Month: November 2018
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Fly Agaric
A damp stroll this morning. Most toadstools I come across are usually past their sell-by date. Dirty, forlorn, and partially eaten by insects. This one seems pristine and the classic toadstool as drawn in children’s books; the Fly Agaric or Amanita muscaria, poisonous twice over. One poison is muscarine, causing nausea and vomiting eventually leading…
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Scaling Dam
What came first the reservoir or the dam? I have always thought Scaling Dam was named after the village of Scaling when the reservoir was commissioned in 1958. But browsing the Ordnance Survey six-inch map of 1856 I noticed a hamlet by the name of Scalingdam comprising the sandstone buildings standing along the north side…
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Cod Beck Reservoir
A chilly circumnavigation of Cod Beck reservoir. Above the sky is blue with just a hint of cirrus but down in the valley, the Greylags on their watery roost have yet to feel the warmth of the morning sun. Open Space Web-Map builder Code
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“When The Boat Comes In”
Come here, my little Jacky Now I’ve smoked my backey Let’s have a bit crackey Till the boat comes in Dance to thy daddy, sing to thy mammy, Dance to thy daddy, to thy mammy sing; Thou shalt have a fishy on a little dishy, Thou shalt have a fishy when the boat comes in.…
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Hob Hole
A popular picnic spot since at least the Edwardian times. The very name ‘hob‘, perhaps a shortening of hobgoblin, evokes an image of a remote place, an abode of mischievous elves that prey on weary travellers. The ford, where the Kildale to Westerdale Road crosses Baysdale Beck is accessed by a hair-raising descent followed by…
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Great Ayton and the Kindertransport
80 years ago today Jewish, Quaker and other Christian leaders met with Neville Chamberlain, the Prime Minister, to appeal to him to offer help to Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution. This was just five days after Kristallnacht, the Night of the Broken Glass, the anti-Jewish riots in Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia when synagogues, shops and…
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Clear Felling, Hutton Lowcross Woods
Recent felling, new vistas. I know it’s just a crop – in, get the job done, and out but I wish it wasn’t left in such a mess. The path is there somewhere. Below Hanging Stone on Ryston Nab. Highcliff Nab in the distance. Open Space Web-Map builder Code
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adjuster.observer.notched
I keep coming across a system of defining your GPS location using three random words, called unsurprisingly what3words. Someone has divided the world up into 3 x 3 metre square blocks, each one with a unique 3-word address. So here I am at adjuster.observer.notched. This does sound strange but then I am comfortable with latitude…
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Sunshine over Danby
Over the Heads, heads in the clouds and Danby apricating far away. Open Space Web-Map builder Code
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Remembrance Service, Easby Moor
The Cleveland Mountain Rescue Team’s very moving remembrance service at the memorial to the three servicemen killed in the 1940 plane crash on Easby Moor. 100 years ago today the Great War ended in Europe; a war that had lasted for 4 years and 97 days; a war that had claimed the lives of 9…