few benches. This week, I found myself there again, sharing its delights with a friend from London. One of the benches I featured last time was vacant when we passed it, so I had a bit of fun with the shadows playing over the area.

For Jude’s Bench Challenge.

From Marfield to Masham

Sunday afternoon. Sunny, warm, breezy. Just the time for a bike ride (‘im Indoors) or a solo walk (me). Marfield Wetlands suited us both as a starting point, though we went our separate ways after that. These reclaimed gravel pits, scattered with ponds, just by the River Ure are at their busiest in the autumn and winter months as a stopping off point for migrating water birds. Less variety here just now. But blue skies, blue waters greeted me: plenty of geese – Greylag, Canada and Barnacle, the odd cormorant and swan, and beyond, oystercatchers hectoring me from above, and more tuneful skylarks.

A walk along a brookside, then farmland with drystone walls.

Here are young cattle; sheep with their now-skittish lambs.

Primroses, celandines, willow catkins dusted with yellow pollen, blackthorn blossom.

Turn right through a field of cows, and reach the river banks, high above the river itself at first.

Right again, through pastureland with characterful trees, woodland, always with the river, sometimes still, sometimes chattering and clattering its way over its stony pathway.

Touch into the edge of Masham, then more fields with open views and here I am. back at Marland Wetlands again. Only four miles, but enough to send me home refreshed and content.

For Ann-Christine (Leya)’s Lens-Artists Challenge #343 – Seen on my Last Outing

And Jo’s Monday Walk.