Out & About …

… on the North York Moors, or wherever I happen to be.

Category: Easby Moor

  • Capt. Cook’s Monument

    Capt. Cook’s Monument

    The obelisk to Captain James Cook on Easby Moor, a familiar sight from the Cleveland plain. Cook is a local hero. We all know of his epic voyages to the Pacific, they are taught in schools, but his legacy is being reassessed as we look at events at that time through 21st century eyes. Cook’s…

  • A speeat o’ rain

    A speeat o’ rain

    In this month of showers, a spate — a heavy downpour in the Cleveland vernacular — situated somewhere in the vicinity of Great Broughton. I don’t suppose that ‘spate‘ found its place amidst the 40,000 entries of Dr Samuel Johnson’s seminal dictionary, published on this very day in 1755. The laborious compilation consumed nearly a…

  • Yat stoops on Easby Bank

    Yat stoops on Easby Bank

    On a morning with ever-changing atmospheric conditions, I found myself in pursuit of that elusive sun. The weather played tricks, switching between drizzle and dullness one moment, and dazzling sunlight accompanied by rainbows the next. Thus, an opportunistic approach in selecting a photograph for today’s posting. This pair of ‘yat stoops‘ located on Easby Bank…

  • Hogmena

    Hogmena

    Captain Cook’s Monument was busy this morning. Plenty of folk working up an appetite for their Christmas Dinner. Me, I dropped down the slope a bit and played with my pareidolia. I always believed hogmanay is the name for the New Year celebrations in Scotland, yet it transpires that a related term had found currency…

  • Christmas Contemplations

    Christmas Contemplations

    On this eve of Christmas Day, I found myself deep in thought. It seems a mere five minutes since last year. Maybe it’s just because of that old chestnut: “time flies when you’re having fun.” Each morning I do wake up excited as to what adventures the day will bring. Dopamines, those pleasure-inducing chemicals, supposedly…

  • Remembrance Sunday on Easby Moor

    Remembrance Sunday on Easby Moor

    On Remembrance Sunday, a brisk stomp picking up the memorial on Easby Moor for the solemn service by the Cleveland Mountain Rescue Team has become an unspoken tradition. A simple plaque there pays tribute to the unfortunate crew aboard a Hudson airplane, their three lives ending on a bitter February morning in 1940. They had…

  • Heather’s Purple Dance with Golden Grass

    Heather’s Purple Dance with Golden Grass

    Apart from the swathes of purple heather, there is another colour that resonates with me and epitomises the moors at this time of the year: the golden brown of grasses. These strands of gold flourish abundantly upon the ancient swiddens, gently swaying in the breeze and contrasting with the purple that’s nothing short of mesmerising.…

  • The Local Legacy of Capt. James Cook

    The Local Legacy of Capt. James Cook

    Well, it’s been a quite a while since I last posted a photo of that obelisk known as Capt. Cook’s Monument, perched ever so ostentatiously upon Easby Moor. A tribute it is to that infamous chap, Captain James Cook, the problematic “discoverer” of Australia, who hailed from the local village of Great Ayton during his…

  • Winter’s last stand?

    Winter’s last stand?

    The brief return to Winter didn’t last long, but the last stubborn snow patches are hanging on for dear life on the fields of Aireyholme. But Roseberry Topping’s sandstone cap is clear, anxious to let go of winter fashion. Ah, Roseberry Topping, the hill that thinks it’s a volcano. With its unique shape, it’s the…

  • A day of strange atmospherics

    A day of strange atmospherics

    On this day in 2005, at 0601 in the morning, a huge explosion rocked an oil depot in Buncefield near Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire. It was the largest in peacetime Europe and the noise is said to have been heard as far away as the Netherlands. I seem to remember people at work saying they…