Author: Fhithich
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The Waterfall
Great Ayton’s famous waterfall, although it’s really a weir. On the left-hand wall are the initials of Thomas Richardson who made a large donation to the weir’s construction in 1840. A water race ran all the way to Low Green providing power there for Richardson’s corn mill so a cynic might say the donation wasn’t…
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White Hill
White Hill, or perhaps better known as Hasty Bank, although I think that name actually refers to the Bilsdale side. Anyway the site of the 1872 landslip which wiped out the old Stokesley to Bilsdale road. I won’t repeat the history here, just refer you to my earlier post. Looking down on the Cleveland plain…
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Crepuscular rays shining on Yarm
I’d banked on a good sunset but the rain came, should have read the forecast. Still somewhere was in the sun. Yarm I reckon. The wind farm is between Hilton and Seamer. Taken from the northwestern flank of Roseberry. Crepuscular comes from the Latin crepusculum, which means twilight, the time when these sun rays beaming…
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Lealholm Bridge
Early 19th-century stone bridge spanning the River Esk at the picturesque village of Lealholm. Grade II listed, it must have replaced an earlier bridge for The Board Inn on the opposite is a former coaching inn dating from 1742 when the building was known as Lealholm Bridge House. Open Space Web-Map builder Code
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Zwartbles
In a field near Stokesley, a flock of rare breed sheep. Brown with a white blaze on their heads and white socks. Google’s first suggestion was that they were Balwens, a Welsh Mountain breed but further down the page came Zwartbles. After much deliberation, this 19th-century Dutch breed seemed the more likely.
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An undercliff, Great Fryup Dale
I posted a photo of Great Fryup Dale last year when I wrote about my fascination for an area at the head of the valley called The Hills. A chaotic jumble of knolls, ridges and depressions. The same question returned. What caused this landscape? Quarrying? Alum extraction? Canon J.C. Atkinson, the vicar of Danby, also…
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Skein of geese
I heard them first before scanning the sky to try and spot them. Flying high over Cod Beck Reservoir south for the winter. Probably from Iceland, bound for the Wash or other of the big estuaries. An alternative name when geese are flying in a ‘V’ formation is a wedge, reducing drag and enabling speeds…
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Larners Lake
This artificial fishing lake seemed to have appeared overnight but realistically it would have been sometime in the 80s when I was not resident in Great Ayton. It takes its name from Larners Hill, a ridge with a bridleway eventually leading up to Easby Moor and Captain Cook’s Monument. For many years I regularly used…
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Lonsdale Slack
Friluftsliv, a Norwegian philosophy embracing spending time connecting with nature, literally translates as “free air life”. Just being outdoors in the forests and mountains. Even the dense uninspiring commercial forestry plantation on Coate Moor can seem magical given the right lighting. Like this morning, a few minutes after sunrise. Open Space Web-Map builder Code
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Roseberry’s eastern crag
Rendered in black and white this photo contrasts the lichen-covered rocks of Roseberry’s eastern crag. Lichens are everywhere yet are often overlooked. They thrive in a variety of environments, are long-lived with a very slow growth rate but are sensitive to moisture, pH, minerals and air quality. They are actually two organisms, a fungus and…