Category: North York Moors
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Sir Michael Tippett
Today, Sir Michael Tippett, perhaps the leading British composer of the 20th-century, would have been 114 years old. He is most famous for his oratorio ‘A Child of Our Time’, which was inspired by the murder in Paris of a German diplomat in 1938 by a Jewish refugee teenager. The murder led to the attacks…
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Boxing Day Hunt
It’s becoming a tradition. Keeping an eye on the Boxing Day Hunt to see if they stray onto National Trust land. They appeared to have done last year and caused damage to the walkways in Newton woods. Admittingly that was in November; on a high profile day such as Boxing Day, I would be surprised…
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Cushat Hill
A glorious Christmas Day in Cleveland. Not sure the weather was so good in Bilsdale. It looks as though the dale was filled with cloud and overflowing the col between White Hill and Urra Moor. Most refer to the pass as Clay Bank but old maps show it as Cushat Hill. Viewed from some distance…
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Módraniht, a pagan tradition of Christmas Eve
To our pagan Anglo-Saxon ancestors, December 24th was the Night of the Mothers or Módraniht when thanks were given to the mothers of the tribe. It was attested to in Bede’s 8th-century manuscript and probably involved a sacrifice. The tradition may have roots today in the Orkneys where Helya’s Night sees the children of each…
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Danby
A peaceful rural village scene. Sheep grazing on the green at Danby. The gable end on the left belongs to the Duke of Wellington Inn. According to the inn’s website, it dates to back beyond 1765 and was originally called the Red Briar and later the Lord Wellington, presumably, after 1815 when he became a…
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Today is St. Thomas’s Day
Or is it? The great god Wikipedia says is 21st December, tomorrow. But Rev. J. C. Atkinson in his 1858 tome “Forty Years in a Moorland Parish” writes that it is the 20th December. I am more inclined to believe the Reverend. An old-fashioned book sitting on my shelf has more authenticity. Whatever the day…
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When the gorse is out of bloom, kissing’s out of fashion
So you can breathe a sigh of relief. Of course, you can find the yellow flowers of the thorny gorse shrub all year round thriving on poor acidic soils. It is an evergreen member of the pea family with small coconut-scented flowers which are edible and used in salads. They make a nice cup of…
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Highcliff Gate
After last night’s passage of Storm Deidre, a benign sunny morning. Bit disappointing to find no snow but icy tracks made the going interesting. This is looking west along the watershed between the Tees and the Esk, across Highcliff Gate to Potter’s Ridge with Roseberry peeping over the skyline. Open Space Web-Map builder Code
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“By, yon’s a sooth-east, piner, aa’reet!”
To be honest the weather today hasn’t been the most conducive for the taking of photographs. A raw, bitter wind which does not take the trouble to go around you, but pierces right through to your very bones. No matter my layers of Polartec, gloves and a hat of the finest merino wool. ‘A lazy…
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Sunrise over Great Hograh Moor
Early morning trot up to Newton Moor. Somewhere the sun is shining but a bank of cloud blocks it. A few birches left after the felling of the forestry on Black Bank, skeletonised for the winter. The graceful birch, one of the first trees to colonise Britain after the glaciers retreated. The wood is hard…