Month: February 2020
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The star attraction in Great Ayton’s Waterfall Park
A snatched photo before the lens fogged up. The Leven’s high, few hardy souls about, the paths awash with flowing streams. In Newton Wood, I disturb flocks of wooshats sheltering from the storm. Returning home so wet and battered, I feel I’ve been through the washing machine. Ah, kissed by Ciara. Except, of course, it’s…
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Bucyrus Erie 1150-B Walking Dragline Excavator
This wee beastie dominates the RSPB St Aidan’s Nature Park near Garforth. It is huge, and some idea of its hugeness can be gained from the people at the head of the jib. Look closely. 1200 tons of “impossible engineering” as they would say on that Yesterday TV programme. With a bucket size of 25…
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The Great Tit – Parus major
The largest member of the tit family, resident throughout the year and well known in our woodlands and gardens. The National Trust maintains 78 bird boxes in Newton Wood, in 2018, and out of 61 occupied, 12 contained Great tit nests (plus 47 Blue tits and 2 Nuthatches). They feed generally on seeds during the…
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Glorious winter sunshine
Today nature was in her calmer moods with snowdrops covering the woodland floor, the sun shining under a cloudless blue sky, giving a primaveral feel to the winter’s day. With the passing of high noon, basking in the warmth, the ‘keepers burning the heather try to hide the sun and raise the temperature still. Every…
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Roseberry from Nunthorpe
An early reference to Roseberry Topping in literature appears in an 18th-century farce by Stockton-on-Tees born Joseph Reed “The Register Office”. His play was first performed in 1761 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and is the story of, what in modern terms we would call an employment agency where workers and prospective employers were…
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Roseberry Hermitage
At one time there was once a hermitage on the summit of Roseberry. It was referred to in a letter to Sir Thomas Chaloner (1559 – 1615) by a person with the initials ‘H. TR’ (who remains somewhat of a mystery). The letter was quoted in the ‘The Topographer and Genealogist Volume II’, edited by John Gough…
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Nelly Ayre Foss
Waterfall of the week, Nelly Ayre Foss on West Beck although I prefer the name used upstream, Wheeldale Beck. A magical place especially on a sunny winter’s day but, wanting everything perfect, the sun happened to be directly behind the falls so they are backlit. Not ideal but not too distracting I think. But who…
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Kirkdale Cave
Whilst Cleveland basked in the winter sunshine, the Tabular Hills were covered in a grey corrugated duvet of low wet cloud. I had parked in Fadmoor for a circular wander along dry valleys and field tracks aiming to visit Kirkdale Cave. I’ve never actually seen the cave before and I don’t suppose any bones of…
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“No path” off Aireyholme Lane
It would have been a bit breezy on the top of Roseberry this morning. I was battered coming across Great Ayton Moor heading into the wind. The land far side of the gate is certainly not a path but it is Open Access land all the way to the summit. I think the hawthorn trees…