Tag: Yorkshire Dales

Fountains Fell holds no fear today

fountains

Managed to drag myself up Fountains Fell early this morning. First time I’d been up the 2000-footer in around 40 years. I needed plenty of photo stops on the way up. The boggy uneven plateau is just as I remembered it; completely inhospitable and dangerous in low cloud or rain but today conditions were near perfect. The summit is a few hundred strides from the Pennine Way as it heads from Malham to Penyghent. The views were good round 360 degrees but it was the sky that caught my eye for this shot taken from the top looking towards Ribblesdale.

Song of the Dales

curlew

It was a joy to see and listen to the curlews up on the moors between Ribblesdale and Silverdale late this afternoon. the curlew spends summer in this area before following the Ribble to Morecambe Bay in late summer There were quite a few peewits too and I saw one defending its nest against a ragged looking sheep which had wandered too close. This was the best shot I could get of a curlew with my hand-held lens.

Who needs sunshine when you're in the Dales?

knots

I’ve been tweeting more than blogging recently, for no other reason than to judge reaction. Results to follow! Having to sum up a mood or express a feeling in a restrictive tweet is perhaps a good exercise but it’s impossible to put across any kind of personality – in my view anyway.  This lunchtime I traveled the lonely road from Tosside over to Bentham. There was no sunshine and the views didn’t stretch far but the mood was captivating. Looking out from Bowland Knots the recognisible shapes of Ingleborough, Whernside and Gragareth provided a fine silhouette. I’m going to have to start inviting some patient soul out with me on my meanders around the Dales; this seat just begs for an occupant looking wistfully out over the moors. I’ve tried using the camera’s delay-timer in the past, and dashing to an appropriate spot myself, but I always seem to ruin the shot.

seat

Turner had taste

cotterforce

Celebrated artist  J M W Turner loved this Yorkshire Dales beauty spot. He sketched Cotter Force in Wensleydale almost 200 years ago on his tour of the county. It’s a seductive place – a series of six short drops and simple symmetry in a small natural amphitheatre where dippers and kingfishers perform their startling aerobatics.

A feeding frenzy in the Dales

feeding

I’ve never heard such a racket in all my life. The noise from these sheep and lambs as they  followed the farmer dropping off feed would have drowned out one of those pesky RAF jets that regularly fly over the dales. If you ever wanted an example of poor motherhood then here it was… the ewes had little apprehension over abandoning their lambs for a feeding frenzy, while the youngsters ran crazily around the field, bewildered and screaming for their errant parent! The scene reminded me of a wedding I’d been to where guests had waited ages for food, had a little too much to drink in the meantime, then suddenly converged on the buffet while the kids charged around the dance floor.

Above Stainforth in Ribblesdale, Yorkshire Dales.

Birdsong brightens a grey day in the Dales

swallow

Late afternoon on this grey day in the western Yorkshire Dales was brightened by the sound of birdsong drifting into the house through an open window. Just  six feet away from my bedroom this swallow was perched on the telephone wire, chirping away and driving my cat mad. The bird was perfectly silhouetted to show off a classic swallow shape.

Put a Dent in your day

dent

Felt the urge to visit Dent today – I just fancied that lovely drive up Ribblesdale towards Hawes before dropping down into delightful Dentdale. I had lunch in this far-flung outpost of the West Riding and took a few stock pictures of the cobbled streets before heading over to Ingleton on the Kingsdale road. This must be one of the best roads in Yorkshire – despite its narrowness and there being several gates to open and close. (Note to self: get a mug, I mean companion, to come along next time.) The views are stunning and the waterfall, although gentle today, is an added bonus.

falls1

Where envy's not yet green

malham tarn

I envy my son – not just because of his age and good looks, but also because this is where he works… for the Field Studies Council at their centre on the National Trust’s Malham Tarn estate. Not that I’d get much done if I worked at such a glorious place. At 1,237 ft above sea level it is the highest lake in England and you can see by the colours that spring isn’t as far on here as further down the dale. You don’t have to go on a course to stay at the grand old mansion – family holidays start from £16.50pn including food, accommodation and an activity – so I might just book myself in for a couple of days so my son can pamper me, just like I’ve done for him over the last twenty-odd years.

Semerwater – deep asleep in the memory

semerwater

Seeing the afternoon sun glistening on Semerwater the other day I was reminded of my schooldays (yes, I can remember THAT far back). Either we had a teacher who was very fond of the Dales, or it was part of the GCE (yes, THAT long ago when we had GCEs) syllabus – whatever,  we had to learn and discuss the ballad of Semerwater… the one that goes:
Deep asleep, deep asleep,
Deep asleep it lies,
The still lake of Semerwater
Under the still skies….
There are another half dozen verses written by Sir William Watson, a poet from Burley in Wharfedale, which I tried to recall while taking in the lovely scene. There aren’t many places in the Yorkshire Dales where you can listen to water lapping against a shoreline in rhythmic fashion so this was a feast for the eyes and ears. However, my memory wasn’t up to the task of reciting the full poem and I had to Google the rest back at home.

A red devil in the Dales

redsquirrel
This morning, for the third time in around a year, I visited Snaizeholme, Widdale in the Yorkshire Dales, in a bid to photograph some red squirrels. There’s a viewing area overlooking a feeding station where I hung around for quite a while. Earlier, about 100 yards away from me, a red had crossed the track I was walking down and so I thought my luck might be in. Another one darted across some open land above the feeding area but it didn’t look like any were ready to perform where my camera was trained. I turned round briefly to watch a brightly coloured grouse only to see one of the little red blighters about a stride away from my feet! As soon as I moved to adjust the camera, the squirrel started having me on, jumping and dashing around like a… well, a squirrel I suppose. It peered around a tree trunk at me and I managed this slightly out-of-focus shot before it ran crazily around so fast I only captured one more half-decent shot. I smiled. I think we both had a bit of fun.