Out & About …

… on the North York Moors, or wherever I happen to be.

Tag: Ling

  • Bartle day

    Bartle day

    A dialect name for St. Bartholomew‘s Day, 24th August. A name that is preserved in the 19th-century poem by Captain John Harland ‘Reeth Bartle Fair’, a fair that was held at Reeth in Swaledale on St. Bartholomew’s Day. There are several weather related sayings for Bartle day: At St.  Bartholomew, There comes cold dew. Which…

  • Today is not a good day if you’re paraskevidekatriaphobic

    Today is not a good day if you’re paraskevidekatriaphobic

    I dunno, you go away for a few days, and the moors are transformed. The ling has finally come good. (Although it must be said, Hutton Moor is not heavily managed, the spruce saplings give it away that it’s been a few years since this moor has been burnt.) But today is not a good…

  • Several people have mentioned that the ling is late this year

    Several people have mentioned that the ling is late this year

    O the summer time has come And the trees are sweetly bloomin’ The wild mountain thyme Grows around the bloomin’ heather Will ye go, lassie, go? Several people have mentioned that the ling is late this year.  Fear not, the purple haze is coming, and getting more pronounced by the day. It may be my…

  • Where is the purple haze?

    Where is the purple haze?

    The odd sprig of ling or heather can be found on the moors, amongst the muddy brown remnants of the winter colouring. Why isn’t the heather at its finest? Surely it should be by now, this first week of August. I had a search of my back archives to illustrate the state of the heather…

  • Finally some sunshine

    Finally some sunshine

    A week dominated by weather fronts sweeping across the country and where the mornings have become distinctly more autumnal. Nice to have some sunshine and clarity this morning then. This is a view north by northeast from Hutton Moor over Guisborough towards Redcar and the North Sea. On the right is Beacon Moor and Errington…

  • Silver birch, Turkey Nab

    Silver birch, Turkey Nab

    Perhaps my favourite tree, one of the first trees to recolonise Britain after the ice sheets retreated. It is an opportunist tree, producing hundreds of windblown seeds that are quick to germinate and grow rapidly making it the bain of gamekeepers and foresters alike. Even the National Trust control the tree cover on their moorland…

  • Lagopus lagopus

    Lagopus lagopus

    Ah, the “glorious twelfth”. Nothing much happening on Urra Moor, the cloud was down this morning so I assume any shooting planned would have been cancelled in any case. So this little fella survives another day. I spotted him along Carr Ridge on the edge of the escarpment clucking away. But high on Urra Moor…

  • Ingleby Moor

    Ingleby Moor

    No excuse but another photo of the purple. It’s that time of the year. Have to make the most of it. The season does not last long. Had a pootle around the upper reaches of Baysdale. This is from the east side of Tidy Brown Hill, overlooking Black Beck, a tributary of Baysdale Beck. In…

  • Capt. Cook’s Monument

    Capt. Cook’s Monument

    A quick amble up to Capt. Cook’s Monument at the end of a very wet day. No chance of a sunset, still drizzling and cloud. But the ling’s looking good. Open Space Web-Map builder Code

  • First day of the grouse shooting season

    First day of the grouse shooting season

    The first day of the grouse shooting season so I took in a circuit via Urra and Greenhow Moors in the hope I might come across a shoot. It is not the “Glorious 12th”, of course, that was yesterday but being a Sunday the start is postponed for a day unless you are in Scotland…