Category: Roseberry Topping
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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.…
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Easby Moor from Roseberry
My turn to take the dog out this morning so out early from a damp and misty Great Ayton, the sea fret of yesterday still persisting. Climbing Roseberry the sun began to appear until a cloudless blue sky at the summit with the Cleveland plain hidden below. This is a view to Capt. Cook’s Monument on Easby Moor.
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Parasol Mushroom, Roseberry
I love mushrooms. Sautéed in butter with a hint of garlic. And if this is a Parasol Mushroom, Macrolepiota procera, it is reputed to be one of the best to eat. But if it’s a False Parasol, Chlorophyllum molybdites, I would be in trouble as it’s poisonous. Although native to North America it has been found in Scotland. Or then it could…
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Last Light on Roseberry
Dashed up to Gribdale to catch the sunset but it somewhat fizzled out. A few people on Roseberry had the same idea.
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Capt.Cook's Monument
I recently read an article which suggests a Masonic connection to the obelisk and with the great man himself. Apparently obelisks symbolize the Egyptian sun god Amon Re and its cap or ‘benben’ is actually a pyramid. Now a pyramid forms the basis of the Freemasonry symbol The Eye of Providence, a symbol which can be seen on the reverse of the Great…