Month: December 2021
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Grasmere
Although many names with the element ‘gras‘ do derive from the Old Norse for swine or pigs, Grasmere has an Old English origin and means exactly what it says on the tin, a lake of grassland or pasture. One of the prettiest lakes in the Lake District. But also the most popular.
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The smothered hills
Rather strange atmospherics on the moors. On Great Ayton Moor, views were blurred, drifting in and out of clarity. While a flocculent duvet covered the Cleveland Hills. A short while later I encountered the Boxing Day Hunt, a village “tradition” that seems to be in its dying throes. Just a couple of redcoats and a…
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Today is not Boxing Day
Today might be the day after Christmas Day, the second day of Christmas, but it is a Sunday, Christmas Sunday, and so is not Boxing Day. That is tomorrow. So sayest the Oxford English Dictionary, which defines Boxing Day as “the first weekday after Christmas day, observed as a holiday on which postmen, errand boys,…
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Roseberry summit
So here it is merry Christmas, as the song goes. I managed to summit Roseberry before most of the Christmas climbers, and while the sun was shining over Middlesbrough. Thirty minutes or so later I was surrounded by a flurry of snow.
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The season of goodwill? You’re having a laugh…
Just a piece of mindless vandalism. And a merry Christmas to you, you stupid inconsiderate bastards. Nothing more to say.
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Greek garden temple, Clumber Park
A trip to Clumber Park in Nottinghamshire had become an annual event; to catch up and exchange presents with my sister, that is, until last year when we decided not to, following the Government’s rules about mixing of households and travelling outside your area. Once the country estate of the Duke of Newcastle, Clumber Hall…
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‘Uitwaaien’ on Hasty Bank
I was reminded of a Dutch idiom this morning: ‘uitwaaien‘, which means to go walking in windy weather to clear your head or lift your heart. . For the first half hour or so, I took a favourite path of mine, along the southern flank of the long flat-topped Hasty Bank, the easternmost of ‘the…
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St. Thomas’s Day
Four shopping days left and all’s quiet on Great Ayton’s High Green. Everyone’s waiting on the Government’s dilly-dallying. And it’s also St. Thomas’s Day when it’s traditional for Yorkshire lads to go around farms and houses ‘a-Thomassing‘ or ‘St. Thomassing‘; asking for ‘Thomas’s gifts‘ usually a piece of ginger bread, a slice of pepper cake,…
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The Glover Landscape Review
In May 2018 the Government commissioned an independent review led by journalist Julian Glover into whether the legislation for our National Parks and AONBs issued over 70 years ago, is still fit for purpose. The subsequent report was published in September 2019, and became known as the Glover Landscape Report. This 168 page report contains…
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Port Mulgrave
The coast provided an escape from the inland mist. This is Port Mulgrave, once an active harbour east of Staithes, where ironstone was exported to foundries on Tyneside. There is still no easy way down to the harbour. Once there were steps used by the men to descend every day to work on the quays…