North Yorkshire – Page 8 – From Pyrenees to Pennines

The Rushes of Kiplin Hall

For Debbie at Travel with Intent’s One Word Sunday: Rush.

Springtime is i-cumen in

I went down to fetch the paper yesterday morning, and what should I see but … snowdrops, as shown in the featured photo.

Spring, and after that sumer is i-cumen in, as we’ve known since the 13th century at least. Our choir loves to sing about this – and no, the video below is not our band of singers.

And if snowdrops are here, can daffodils be far behind?

Christmas Greetings from the Thirsk Yarnbombers

The Thirsk Yarnbombers have been at it since 2015 when the Tour de Yorkshire cycle race passed through the town. Since then, this doughty group of knitters – some of who no longer live in the town, but in places as far-flung as Australia – have decorated the Market Square with knitted tributes on all kinds of occasions – notably the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

They’ve ‘done’ Remembrance Day more than once; commemorated the new King’s Coronation; celebrated Thirsk’s Local Treasure Alf Wight, aka James Herriot of All Creatures Great and Small fame (you could visit the museum dedicated to him here); celebrated the NHS. And now it’s Christmas. Come for a stroll round the square .

And a Happy Christmas to you all!

Monday Portrait: Reindeer

We haven’t been to Lapland for the weekend. Just a few miles up the road from here live a herd of reindeer. This is their busy season, and instead of grazing peacefully, their diet of grasses augmented by occasional goody-bags of lichen imported at enormous expense, they are toted hither and yon for the delectation of local children – and their parents. We met them at a local farm yesterday. These caribou are surprisingly small and delicate looking, with antlers far less hefty than those of their red deer cousins.

Their feet are soft and spreading, giving them their version of a snow shoe. They make a clicking sound as they walk, enabling them to keep track of each other as they wander in search of food. We didn’t hear them, but apparently they utter a low barking sound from time to time.

Here are a few extra shots.

Goodbye!

Winter Sunrise

I glanced up from checking my emails twenty minutes ago, and this is what I saw.

You have to seize the moment. In half an hour it’ll be raining- a proper deluge with fat splashy drops tumbling relentlessly down for the rest of the day (just like yesterday). So I went for a mini-walk.

Just in time. Now it’s like this – and becoming more sombre by the minute.

For Johnbo’s Cellpic Sunday

Herons World-Wide(ish)

Over at Don’t hold your Breath, IJ Khanewala features an Indian Pond Heron as his Bird of the Week. I remarked to him that herons get everywhere. And here’s the proof. I can’t claim to show examples from anything like every continent, much less every country where you’ll find herons, but here are just a few.

This one was after an easy catch in our landlord’s garden and noticed by our trail camera.

These are all from England: click on an image to find out where.

These two come from Spain, from l’Albufera near Valencia, and from Córdoba.

Lake Prespa in Greece (but it’s an egret?)

And the featured image comes from Busan in South Korea.

Not exactly a world-wide survey. But I go a small way towards proving my point.

Silent Sunday in the Snow

And for Johnbo’s Cellpic Sunday.

Brrr. Last on the Card in November

November was for the most part mild (and rainy. And windy. And unpleasant). Until the very last week. This shot from the bedroom window yesterday pointed out fairly forcibly that winter has arrived.

For Brian’s Last on the Card.

An Asymmetrical Amble

Last week, I invited you to join me in Spain, and hunt for the symmetrical. This week, we’ll stay closer to home, and have a countryside wander looking for the asymmetrical for Dawn’s Lens-Artist Challenge.

What we’ll do is start off in the Yorkshire Dales. Let’s peek over a drystone wall and look at the patchwork of small fields that has evolved over the centuries, way before agri-business and the space-gobbling demands of giant machinery.

Conditions are harsh: not too many trees then. But those there are battle to reach maturity and stay upright against prevailing winds. Symmetry is the last thing on their minds.

Look carefully. At the right hand side of the hollow trunk, some fond grandfather (I’m guessing) has fashioned a door to the hollow trunk, to make a very special tree-house.

Let’s hurry back to civilisation, before darkness falls. Here in Studley Royal is a blasted tree that always reminds me of the antlers of the red deer stags who call this area home.

And here too are ancient tree roots, complete strangers to symmetry: some of the older stumps house fungi.

Oh look. Darkness is falling.

Let’s hurry into town. Bright lights, big city. Perhaps we could grab a warming mug of hot chocolate to thaw out our chilly fingers. And that’s where I’ll leave you for now. See you soon, I hope.

It’s a bit of a stretch to get from Studley Royal to London in time for the final photo-op of the day (250 miles). Photographer’s licence.

Autumn Colours

It’s mid October. Autumn should be well-advanced. But it isn’t. It’s hardly started. To give us a taste of what we should be enjoying just now, I’ve dipped into the archives, and have planned a walk round Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal, so you can enjoy with me the autumn colours of leaves still clinging on to the trees, leaves that have fallen, equally tawny fungi, and stags poised to battle it out to be King of a Harem, and father of the next generation of red deer .