Category: Roseberry Topping
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Roseberry Art
A really good piece of work by Rachel Lonsdale, simple but effective. But I’m not convinced Roseberry needs it. I fear another step towards turning the National Park into a theme park. The idea is to discourage graffitists but with the artwork only on one side, there are three other blank canvasses. It is only a…
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Sunday afternoon on Roseberry
Roseberry summit, Sunday afternoon, a honeypot for the crowds, in spite of the threat of rain. Attracted by the prospect of tea and cakes provided by the National Trust.
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Tick magnets
There seems to be less sheep on the moors nowadays. Not sure if this is a deliberate policy. Certainly, in other upland areas, there are concerns about over grazing. At one-time moorland farmers were actively encouraged to graze their sheep on the moors by gamekeepers. The sheep would act as magnets for ticks which also…
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The Bluebell Meadow, Newton Wood
Not very blue in Autumn. Compare with a photo I took almost from the same spot a year and six months ago. The blues of May have been replaced by the golden hues of Autumn. Meanwhile we drift into the month of November. The word has a Latin root, novem or nine, for in the calendar of…
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The Banana Tree
My first camera was a simple Kodak but sometime in my teens I was given, for a Xmas present, a SLR (single lens reflex) camera made by the German manufacturer Praktica. Colour film was far too expensive so I tinkered around with developing my own monochrome film in the bathroom. I experimented with filters of various shades but my favourite…
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The best thing about Pteridium aquilinum …
… is when it’s dying off. Bracken, carcinogenic, toxic to livestock, invasive and dominating, smothering the growth of other plants. At the height of the summer it forms an impenetrable undergrowth. Yet the autumn bracken changes to rich yellow hues. Super even on a drizzly morning.
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Newton Woods
A day spent working with the National Trust to carry out repairs to the steps on the main tourist route up Roseberry through Newton Woods. Two tonnes of hardcore hand carried up in buckets to make good the treads which had sunk due to compaction. 28 done, only 170 to go.
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Graffiti of Roseberry
A damp miserable morning so I will have to resort to an old favourite. Is this graffiti? Is this vandalism? Questions I’ve touched on before. Behind Dove Cottage in the Lake District, one time home of the poet William Wordsworth there is a rock with WW inscribed on it. There is also DW and JW, his siblings,…
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Roseberry Topping
The Matterhorn of Cleveland. It is commonly thought that the name, Roseberry Topping derives from the Old Norse god, ‘Óthinn’ or ‘Odin’, and berg meaning a hill but Walter White wrote, in his 1858 book, A Month in Yorkshire, that the name comes from ‘ross’, a heath or moor, and ‘burg’ a fortress. Does anyone…
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Brambles
Autumn is rapidly setting in. It’s going to be a good year for Autumn colours. Unless we have storms blowing the turning leaves off. Some bramble leaves are a deep red yet others are still green. Maybe different species. There are plenty of them. 320 at the last count. Off the main drag up to Capt.…