OSR

This is a field full of oil-seed rape, awaiting harvest up on the Wolds. Hard to believe that those bright yellow fields loathed by many, loved by our bees turn into this.

2014

Rowan took this photo of Mother myself and Milo two years ago.

Wind

It can get windy up on top of the Wolds

Tatton Sykes

This is one of the Wolds churches rebuilt by Tatton Sykes the local Lord from Sledmere. He and his wife did a great job or sorting out the churches of the Wolds. Less successful was the Sykes-Picot agreement that created many of the problems of the middle east that we live with still.

Skosh

Saturday we went for lunch with Greg and Maxine at Skosh, a new restaurant in Micklegate. Really enjoyed the food, lots of small plates to share. On the drinks list one beer was "great heck black jesus"; that could not be passed so I had a bottle. My curiosity was rewarded, really good dark beer from the Great Heck brewery [a village near Selby].

Persuasion

Rowan is getting on well at her work at a local hotel. So well that she managed to blag free tickets for a performance of an Opera version of Jane Austen's Persuasion from the cast from Chicago who were staying at her hotel. So off we went and despite the unlikely source material [I know Persuasion well and do not particularly like it, having studied it for O Level and, more recently, read it for book group] it was a brilliant evening; they managed to make an Opera that was better than the book and really enjoyable. The photo is outside the theatre.

Research

I have done most of the research for my book on the Wolds; now I have to sort out the photographs I want to use, then write it.
I cycled out this week to visit the Wolds Heritage Centre, which sounds grand but is in fact a disused church with some [very good] information boards hung around it. Not a soul in sight, which fits nicely with the Wolds.

This is Duggleby Howe, a neolithic barrow in the Gypsey Race valley in the Wolds.

Movie

Greg persuaded me to see a music documentary about Leon Russell [me neither] at the City Screen. It was made in Oklahoma in the early seventies and I quite enjoyed it. The hand-held camera did make me feel sea-sick though. So in that spirit here is the lounge taken in a hand-held style

Steam

Rowan, Milo and I walked in to meet Danielle off her train from London, had a drink in the great York Tap, then saw this steam train on a special, and walked home. Good life.

Heritage Ride - Lavenham

Danielle and I stayed at Lavenham long ago en-route on the tandem to Suffolk from London. It is a lovely village with a strange air of isolation from time if not place. So it was good to stay there on the Heritage Ride. My room was known as the Harry Potter Room on account of its obscured entry - here it is.

Went to a garden party

Saturday evening friend Julia had her 60th at the York Medical Club, that I had never noticed before. It is the heart of medieval York and yet has this amazingly large garden. A good evening catching up with people.

Heritage Ride - Woburn

Cycling through Woburn involved getting very close to unfenced deer; this made for a goodish photo but also a certain level of anxiety on my part. Those antlers really are quite big.

Rudston

Saturday Danielle and Rowan went down to London for her old book group reunion. I spent a fruitful day in the Wolds doing some last bits of research before writing my long-promised book on the subject. Last week I spent reading many Phd theses, books and websites, including Julian Cope on the subject. So now I feel I have got my thoughts in place. Starting in a couple of weeks I'll hope to write the thing. Updates will follow.

I wanted a photo of the Rudston monolith, the largest standing stone in Britain which has been encircled by a church. Here it is.

Leaving the Mount

Danielle and Rowan went to the Mount School leaving event, this was the school that Rowan was at up till her moving to the US two years ago. This photo is of Rowan and Millie, and for contrast there is a photo of the same two [on the outsides]15 years ago.

Heritage Ride 2016 - Icknield Way

I walked the Ridgeway long ago, and have always been interested in the ancient trackway that links to it - the Icknield Way that follows the chalk all the way through the Chilterns up to Thetford and the flint mines of Grimes Graves. So when I cycled to Letchworth I managed to include a bridle-way section of the Icknield Way. It was great to find it and to experience the quiet and peace of this timeless route - at least 3000 years old.

It did strike me as odd that in this part of the country people seem so time and money rich, but spend most of both these commodities driving around the roads too fast. Hardly anyone has a moment to step back into the history that wraps itself around the area. I was glad in a way [I had it to myself] but a bit bemused at the same time.

Fox in the Garden

We have often heard foxes in the garden at night, but never actually seen one either on the moor or in the garden itself. I looked out of the kitchen window this afternoon and there it was; very spruce, looks a young one. Milo, of course, never noticed our visitor at all ...

Heritage Ride - Brill

I had to ride up Brill Hill on my route. Ever since Auntie Alison took us there long long ago I have loved it; the nearest thing to a proper hill in these parts. I used to ride up here when I lived in Oxford, rediscovering the joys of cycling. I even thought of buying a house here once.

Taylor House

So I went to Osler Road where Taylor House was. It had been demolished and this high density block of flats put up in its place. Across the road the Oxford United football ground had also been demolished. Times change, but then again it is 37 years ago ...

Oxford 1

Cycling through Oxford is always a pleasure. First stop was at the house in St Clements where Sue and I lived in the summer of 1979, after I had left Liverpool and she was about to start at Oxford Poly. It was here that I first cooked my parents a meal. I had various temporary jobs through the summer before getting the job at Taylor House in Oxford for the Leonard Cheshire Foundation and the start of my career working with disabled people.

Heritage Ride 1

My heritage ride has started again. Day one took me from Oxford to Letchworth Garden City where I stayed with Thelma and Chris in one of the original garden city properties. It is 36 years since I met Thelma so it is always good to catch up. More to come on the ride.

Sheffield 2

The rivers and canals of Sheffield have been trussed and crossed for countless industrial purposes. But now the natural world is gradually reclaiming everything. So a sight like this on the River Don emerges. I like it.

Sheffield 1

The fountain at Sheffield Station is a source of wonder; reflecting the changes in weather in endless variation.

Back Then

Andy had this photo of Mark, Rob and I taken sometime in the 80s I think. Our lives had very little photo-documentation beyond holidays and Christmas back then. It looks like we are watching England loose at the football.

Wake

Rob & Kath, Mark & Mandy, Andy & Liz and Danielle and I met up for a wake for Charlie on Sunday. We had a private room in a restaurant on Aldwych. Went really well and brought home how much we all held Charlie in bemused affection.

Back home the Gooseberry harvest is underway.

Le Tour

Marx wrote about religion being the opium of the masses. In the last couple of weeks sport has helped soothe the pain of the referendum result; makes things no better but takes the mind away [I guess that is what opium does]. Wales winning at the Euros last night then Cav winning stage one of the Tour made me smile. It all helps I think.

Rowan was off to London yesterday to see friends.

Why Brexit?

In some of my despairing thought post-Brexit I was struck how the very areas of the country ruined by Thatcherism [industrial north, south wales] were the very areas now voting to leave the EU. So this infographic posted on line rang a chord. It is not all correct but it is definitely food for thought.

Waitress

One of Rowan's jobs is as a waitress at the Royal York Hotel; she is enjoying it a lot.

The Pippins

I had a peep at my Mother's old house in Kirtlington; the garage is being converted to a room of some sort. It felt sad to be there.