Picture This

Far distance - Danielle doing Yoga on her mat in the living room.
Middle distance - Dog doing Yoga on his mat in the corridor.
Near distance - Man taking photograph of same.

Rowan News

Rowan has been in New York City for the last week seeing old school friends. Today she starts two weeks of induction training in New York with her employer BlackRock. Exciting times.

Jamming

I have never made jam before, chilli jelly yes but jam no. This year having picked the blackcurrants from the garden and having topped and tailed them, I went the whole hog and made the jam too. Danielle is the resident jam expert, so I took some hints and got on with it. It worked and, branded as Blackcurrant Affairs, here it is. I'd visit quick if I were you, the taste is worth the journey.

Hot Hot Hot

The temperature was over 37 yesterday. So probably not the best day for a 95km off-road bike ride around Ripley. But that is what I did, it was tough but I enjoyed it. I had to scramble down to a stream to douse my head in cold water at one stage, and later when I came to a ford, I just waded through it to cool off. Not a ride to be forgotten.
Map

Butterfly 2

Dead common but beautiful; I saw this Tortoiseshell on the same walk.

Butterfly News

It has been a good year for butterflies so far. Comma's are common - this one was on a walk near Towton last week - and I saw a Gatekeeper in the garden today.

Street Party

When we moved to Hob Moor Rowan was four and our next door neighbour Rhianna was five. Now they have both graduated from University. So we had a street party which was good fun.

2003

2019 (photo by neighbour Ken)

Graduation 2

After graduation all the Economics graduates were photographed. This is the back row, all over 6 foot, all male, except for this one Croatian girl. Makes a good shot.

Graduation Day

We went down to Warwick for Rowan's graduation ceremony. I didn't go to mine, Danielle sulked through hers, thankfully Rowan loved it all, as did we.

Portrait

Me and the dog by the daughter

Harvest

We had our first honey extraction at the weekend, and today I cropped the onions. A good time of year.

Barley

I walked with Rowan by the Ouse last week, passing this field of barley; a great sight.

The Old Railway

I am using the good weather to get in some off-road rides. This route I devised takes in the old Bubwith to Market Weighton railway line. There are a couple of old stations en-route, this one at Holme is nicely looked after and has some interesting birch tree colonisation going on.

Crete

Rowan and Danielle went to Crete for a week. Being a mainly beach type holiday I was happy to stay at home and look after the dog (although he is still not ailing that much, but he is getting worse). When they were not on the beach they did a vegetarian Greek cooking day, which looks pretty good.

Flying Scotsman

I went to meet Danielle & Rowan off the train and was rewarded by Flying Scotsman coming to a halt on the far platform. Quite a sight.

The Water of Fairburn.

There is something about the light at Fairburn that gives the water an oily feel; like you could put your hand in and pull out a glob of it.

Fairburn Circle

I worked out a new walk from Fairburn. Four hours, on limestone ridges then down to the RSPB reserve where I saw Spoonbills for the first time, along the River Aire and back to the village. A perfect summer's day.

Honey Extraction

It will soon, hopefully, be honey extraction time. Here is the extractor all ready to go. The frames of honey are taken from the hive, the covering of wax is cut or melted off, then the frames are put in this extractor. You crank the handle, the frames fly round, centrifugal force does the rest as the honey spins out of the frames onto the side of the extractor where it drips down to the bottom. From there there is a filter (to keep any bits out of the honey, not a big problem) before it collects in the bottom container. From there it is straight into jars.
Danielle has been keeping bees for around 15 years now, many kilos of delicious honey have resulted.

Wales selfie

Last shot from Wales.

Bearded Lake 2

I don't think this will be a shower, but I like it enough for the Blog. It was taken at the Bearded Lake last week.

Wales Cycling

Thursday last week it was very windy in Aberdovey. So I got the train through Machynleth to Caresws then cycled back over the mountains (500 metres) with a bit of a tail-wind. It was a perfect route and a beautiful day to be cycling. This is where the mountains get  serious.

Rowan's Photograph

Aberdovey beach is where I took my shot "Sand" which has been my best seller over the years. Glad to see that Rowan is getting inspiration there too. She saw these pebbles suspended on blown sand early one morning on the beach. I like the angle too.

Bearded Lake

We all walked up to the Bearded Lake above Aberdovey. It is a truly lovely place to arrive at.

Bike Ride

Danielle and I got a bike ride in; always enjoy riding together but we don't do it that often. Our ride took us along the coast to Towyn (cup of tea at the Talyllyn Railway station) then through beautiful valleys below Cadair Idris and past Bird Rock to the castle at Castell Y Bere which is both amazing and hidden. Then across the hills to Abergnolwyn for lunch on another Talyllyn station, before whizzing home to Aberdovey where Milo and Rowan had been charging around the beach.