Category: Roseberry Topping
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Roseberry summit
Roseberry was quiet this morning. What more can I say? So I’ll digress. The other day, I came across a new word and stored it in my memory banks for a suitable occasion. The trouble is it’s a Dutch word ‘struisvogelpolitiek‘ but I think it’s worthy of it slipping into common usage just as we…
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New signs
New signs have appeared on Roseberry. A bit late, summer being almost over. Shame it’s come to this. How long before it is trashed? I wonder what percentage of the population has actually heard of the Countryside Code. Open Space Web-Map builder Code
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Dry hedging in Newton Wood
A tiring day in Newton Wood on the main route up Roseberry making some dry hedges from cut sycamore saplings. Dry hedges are basically a wall of branches weaved between stakes. They provide good habitat for all small mammals and insects but the primary aim for these hedges is to encourage visitors not to wander…
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Roseberry from Ryston Bank
September, the meteorologists say we are now into autumn, the ‘back-end‘ of the year when mornings are that bit chillier and trees show signs of taking on their russet hues. In Macbeth, Shakespeare referred to the season as ‘sear‘. The King laments he is in the autumn of his life, he is cursed and will…
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Standing stone on the south slope of Roseberry
Volunteering all day with the National Trust on Roseberry. Path clearing and repairing a dry stone wall. The stones are getting heavier. I grabbed this photo on the walk home. I can find no listing for the standing stone. It’s of dressed sandstone and stands at around the 230m contour on the southern flank of…
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The Harebell
No garden cultured flower e’er seems to me More graceful than the Harebell growing wild. It help’d to form my posy when a child, And I now love to gather it to be Part of a grandchild’s; for I would fain to teach The love of flowers to all. With fancy free, One may imagine…
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Evening on Roseberry
An evening wander up Roseberry. Refreshingly cool. And surprisingly, the summit was all mine. That must be a lockdown first. In the distant, the Cleveland Hills, familiar if a little hazy. The sheep in the green field are quietly maintaining their social distancing. While the yellow fields have now been cut, their bales await collection.…
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These Hills Are Ours: A Song for Roseberry Topping
Last year we attended a public meeting with Daniel Bye and Boff Whalley to discuss what Roseberry Topping means to the local community. Daniel is an Associate Artist at the ARC, Stockton-on-Tees and Boff is a musician and writer best known as a member of the band Chumbawamba and a fellow fell runner. We shared…
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Bracken bashing on Roseberry Common
A wet return to volunteering for the National Trust after the Coronavirus lockdown. A nice simple task to ease the rusty joints: bracken bashing, which also has the benefit of enforcing social distancing. The common was sprayed last year with a bracken specific herbicide so today was just keeping on top on any persistent fronds.…
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The Matthew Paris map
How do you like your maps? Do you treat them with reverence, still in their pristine covers and neatly filed numerically? Or are they coverless, coming apart at the seams through years of use and being folded in origami shapes to cram into a map case? The thing we all probably have in common is…