North Yorkshire – Page 24 – From Pyrenees to Pennines

The Tree House. Just One Window, Just One Door.

If you go walking in Wensleydale: if you go for a walk from Jervaulx to Jervaulx via Thornton Steward, you’ll come across this tree home, at the edge of a field, commanding views over the valley. It has just one door and, importantly for Monday Window, just one window.

It’s pretty much in the middle of nowhere, but I always like to imagine a doting grandfather, tall and rangy from a tough life’s farming and probably reminiscent of the BFG, lovingly creating a little refuge for his grandchild in this hollow tree.

A first glimpse ….

… a second glimpse …

… and the whole thing.

I couldn’t fit in it, neither could you. Perhaps the grandchild is too big now. But I know a couple of young people who’d love to play there. Perhaps you do too.

The Warm Light of Day

I’ve been thinking about the light as I’ve been on my walks this week. The clear light of the early morning: the clear bright colours that the midday sun encourages, and the warm golden light of evening. Sadly, the weather turned a bit cold and cantankerous as the week drew on, but I did my best to outwit it, or make use of it. And I’ve included just one photo from the winter months, to remind us of the atmosphere of a misty cold day that began with a crusting of frost.

Late morning sun. The poppies brighten the scene.

Without strong sun, there would be no dappled shade in the woods.

Rain’s on its way, making the shot almost monochrome.

The field of barley emphasises the mellow evening light.

The rain mutes and softens the colours of the trees.

A December day in Ripon. Only the street light gives away the fact that this shot isn’t in black and white.

Click on an image to see it full size, and to reveal the caption.

2020 Photo Challenge #2

A Tale of Three Birds: Chapter Three: the Fledgling

Monday’s walk was along the edge of some local woodland. Suddenly, there on the path in front of me, I spotted … a fledgling. A tottering, tumbling ball of fluff, cheeping plaintively and stumbling uncertainly on its large ungainly clawed feet.

I knew enough not to interfere and attempt a rescue, but this little foundling upset me and I felt guilty leaving him to what I assumed would be certain death – especially when, heart-wrenchingly, it tried to follow me. Was the robin perched in the branch above its parent? Later, paging through bird books, I decided not.

Back home, Google was my friend. This article from the RSPB assures me that the parents were probably practising tough love, and beginning the little bird’s preparations for an independent life.

A Tale of Three Birds: Chapter Two: the Curlew

We went to Colsterdale on Sunday. It’s nearby, but feels remote and isolated, because the only road through leads nowhere very much and so it remains one of North Yorkshire’s best kept secrets. Perfect for a Day Out whilst maintaining that all-important Social Distance.

Edged by the pastoral views of farming country, it climbs to become stark, treeless, commanding views to the distant North York Moors, and to the higher parts of the Pennines. Its ascetic bleakness is what appeals to me.

Scar House Reservoir in the distance

We’d almost reached the area where we planned to park and begin our walk, when I saw them. There! There on the roadside! Look! Two curlews, almost within touching distance. These are shy, beautifully camouflaged birds normally only seen and heard as they quarter the sky, calling the evocative plaintive sound – ‘cur-lee, cur-lee’ – which gives them their name. These two were probably drawing a would-be predator away from the nest.

Whatever the reason, it was such a privilege to watch these birds at close quarters, with their mottled, camouflaging plumage, and their distinctive long downward-curving beaks.

YouTube RSPB video

They flew away after a couple of minutes, and we began our walk, relishing the space, the wild emptiness and the only sounds those of distant curlews.

Jo’s Monday Walk

Addendum: several commenters have expressed surprise about the curlew frequenting moorland. Just to show how very much at home the bird is in these surroundings, here is proof. It is the symbol for the nearby long distance walk, the Nidderdale Way. FAO Jude, Agnes

Lilac through the Window

Today, I’m going no further than my kitchen window. The lilac has been glorious this year. Is it because it has been – well – especially spectacular, or have we simply had more time to enjoy its big blowsy blooms and seductive smell? It’s June now, and lilac has no place in the summer garden, so here is the view that has greeted us every breakfast time for about three weeks. Can’t complain about that.

Monday Window

A Backlit Virtual Tour for a Snapshot or Two

Let’s have a day out. Lockdown’s still somewhat in force, so let’s make it a Virtual Day Out. We’ve got homework to do: it’s time for Jude’s assignment:

This week's assignment - Use strong backlighting (i.e. shooting towards the light source, but do not look directly at the sun) to create a contre-jour image where the subject becomes a silhouette, OR shoot the light through flowers or leaves creating a transparent effect.

We’ll stay nearby at first: go to the local woods, and quite simply glance upwards.

Then we’ll whip over to Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal. There’s a group of hikers beginning their day out, but we haven’t got time to join them …

… because we’re off to London. William and I enjoy visiting the Bishop’s Palace at Eltham. Last time we went, the sky turned an extraordinary colour for a while, and I took this photo.

Back at his house in time for sunset, you can see his school from a bedroom window.

Off to Gateshead now. We’ll join a crowd of sightseers at the Baltic, looking over at the Tyne Bridge.

And we’re back home just in time to see another sunset.

2020 Photo Challenge #21

Who knows when or if I’ll be posting again? WordPress seems intent on our using block editor to prepare our posts, and currently, I’m flummoxed, and cross.

That Wind Last Week

Beaufort Scale 8. Fresh gale at 62-74 kph (39-46 mph).

Twigs and branches break off of trees.

22nd & 23rd May 2020.

That wind! It animates me – I feel alive, alert.

I need it to tug me, bend me. I want the battle. I’ll resist.

I step outside. The wind slaps at me, stops my breath.

It whistles and whines through the trees, lacerating leaves.

Branches bend and bow – some break.

It soughs and snatches at the swishing grass.

Swifts swoop, scud, soaring at its will.

I feel its power. I’m energised, excited, strong.

One More Walk in the Woods

Greensitt Batts

Heslett Wood

Coal Bank Wood

Piccadilly

Five Ponds Wood

Mickley Barrass

I walk in the woods daily.

Join me just one more time.

Light shafting downwards through the trees.

Loamy paths, wild garlic, bluebells, campion.

Silence: except for birdsong, purling streams.

The tang of sap, earth, flowers.

#Six Word Saturday

Jo’s Monday Walk

Walking Every Single Day During Lockdown

I’ve made discoveries on my doorstep:

Woodland

Farmland

River bank

Lakeside

Pasture

Wildlife

A new walk, every single day.

Six Word Saturday

A composite walk for Jo’s Monday Walk

I’m Behind the Curve

I woke up this morning to realise it’s already May: though without the accompanying balmy weather. And I hadn’t yet done Jude’s April Photo Challenge. I wonder if she’ll notice if I squeeze it in today?

She wants us to explore curved lines. I’ve found this the most difficult of her challenges, so let’s see what I’ve come up with.

I’ve begun on one of my daily walks near the house: An oak tree providing a natural arching frame over a field of rape, horizontal as the horizon.

Let’s go on a virtual journey to the Yorkshire Dales where in normal times, we love to walk: streams, rolling hills, drystone walls, snaking ahead of us on our path.

Angram Reservoir, leading the eye to the viaduct at the back of the picture

A drystone wall near Grassington picks out our route.

More scenery on the moors above Grassington.

And at our nearby nature reserve, Nosterfield, brambles frame the local landscape in the autumn.

Lastly, let’s make a trip to Gateshead, and look at the Millennium Bridge framing the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art.

2020 Photo Challenge #17