Ferrybridge

Turned out my ride on Friday was 62 miles in the end, so my gentle potter got a bit out of hand; felt good though. The route was

The route took in Ferrybridge where the power station towers over the little houses to surreal effect.

US

Danielle has gone over to the States for a week to do some more house-sorting. At least that was the plan, but, as this photo of her with friend Debbie shows there has been time to visit a winery as well!

Hob Moor Day

As chair of Friends of Hob Moor I had the honour [that is an ironic honour] of judging for the prizes in the comedy Dog Show part of the event. It was great fun, with my favourite category being "Most Mysterious Heritage" which we managed to award to a true mix-master thank goodness.

This photo is of our stall at the event, we have upgraded the gazebo and the display boards, and it all looks pretty professional now.

Selby Canal

My back problem lives on, I am trying to be sensible and not overdo it but it is debilitating. Edward tried to persuade me to go a bike ride yesterday which I declined, but I did potter about a bit on the mountain bike just to keep the legs turning.

I discovered the Selby canal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selby_Canal which connects the Ouse with the Aire - in its day a major route, now a pleasant back-water. This is one of the lovely old bridges that cross the canal, close to where it joins the Aire.

Logs

I have been getting the logs from the fallen trees [there was a birch as well as the willow] piled up for use in a few years when they are good and seasoned. Here is the first pile, there should be a few more to come.

I Quite Want To Go To Chelsea

23 years ago I was working at the day centre in Islington when the gardener who ran a class for people with learning difficulties at the centre said he had a spare ticket for Chelsea Flower Show. The only trouble was it was for that day, and I was at work till 4. So I cycled down, made it to the show for 4.30, whizzed round for an hour then saw the dismantling of the show-gardens and the auction off of plants. I got a lovely hardy jasmine for a fiver. I transported it back to Tottenham in my pannier through the west end. I imagine it is still growing strong in Station Crescent.

Fast-forward to today, and Danielle and I are at Chelsea Flower Show once again. This time she is there as a corporate guest of a bank, and I am her "plus one". So its champagne at a restaurant on Kings Road, then taxi to the show etc. We enjoyed it a lot, but I can probably leave it for another twenty odd years.

Two very different experiences, both ways are fine by me.

Revision

Another shot from the Wolds. These are works in progress and may well not make the cut - time will tell.

Rowan is busy with her exams this week, so the house is full of piles of revision notes - which we are not allowed to touch...

Bridge

As part of the stewardship status for Hob Moor, the Council have funded this new footbridge crossing one of the becks on the moor. The BTCV put it in, ad it is a really nice piece of work. Rowan and Milo pose.

Vogue

Danielle's cousin Aleish, who is a make-up artist, is featured in a video by Italian Vogue magazine

http://www.vogue.it/vogue-black/bellezze-black/2011/05/aliesh-pierce

Rowan is busy revising for her exams, just internal school exams but still something to be taken seriously.

The truck that took away the fallen tree from the garden was so quick that by the time I got my camera it was on its way - here it is.

Timber

Monday I was sat in the lounge, with a high wind outside. I looked out the window and saw one of our huge willow trees falling elegantly down. Luckily it fell on to the moor and not the house. The cows then devoured the willow leaves whilst I had to go through several hoops to work out who was responsible for clearing it [me] and paying for it [me]. Oh well, it does open up the view...

Friendly City

York is the friendliest place to live in the country, according to this survey

http://www.nationalfriendly.co.uk/Press-Releases/york-friendliest-city-to-live/

Could well be true too.

The photo is of another Wolds dale.

Wolds 2

Here is another shot from the Wolds. Trees are quite scarce on the Wolds, but often stand out well on the skyline.

The Wolds Project

The Wolds Project

I am starting a new project. I have decided to photograph the Wolds in the East Riding of Yorkshire. It is one of my favourite places. The Wolds lack the drama of the Moors or the majesty of the Dales but have an incredibly subtle fragile beauty. They are a lonely quiet place. Be cycling there mid-week and the only cars you will see seem to be the postman or the delivery van, criss crossing down long lonely lanes. The whole area feels like it is locked in another decade – the 30's? the 50's?

The Wolds are chalk, so most of the houses are made not of stone, but brick. This only adds to the weird feel of the place. It is not pretty-pretty, it is barely touched by tourists, and it is not easy to photograph. This ruined church is made of old red brick for example.

Perhaps the strangest aspect of it is this; most places you look to the high ground to find the bleak, the dramatic and lonely the majestic. People are in the valleys, on the plains, the drama is up above. In the Wolds it is the other way round. Up on top are the fields, the roads, the villages [Hugate, Wetwang, Fimber, Fridaythorpe – the names are something else]. It is down in the dry chalk valleys that the mystery is to be found. Too steep to be cultivated, seeing someone else in these dales is rare. Up above you the tractors can be heard lumbering around, but down here in the dales there is a timeless feel to the steep grassland, the dry swathes up the bottom of the valley, the Kites, deer, buzzards, cowslips, the butterflies. Such a fragile beauty is so hard to capture, but that is what I am attempting.

So far I have about ten shots that have made the cut, I will run them on the blog to see what the reaction is. The aim is to have a show of them sometime in the future.

Pina

Rowan won the 1500 and high jump at the independent schools event at York on Saturday - nice for her to win again.

My favorite living film director is Wim Wenders, so I always try and get to see his movies. I went to see Pina http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXpFD7gi8R0 on Sunday. A great movie that revisits Wuppertal and its monorail fantasy which featured in an earlier film of his. The only downside was that it was in 3D which added nothing [except to the price of the movie] and took away clarity from the image ... a fad that will pass.

Photo is from Quaker meeting where the children were making barriers this week.

Rowing

Danielle's friend Jenny came up for the weekend. We watched the York-Lancaster rowing race on the Ouse [with free wine and canapes, on account of Danielle being on the board of York University] then cooked a curry to have whilst we watched the Eurovision song contest [terrible songs, comedy voting, but good fun]. If you follow this link http://friendsofhobmoor.org.uk/?q=news you can hear a recording I made of the dawn chorus on my phone yesterday

Dawn Chorus

Friends of Hob Moor put on a Dawn Chorus walk this morning. Start time? 4am. Amazingly 20 people turned up and we heard all sorts [guided by an expert] including cuckoos. Then the sun rose behind the Minster to make it a great start to the day.

Milo and the Deer

There has been problems with the Blogger service [worldwide, not just North Yorkshire], so you may have missed a post that has been wiped.

Meantime here is a photo [you will need to click on it] of one agile beast racing magnificently across the Yorkshire Wolds [the deer] and on knackered dog who has just decided that discretion is the better part of valour, and has given up the chase. He later claimed he didn't want to frighten it...

Groupon

Danielle and I went on a Groupon night away at a hotel in Hovingham. Rowan stayed over at school, Emma took the dog, we had a really great time. A couple of walks, a great meal and friendly staff - perfect. The photo is from one of our walks.

Minster

Ripon Minster, which we saw on our ride last weekend, is so different to York in style. In many ways it is just as impressive, but in an austere, solid way; it is far less ornate than York. I like it a lot.

Aquathon

Rowan was competing in an Aquathon today [16 length swim then straight into a 3k run] at Leeds. It was her first one, and she did really well at it, coming 4th.

The photo is one of my favorite tree near Fountains Abbey.

Age

It is only as people pop their clogs that I realise that they are the same age as me. So this week I learn that Osama Bin Laden is 53 and Seve Ballesteros is just a year older. Well, I guess we all take different routes through life.

The photo is of this 53 year old in Ripon last week [photo courtesy of Rowan Palmour]

Way of the Roses 3

The third day of the ride took us from the Spa Hotel at Ripon back to York through Boroughbridge. At Ouseburn there was a village fete with this steam bus a star attraction.

Back Again

It is over two years since my back went last; this is the longest gap between episodes I can remember. So it was particularly depressing to have it finally go. It was after I got back from our cycle ride that I noticed it, and it is slightly different to the normal problem. Anyway off I went to the chiropractor for a session this afternoon, with more to come.

Having tried, my GP, Physio, Acupuncture, Osteopath and others over the years, the Chiropractor is the best solution I have come up with. Here's hoping.

The picture is of Emma powering up a climb on the ride.

Way of the Roses 2

Day two took us from Skipton over three big climbs to Ripon. This shot is of Danielle just starting the descent into Pately Bridge. It was really good to be riding on the tops, we all enjoyed it.

Lancaster

This is the waterfront at Lancaster; I never knew it existed before, a bit of a surprise, like the beach at Sunderland.

The end of the first day saw us staying at Emma's sister's house in Skipton. Dave and Karen are excellent hosts, they accommodated all 5 of us, fed us great vegetarian food and could not have been more kind. They even laid on a grand-dog [the dog of their son] who was staying with them for a while, much to Rowan's delight.

Way of the Roses 1

The route sets off from Morecambe, then along an old railway line to Lancaster sticking to the banks of the Lune, and crossing this Millennium Bridge en route. The prevailing wind is westerly, so we chose to ride the route from west to east. Big mistake. The wind decided to prevail over this weekend from east to west. This gave us lovely clear sunny weather - and a howling headwind for the whole trip. Still good though.

Wedding

3o year ago at the last Royal Wedding I avoided it all by going to a Funk The Royal Wedding gig at Clissold Park in Hackney. I found some text about it on the Web

"There were some populist royalist celebrations though, and little in the way of actual demonstrations against the Wedding spectacle. David Cameron was so excited in 1981 that he apparently slept in the Mall (note to American readers- that's the road leading up to Buckingham Palace, not a random shopping centre). I went to the Funk the Wedding carnival in Clissold Park in North London, an anti-royalist event organised by Rock Against Racism. From what I recall it was unexciting but hey it was some kind of statement, with a good few thousand people there. Headliners Tribesman were a UK reggae band, who incidentally made a record about another London green space - Finsbury Park. Joshua Hi -Fi was a north east London reggae sound system. Don't know anything about Movement or Monkey Business who also played that day.

This year the three of us went cycling with Dave and Emma from Morecambe to York on the Way of the Roses cycle route http://www.wayoftheroses.info/ [although Rowan did google "Kate Middleton's dress" on Danielle's phone from a cafe in Settle, so were not immune]