Church Rides Continue

On our first Church ride in quite a while Robert and I found a beautiful small church in Marton, north of York. I do like these wall boards.

Thorne Moors

I had another great walk on Thorne Moors with the dog last week. From March to October dogs have to be on the lead, so I make the most of the winter months. We walked for five hours and, apart from a couple of people in the first ten minutes, I saw no other humans. A real adventure.

New People

One of the good things about having a dog is that there are always new and interesting people to meet. Sandra is from Bosnia via Sweden and has three dogs that all tolerate Layla. She dropped round the other weekend for a chat whilst the canines tore the garden up.

More Aire

The Aire navigation used to be extremely busy with coal barges taking Yorkshire coal to the port at Goole for export. There is no more Yorkshire coal, no more coal barges, and not much of a port at Goole. But the canal is still there as is the odd leisure boat. It is a lovely sight, but more than a little sad at the same time.

Aire Navigation

Danielle and I walked along the Aire navigation at the weekend. A pleasant stroll. This shot shows the sun just lighting up a bit of the canal bank.

Tug of War

I was walking in Bishop Wood to give the dog a good run out with some deer-chasing thrown in. We met a woman with her dog, a goldendoodle called, I think, Rufus. We chatted for a good while, the two dogs were perfectly suited to each other and had a tug-of-war tournament that would have gone on all day. Layla is on the left.

Come On In My Kitchen

The kitchen at Dent station. Just made for sharing a pot of coffee in the morning.

Toilet news

The station at Dent was very well appointed; including this fantastically engineered loo, I assume it came from the original station. One of Mr Crapper's designs, 100% better than the flimsy Crap in most modern bathrooms.

Inversion

Dent Station is so high up on the moorside, that temperature inversions are common. This means that the valley below can be full of cloud, with the station and the moors above being in clear blue sky. This happened on an evening walk when the valley cloud was creeping up, but the far ridge was still catching the bright light. Strange.

Dent 4

We returned to York by way of Spennithorne where Layla's mother Mango lives with the couple who raised Layla and her four siblings two years ago. Here are mother and daughter re-acquainting after two years.

Dent 3

This is the front room at the station, with an amazing view down the Dent valley below.

We were due to walk back to Dent from Ribblehead after taking the train there. However once on the train a woman told us she had seen Danielle's phone fall to the platform as we ran to get the train. (That is the trouble with staying in the station building, you always think you have more time than you do.)

So the train guard (who was incredibly helpful) said he would ring his colleague on the next train that was going through Dent and ask him to pick the phone up and return it to the depot in Skipton.

That would have been fine, but it got better. I walked back over Blea Moor with the dog as planned. Danielle decided to take the train back to Dent and hope to find the phone or collect it from another train. Once back at Dent she rang her phone to see if anyone had found it. Three older gentlemen had found it on the station and were now walking across the moors back to Ribblehead. So it was agreed that Danielle would meet them in the pub at Ribblehead, buy them a pint, then return with the phone to me, Layla and Dent. Amazingly it all went to plan.

Dent 2

We had a great walk up over the moors, able to let the dog off the lead as the sheep were in fields leaving the open moors to us.  

Dent 1

We had a mini-break at Dent Station, the highest main line station in England, on the Settle-Carlisle line. It has been really well renovated and is owned by a trust. We arrived on Wednesday evening, when I took this shot. We were in the station building lit up on the right.

 

It is a sign

Coming off the moors the sun was doing its best to burn the cloud away. I always love a signpost on the moors; incongruous and mysterious.

Up Again

Up onto to the North York Moors at Urra again today. Felt great to be there. Even a bit of sun breaking through the clouds.

Cooking News

Rowan got me an air-fryer for Christmas. This was very kind of her, and a perfect gift for me. I really dislike frying stuff, and amazingly the air-fryer does the job without oil. So far we have had pakora, spinach balls, and fish and chips.

Meantime Rowan went with a friend to a Migrateful class in person (as opposed to on Zoom) for the first time, and rustled up this Moroccan delight.

Training

Rowan has gone back to London; it was great having her here over Christmas. She works upstairs when she is here, and also does a workout up there. Layla usually assumes that she can join in the workout and lie on the yoga mat for the duration.

In the background is the rampant chilli plant that is still going strong.

Sleep

 A Pile of Palmours Asleep. The rigours of Christmas finally take their toll.

More Wharfe

The river was high, the trees were bare.

And there was, no one there.

Went to the Audiology Department at the hospital yesterday for a hearing test and new hearing aids. They now have bluetooth which means I can stream my music, podcasts and phone calls straight to my hearing aids. This is really good, and it seems to work well.

Got me to thinking how much hearing aids have improved since I first started using them 25 years ago. There is no comparison, todays hearing aids are smaller, lighter, miles more effective, connected, more comfortable (without the need for ear moulds.) I really appreciate the improvements.

Bright Walk

A beautiful crisp bright day for a walk. Rowan is studying hard so Danielle and I walked by the Wharfe south from Tadcaster.

 

Pond Light

The light on the old railway pond is constantly changing and hard to resist. This was taken last week. 
 

New Year Walk

This year's Boxing Day walk was on New Years Day. Arranged the day before the turnout was gratifying. A warm dry day, Eddy even wore shorts.

The Cone of Shame

Layla hurt her foot, and so we had to stop here from licking it all the time. The Cone of Shame proved too much for her to bear (as seen in her expression here) so we settled on putting a sock over her foot which seems to work, without causing her any angst at all.

Happy New Year

 

Happy New Year everyone