Month of Rainbows

So far this month I seem to have come across more than the usual number of rainbows, and at times when I have had a camera with me. I'm not sure what Mother Nature is trying to tell me, but I clicked away energetically and managed to achieve a couple of results that are not too dire.

The first was a couple of weeks ago when we were on holiday. Driving home via Strensall Common we saw a lovely double rainbow, so we pulled over to try and capture it/them.

Strensall Common is not only a designated Special Area of Conservation - which appears to mean sheep can wander down the middle of the road without anyone minding - but is also host to an army training facility.

We tried to catch the rainbows again at Castle Howard but they had faded too much to show up well in the photo.

All of which was very nice, but this afternoon we were out taking pictures of the village to prepare for the Village Reunion next weekend. We are going to put some pictures up to make a small exhibition of how the village has changed over the past 50 years or so, and wanted to get some more recent views for comparison. I might manage to put an entry together some time around that.

But the point of this post is that there was another of those cheeky rainbows right over St Laurence's.

St Laurence's is a lovely old church, dating back to Saxon times, and updated over the years especially by the Victorians. I think a rainbow just sets it off nicely.

As the rest of the village was also looking lovely in the autumn sunshine, I'll close with a picture of it as well, even though there are no rainbows in this one. It is almost opposite the church, walking back up towards the main part of the village.

Dalby Forest and Bridestones

One of the areas very close to where we live is Dalby Forest at the edge of the North Yorkshire Moors. The Forest provides a wonderful range of activities, including Halloween walks to scare the kids, and star gazing, mountain bike riding, swinging through the trees, concerts and walks.

Dalby Forest is managed by the Forestry Commission which planted trees from about the 1920s. Prior to that the area had been part of the Royal Hunting forest of Pickering supporting a number of rabbit warrens

At this time of year it’s good to go up and see the trees turning autumnal, but I haven’t managed it. However, as I have visited in past years, I have cheated by raiding my photos.

Despite there being large areas of conifer plantation, much of the Forest is deciduous, as well as including examples of other typical local environments. A range of such vegetation can be seen on the walk up to the Bridestones, which starts from near Staindale lake.


The walk is circular, but we tend to start by going in a clockwise direction up the steep wooded path to the right. This can leave us quite out of breath if we have been over-indulging in sweeties, but is worth every effort as the woodland is very pretty.


At the top it opens out to heath, including heather and bracken. Being higher up and more open it is now possible to get some improved views, the way up having been too wooded to see very far.




Crossing the heath brings us to the stones themselves. They are amazing rock formations, naturally sculpted by the elements, although they do look artificial in many ways. There are a number of them along the top of the ridge, in a mad variety of shapes and sizes.


They are also quite large, certainly enough to climb onto, in order to get great views across the valley.


The descent is once again through woods and is much more gentle; I think it may be designed to be wheelchair accessible. This incidentally is another nice feature of the Forest; a number of the walks are available for people pushing pushchairs or using wheelchairs, particularly the walk around the Lake.




There is also a longer circular walk back down from the stones, which is not accessible to wheelchairs. It cuts across more grassy areas and steep trails from further along the Bridestones path.



You can get across the streams easily enough, but need to do so in numbers in order to prevent the trolls getting you.

Pictures

So this week we have been on holiday, and due to a rather silly accident at home last week (requiring stitches), decided to have days out locally rather than travel further afield. And how we did enjoy being tourists again! As we got some photos I thought I would put a few here.

This is the Walled Garden in Helmsley. At this time of year it was a little tired and pale, as are we all, but it gave us great views of Helmsley Castle nearby. Definitely worth a visit in the summer too, going on what was planted out, and a very peaceful retreat from the town centre when it gets busy.

This church is St Mary's in Thirsk. Thirsk is a typical small town in the area, best known for its connection to James Herriott.

Otherwise Thirsk is reasonably similar to our own Malton. What I enjoy about it though is the fact it has several bookshops; the Malton bookshop had to close down a few years ago, but still has a branch operating in Thirsk. Add to that the second hand books in the charity shops and I was a very happy bunny for a couple of hours.

We also had a trip over to Bedale and Masham. The church at Bedale is at the top of the main street, and again is typical of the area. Rather than being arranged around the town square, like Helmsley and Thirsk, Bedale is on a wide high street with a good range of shops and facilities (including good cafes and bistros).

But I do have to admit that, lovely as Bedale is, and delicious as the lunch was, I was really pleased to go to Masham to visit the Black Sheep brewery. It's a thing I have been planning to do for a long time and never managed to get a round to doing - you know what it's like. Certainly when I lived near London I never bothered to visit anything until I was getting ready to move away to Yorkshire.

Anyway, the Black Sheep Brewery does good beer. And a good tour, with many "am-ewe-sing" puns (you have been warned!). The story of how they came into being, and how they got their name, is pretty apocryphal. To my mind, the beer is what matters, and we loaded the car with a variety of bottles to enjoy over the coming weeks. I don't need to advertise for them - you can go to their website for more information if required.

The added bonus, as far as we were concerned, was the series of postcards available in the shop detailing short and easy local walks - all help build up an appetite to justify a trip to the cafe afterwards! We took a quick walk, and naturally had to take some pictures en route.

The walk took us down by the River Ure, which runs through Masham. Unfortunately it was getting late in the afternoon, and rather overcast, so the picture are a little dull. We went through a nature reserve (below) and across fields, but the going was very easy and the whole walk took a little under an hour at a gentle pace.

Naturally the scenery was gorgeous; I love the Dales generally, and am always intrigued at how it differs from our own Wolds and Moors.

Anyway, we were going to go to Pickering today - but I'm not sure if we will get there as it's the War Weekend this weekend and it may not be an ideal time to pop in for a quick visit unless you are keen on the 1940s. If you are, then it's a great time to visit of course!

Beneath the waves

With all the worries about global warming, melting ice caps and starving polar bears, I decided it was time to take a perspective from the giddy heights of Kirby Misperton. The village, as keen observers will soon note, rises on a pimple above the surrounding Vale of Pickering. The Vale itself is overlooked by the North Yorkshire Moors to the north and the Yorkshire Wolds to the south. It is highly likely that if you read tourist information about the area, the term "nestles" will be perpetrated. This is not anything to do with the notorious Swiss-based chocolate company which has a large factory at York, of course; clearly not, as otherwise the tourist industry would have been in court for violation of Intellectual Property Rights long ago. It is more to do with an attempt to brand the area with an aura of whimsy not entirely appropriate to the natural disposition of most of its inhabitants, or, indeed, of the geography itself. Perhaps the popular notion of bleak windswept moors, so beloved of Bronte and Conan Doyle, was impacting the tourist economy...who can tell?

A long time ago, not so far away, the area was a lake. Lake Pickering was formed as the result of glaciation during the last Ice Age. At that time it covered a vast area and when it finally drained, the gorge it created formed the River Derwent.

The River Derwent is a classic exponent of the area's contrary nature. In a bid for "Awkward River of the Year 10,000 BC" the river rises on the Moors, flowing down toward the coast, then teasingly cuts away from the sea on a westerly course before eventually joining the River Ouse in a controversial upstream direction. It does not, however, have the fortune to flow through Kirby Misperton; that special treat is reserved for the Costa Beck, which joins the Derwent south of the village. The Costa is most notable locally for enforcing a humpback-bridge-with-sharp-bend on the lane which is the main approach to the village, thus creating numerous accidents and major coronaries for drivers meeting large farm vehicles or Coastliner buses at its apex.

The end result of all this geological hustle and bustle is the stunningly beautiful Vale of Pickering. And don't just take my word for it! The area around the village has been settled since the Mesolithic period (about 7000 years ago) when people lived throughout the area, including famously at Star Carr near Scarborough. The village itself came into being at least in Saxon times, if not before, as a settlement or group of farms. Three are identified in the Domesday Book.

Kirby Misperton, then, sits on its hillock in the midst of geological wonders. For those with a gardening turn of mind, the soil is clay - good enough to make models from! - and generally auspicious for roses. When we first moved here the area behind the house was a miniature reconstruction of Lake Pickering, so we planted a couple of silver birch trees, some hazel and a rowan; these have settled in nicely and helped reduce the water-logging enormously.

I started by mentioning global warming. So what would happen to us if and when the sea levels rise? Predictions about sea levels in the future are extremely uncertain; they may vary from 0.11 to 0.77 metres between now and 2100.

More recently there have been news reports that such predictions were highly optimistic and that over this summer there has been a far higher than predicted loss of ice.

The good news for my neighbours and me is that we remain heads above water even with a 14m rise in sea level (and probably more), but I imagine we might find ourselves more crowded as refugees are forced to move in. It looks like many of them will be from Hull.

I find it slightly hard to believe that we are calmly charting such scenarios. Really, people, it's past time to act! Our village might still be here, but many homes will not. It's scary and it's difficult, but I would prefer my grandchildren did not have to swim over to visit, or evolve gills to get to work.