Month: March 2019
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Brrrr … chilly
Full moon swimming. In the North Sea, In March, Sans combinaison. In skins. Brrrr … chilly. From the pier at Saltburn-by-the-Sea. Open Space Web-Map builder Code
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More moor burning
Dear Tony Juniper CBE, Congratulations on your appointment as Chair of Natural England. I very much admire and respect your work as one of the country’s leading environmental campaigner and writer. I must admit however I am a bit cynical of Michael Gove’s motives. I appreciate your to-do list will be very long but I…
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Three Howes Rigg Bus Shelter
A graffiti skirmish has erupted on the East Cleveland moors using this disused bus shelter as a canvas. I have photographed it before but then, a couple of years ago, I noticed the EU/Union flag addition. It’s on one of my regular cycle routes and over the months I have photographed the ‘artwork’ several times…
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The Moors Centre
A lovely clear morning for a stroll over Ainthorpe Rigg. The North York Moors National Park’s Danby Lodge looking good in the vernal sunshine. It started life as a hunting lodge for John Dawnay, the 5th Viscount Downe. Before the renovations a date of there was a date of 1774 on the lintel of a…
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Back of the Cleveland Hills
“What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare.” So wrote the Welsh poet W. H. Davies. I didn’t have much time to stand and stare today. Too much of a hurry. The Bilsdale Fell Race for me but managed to snatch this snap towards the end. It’s…
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A mossy bagel
Woke up this morning to wind and solid rain with no reprieve forecasted. Inspiration found me in a tweet by Robert Macfarlane. A piece of music by the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg is titled “Skovstilhed”. It’s his Opus 71 no. 4 and is translated as woodland peace. Macfarlane describes it as the calmness of spirit…
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The Summerhouse
“Beware the Ides of March” so said the soothsayer to Julius Caesar in Shakespeare’s play. A day in the Roman calendar corresponding to the 15 March when all debts must be settled. And of course the day Caesar was assassinated. But for me, a day for a leisurely stroll up Roseberry Topping. Often erroneously referred…
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Aireyholme Farm
Best known as where James Cook lived as a boy and where his father was employed as the farm foreman, although it is likely that the Cook family’s actual cottage was sited a little distance out of shot to the left at the foot of Cliff Rigg. The modern farm buildings in the photo date…
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St Andrews Old Church
Once thought to be the smallest church in England although that honour goes to a Wiltshire Church at Bremilham. It was actually once part of a bigger church dating back to the 12th-century although a fragment of a 9th-century cross has been found suggesting an even older building. The church stands beside the B1268, a…
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Play of the Weather
The god of rain took an early lead in the ageless battle to decide the British weather. And as I write this the day ends with the god of wind, Gareth, firmly dominant. This parallel was explored in John Heywood’s “Play of the Weather“: Amidst a mass of bickering, in-fighting, backstabbing and intrigue, the gods…