Pot Luck

I recall reading that the path that runs through Stocking Crag wood and passes Stork House was the original route in and out of the valley, though I’m unsure of the source. Unfortunately, due to landslides within the wood, it’s nearly impossible to navigate through it without using your own two feet. Today being Thursday, […]

Woke up to another cloudless sky and a quick low level run prior to the journey home, where I believe there has been a bit of snow. Had a look around the burial-ground of Rait with its roofless ruined church and several interesting 18th-century gravestones. Although the existing structure likely dates from the post-Reformation period, […]

Last Sunday I wrote about the 13th-century charter ‘Cartularium Prioratus de Gyseburne’ in which ‘Thruhkelde’ or the ‘spring on the pass’ was mentioned. It is thought to be Codhill Spring on the 1856 Ordnance Survey map. Passing by today, I though I would take a look. It’s easy enough to find, barely five metres from the […]

It has been some time since I last dragged myself up Helvellyn via Striding Edge. Definitely before the pandemic chaos. This photograph, taken around midday, gazes slightly east of south. St. Sunday Crag and Fairfield flaunt a dusting of snow. A marvellous day: cloudless peaks, sub-zero temperatures, and a wind that was brisk enough to […]

Lenten Lily is the Yorkshire name for the daffodil, the wild English variety. I’m not sure if these are indeed truly wild daffodils but I like the name. Daffs are poisonous nevertheless they have been used throughout the centuries for medicinal purposes particularly as a cure for cancer. Hippocrates himself recommended a pessary prepared from daffodils for […]