Thruscross 3

The reservoir has this dramatic way of taking excess water down the valley to the reservoirs at Fewston, that I visited earlier this year. The photo shows the water cascading down the dam wall. Impressive.

Thruscross 2

 

There is a reservoir at Thruscross, which has a great path all around. The path follows the lake sometimes (as here) other times it heads up on to the moors. Lovely.

Thruscross 1

Monday this week, and I went a walk at Thruscross near Blubberhouses. It allowed me to relax after the YOS weekends, as long as I did not think about the continuing drama of the internet outage.
 

YOS 2

 

Jo took this shot of Open Studios. A lot of talking, explaining, learning. 

Tales from YOS 1

The second weekend was more of the same. Lots of great people, great connections etc, and plenty of sales. I was pleased to welcome Pheona, who I met with her partner Frankie last year, they are newly moved from Hong Kong which they had to leave. Selfie obligatory.

Update

If you are wondering where the blog has been for the last week, I have had no internet for that time (and still not fixed). The lesson I have learned is "never use Talk Talk" as a provider. Ever. No pictures for a while.

Moving on, Open Studios was good last weekend, and we are geared up for this weekend, Rowan is coming up for the weekend too. 

Traffic on the Ouse

The Ouse has virtually no commercial traffic on it these days, apart from leisure boats and tourist trips. I am not sure what this barge was doing, but it gave a nice idea of how things might once have looked on the river.

York Open Studios

It is now 16 years since I first exhibited at York Open Studios. Still going strong, still knackering, still very invigorating. This year I am showing with Jo the Jeweller and (for the first time) Lucy the portrait artist. We are at the Mount School again this year.

Me, Lucy and Jo (with one of Lucy's portraits behind.)

 

Monday

Sunday Paris-Roubaix was on, and another classic it was too. This season is probably the best I have known since I started following European cycling in 1980, a slew of fantastic riders (including local lad Tom Pidcock, Slovenians Pogacar and Roglic, and van Aert and van der Poel from Belgium and the Netherlands.) The next classic is this weekend, and I cannot wait.

Monday we went a walk at Fairburn Ings with Danielle's running mate Jackie, Kevin and Chris. A good route, and we got back before the rain really got stuck in.

Friday

Friday we used the dog-park in the morning. This is the latest diversification venture at the farm. It is very impressively set up, and is going well. Rowan took this shot of Layla, taken through one of the tyres set up for the dogs to play with.

Thursday

Maundy Thursday and the King came to York, so we headed south. Stopped off at Charnwood Forest near Leicester for a walk en-route. I had never been before, a really nice spot. We stayed with cousin Gill who had cooked a meal for the family, Rowan came up, auntie Alison (over 90 and going strong) was there, four generations in all. Really nice time.

William, Catherine, Rowan, Danielle, Gill, Adam, Alison

Pastoral

A really idyllic day last week on the Pocklington canal. Plenty of water, and clear light for reflections. Skylarks singing, geese honking.
 

The Aire

I was walking by the river Aire, when I saw Layla trotting up this bank. Looked to me like a scene from Once Upon a Time in the West (with grass).

 

Shades

Last week I went for a ride. I have started wearing shades with a reading glass bi-focal so that I can read my computer and map etc without changing glasses. Which is fine until I take them off when having a break, place them precariously on a pannier and then forget to put them back on. Net result was that I cycled on for a mile or two before looking at a blurred computer screen and realising that I was not wearing any glasses. So I turned around and retraced my route. Right when I was about to give up, there they were in the centre of the track.

Christmas Cactus

Our cactus enjoyed flowering at Christmas so much that it is having a go for Easter as well.

Weekend

Had a good weekend. Friday was the launch of theYork Open Studios taster show at the Hospitium in Museum Gardens, which ran over the weekend. I was on duty on the Sunday morning, so got a good chance to see other people's work; a lot of very impressive stuff. 

Saturday evening we had another dinner party with Liz, Rob, Anita, Trevor. Sunday we spent a long time attempting to construct the allegedly "simple to assemble" potato planter that Danielle had procured. Got somewhere in the end.

The photo is one last shot from London, taken by Rowan at the Arsenal stadium. Very different to Highbury.

Down at the Downs

Hackney Downs used to be someplace to give a wide berth to. But it has been made welcoming and a good place to spend a while.

Globe

Here was my guide-deluxe for the weekend. Next to the upside down globe at the LSE.