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Blackarse sheep
Spotted near Coniston. You will have heard, of course, of blackface sheep, well these are blackarse sheep, a truly rare breed. Those were my first thoughts but then noticed the patches were of a material “sewn” onto the fleece. Ah, must be a sheep’s chastity belt. Hasn’t stopped the tups trying. A farmer fellow confirmed…
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Belmont Ironstone Mine
Early morning. A good day beckons but Guisborough has not yet escaped the shadow of Highcliff Nab. Morning mist creeps up from the Cleveland valley. The range of buildings on the left was stables built for the Bolckow, Vaughan and Company’s Belmont Ironstone Mine when they drove a new drift to old workings which operated…
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Boxing Day Hunt
It’s becoming a tradition. Keeping an eye on the Boxing Day Hunt to see if they stray onto National Trust land. They appeared to have done last year and caused damage to the walkways in Newton woods. Admittingly that was in November; on a high profile day such as Boxing Day, I would be surprised…
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Cushat Hill
A glorious Christmas Day in Cleveland. Not sure the weather was so good in Bilsdale. It looks as though the dale was filled with cloud and overflowing the col between White Hill and Urra Moor. Most refer to the pass as Clay Bank but old maps show it as Cushat Hill. Viewed from some distance…
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Módraniht, a pagan tradition of Christmas Eve
To our pagan Anglo-Saxon ancestors, December 24th was the Night of the Mothers or Módraniht when thanks were given to the mothers of the tribe. It was attested to in Bede’s 8th-century manuscript and probably involved a sacrifice. The tradition may have roots today in the Orkneys where Helya’s Night sees the children of each…
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Clumber Lake
A wet trip down to Clumber Park in the Dukeries of Nottinghamshire, created from an 18th-century sporting estate by the Duke of Newcastle. The 87-acre serpentine lake was built by damming the River Poulter and took 15 years to complete. This section of the lake was not part of the original and was probably created…
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Danby
A peaceful rural village scene. Sheep grazing on the green at Danby. The gable end on the left belongs to the Duke of Wellington Inn. According to the inn’s website, it dates to back beyond 1765 and was originally called the Red Briar and later the Lord Wellington, presumably, after 1815 when he became a…
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Yuletide greetings
Since June the days have been getting shorter, tomorrow they’ll start getting longer again. Yippee. Let’s celebrate the ancient pagan festival of the Winter Solstice, Yule. You won’t see any noticeable difference in the morning light for a while though, by some quirk of astronomy sunrise actually gets a minute or so later. To our…
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Today is St. Thomas’s Day
Or is it? The great god Wikipedia says is 21st December, tomorrow. But Rev. J. C. Atkinson in his 1858 tome “Forty Years in a Moorland Parish” writes that it is the 20th December. I am more inclined to believe the Reverend. An old-fashioned book sitting on my shelf has more authenticity. Whatever the day…
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When the gorse is out of bloom, kissing’s out of fashion
So you can breathe a sigh of relief. Of course, you can find the yellow flowers of the thorny gorse shrub all year round thriving on poor acidic soils. It is an evergreen member of the pea family with small coconut-scented flowers which are edible and used in salads. They make a nice cup of…
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