North Yorkshire – Page 2 – From Pyrenees to Pennines

Ruined Statuary

Today, for Leanne’s Monochrome Madness, Sarah of Travel with Me invites us to photograph ruins. I could so easily take you (yet again) to my favourite ruined abbeys: Fountains Abbey, Jervaulx, or Rievaulx. But Sarah herself has shown Fountains Abbey off in her post. I could take you to ruins all over this country and beyond. Instead, I thought that I’d show you not buildings, but their statues, often ruined by weather, by warfare, or quite simply the passage of time.

Best start in Rievaulx though, where carvings in its museum gave me the idea.

Off to North Eastern France, where the churches and cathedrals of Rheims, Laon and Tournus (to name but a few) have all mightily suffered from the weather eating into into the local limestone from which these were built.

And in Troyes, wooden buildings have taken a weather-beating too.

A church in Bamberg has suffered mightily from having been contructed from limestone.

But even more recent buildings have been ruined a bit. Come to Hartlepool with me.

Let’s finish off by disobeying the challenge completely, at Sant Julia church, in Argentona, Catalonia. Its gargoyles were so ruined they pulled them down. And replaced them. Like this.

By the time you read this we will be at least half way down England, in transit for eastern France – Alsace. So you won’t get prompt responses to any comments I’m afraid, as we shan’t finish travelling till Friday. But I will send a postcard before the weekend is out!

Quiet Fog

Ours is a land of rivers. Nearby, the Ure, the Skell and the Laver all course through Ripon, and the Ripon Canal peacefully splices the town in two. Local gravel pits end their working lives transformed into watery nature reserves. We’re approaching the time of year when, because of the surrounding water, morning mists envelop the landscape. I relish those early hours when quiet descends with the mist, muffling sound, slowing us down and encouraging us to savour these peaceful moments.

For Ritva’s Lens-Artists Challenge #364: Quiet Moment.

And Leanne’s Monochrome Madness.

A Bench for a Fairy or Two

Last Sunday, my Spanish grandaughters went to fairyland. Actually, they went to Mother Shipton’s Cave. This long-established tourist site is where, back in the 1500s, a woman we now know as Mother Shipton apparently prophesied many things which came to pass, such as the Great Fire of London, and the invention of the iron ship. It’s also where you’ll find a source of water which petrifies into stone any objects left long enough beneath the roof of the cave from whence the water drips: calcified teddy bear anyone?

These days the paying public expects more, so this season, the woodland surrounding the cave has been transformed into a fairyland of exactly the kind beloved by small children. Anaïs and Olivia were entranced, especially when they met a real live fairy, all the way from Greece.

My featured photo is of a bench much favoured for sitting on by would-be fairies. The remaining shots are from other parts of the site.

For Jude’s Bench Challenge.

A Rusty Red Bench

This rusting wreck is multi-tasking today. It’s lived a blameless and long life in the ruins of Jervaulx Abbey, offering views of the Dales and what’s left of the Abbey in the long years since Henry VIII had it made unfit for purpose during the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

Today though, it’s doing a tour of duty for Becky’s #Simply Red; for Jude’s Bench Challenge; and for Debbie’s One Word Sunday. It’s a little dishonest, as I’ve had to tinker a bit to make it Simply Red. Don’t tell the ghosts of those monks who once called this place home.

I’ve even managed a tweaked shot of part of the Abbey looking a little red too.

Two Benches: One at Home, One Abroad

I am going to give up any pretence of regular blogging for a while. Maybe a scheduled post or so, maybe the odd Virtual Postcard. Daughter-in-Spain never asks for help, but for most of this week and next, she needs some. So I’m off to Catalonia. I’ll leave you with two benches. One 5 minutes walk away in our local Beatswell Woods: the other just down on the beach near Daughter’s house. Very different. But both have their charms.

For Jude’s Bench Challenge. And I think I know which one Jude will go for.

Another Bench with Scarecrows

If the Dominic Cummings bench last week was a bit scary, what about this one? It was part of last year’s Scarecrow Competition in a local village last summer, and represents I guess, our King and his Consort.

Apparently, His Majesty can’t afford any shoes ….

For Jude’s Bench Challenge. (Sorry, Jude, I’m away, so this post is scheduled, and making use of a previous link)

A Serene Stroll

I have thought hard about how to respond to Egidio’s Lens-Artists Challenge: Serenity. This word always calls to mind an early evening I spent, content and alone, in l’Albufera lagoon, near Valencia. The utter peace and serenity it delivered has provided me with material for several posts, including this one.

So my serenity this time will be more humdrum, more local, but restorative too. It’s a local walk I take at any time of day. The other day it was an evening walk, not long before sunset. I had only sheep for company.

It’s a very domestic sort of walk, and under three miles long. Along a quiet lane; across sheep pasture; the grounds of a spacious country estate; fields of crops; and then, turning homewards along a different path, the River Ure; and finally a stretch of woodland .. and home. Varied enough to be quietly interesting as I enjoy the changing seasons, but with positively no drama.

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.

Let’s default to shop windows as mirrors.

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.