Surveying her Kingdom

Taken last week at the new forest, on a damp and misty day here in York.

After the Flood

A lot of rain these last few weeks; here is the resulting flood of the river Ouse as it runs through York. That is the medieval Hosptium building on the other side of the resultant lake.

 

Stroll 49 again

The Thurgoland tunnels on the old line to Penistone have been looked after by Barnsley Council and the one is use by the cycle track has got these great lights all the way through. It does mean that the whole thing has the feeling of being a portal to another dimension; I came out unscathed and in the same time zone. One end of the tunnel has LNER on it, (the pre British Rail company) and the other end has British Rail inscribed. 

 

Stroll 49 Chapeltown to Penistone

 After a break of over a month, on account of Christmas, bad weather and dodgy trains the Stroll started again this week. A walk from Chapeltown north of Sheffield through a large forest for most of the 20km of the path, before following the old railway line into Penistone. Good to be back.

A great path through the forest.

House Guest

 A college friend of Danielle's who she had not seen for close on 40 years came to stay with us for the weekend. It was great to have her. She is from Chicago, lives in Atlanta and works in Arizona as a Doctor on a reservation. So an interesting life. We took her to Fountains Abbey on a uniquely dry January day. 

Here are Layla, Danielle and Kim outside Fountains Hall, an Elizabethan House in the grounds of the Abbey, built in part with stone plundered from the ransacked monastry.

Cambridge 2

 

We met up with Nataliia in Cambridge at a cafe near the station. The whole area between the station and the city has been transformed; a big improvement I think.

Cambridge 1

Danielle is a visiting professor for UCL and she gave a talk at Cambridge University last Friday. I went with her and we stayed over the night at the Hotel du Vin where our room had a glass covered 3 metre deep well in the corner. Whilst Danielle spoke, I walked around the city on the paths by the river Cam, and on old railway lines. An enjoyable morning.

Hatfield 2

The pathway across the moors opens up before me.

 

Hatfield - one last time.

Back to Hatfield moors this week. Did plenty of exploring on narrow paths between the waters. It was another great day of discovery - new paths and new vistas. If you look right in the middle of this shot you will see Layla the dog far away. I hope it gives you some idea of the vast and lonely magnificence of the area.

 

Weekend

Friend Adrian came round on Sunday to record some piano onto one of my new songs. It went pretty well, I now have to mix before putting guitar down. All good fun.

Emilie had kindly given us two tickets for our local Everyman cinema. We decided to see Hamnet, mainly because Danielle had read the book and liked it. The first half was pretty good, and it built to an incredible denouement set at the Globe theatre. I have never cried as much as I did at the end; I was not expecting that at all. Not bad.

Saturday morning we walked down the Pocklington canal, which was full of reeds and weeds, but a good place for a walk on a cold day.

One Frosty Morning.

Taken this week on a frosty sunny morning, as I walked to collect the Tandem from the bike shop Cycle Heaven (so called because it took over premises from Motorists' Mecca). I love to shoot into the sun like this, the key is to find something to hide the sun behind. In this case it was the tree in the foreground. Without the tree the image would be bleached out by the sun and not work at all.

The Millennium Bridge was built in 2000 to provide a cycle and walking route over the river Ouse from west York to east. It is now an essential part of getting around for the many many people use their feet or their bikes. Cycle heaven indeed.

Birthday Girl

Our lodger Pat, who we see rarely, found out it was Danielle's birthday and very kindly gave her this hat and scarf combo. Looks great I think.

Hatfield Moors

 

One happy dog on Hatfield Moors. 

Thorne Moors

 The dodgy weather, train unreliability and the short days mean I have had a few weeks off from The Stroll. The last two weeks I have been back to first Thorne Moors then Hatfield Moors. As magical as ever. 

Frozen scrape on Thorne Moors

Party of the Imagination

We had such a good time last night at a bar for Danielle's birthday with 8 guests, that I neglected to take a photograph, so just imagine. Meantime here is a shot of some borsht that Danielle made to Nataliia's recipe at Christmas.

 

Up the Swanee

A serene swan and a lively Layla. Another shot from the Pocklington canal at Hagg bridge.

 

Books

Lots of lovely books have come my way, what with a birthday and a Christmas and a friend who passes on books on music that he has read.

• I Wanna Be Yours - John Cooper Clarke. Autobiography that was way better than I thought it might be, from my favourite poet.
• Everything We Do is Music - Elizabeth Alker. A great overview of the links between 20th Century modern classical and popular music. The writer is a Radio 3 DJ. Got me listening to Stockhausen amongst others.
• Whatever Will be, Will be - Felix White. Slightly disappointing tale of someone going to all the rounds of the FA Cup in 2024/5.
• The Girl on the 88 Bus - Freya Sampson. Written by the wife of one of Rowan's work colleagues, and a very successful writer as well. An uplifting tale of London life. Enjoyed it a lot.

Taken at Hagg bridge on a Christmas walk.

 

Birthday

 It was Danielle's birthday today. I cooked her favourite tomato risotto for tea.

Trivet

Rowan bought us this trivet set for Christmas. Hand crafted from wood, it is four trivets cut from the one piece of wood. We both absolutely love it, and it looks great on the redwood table. 

 

The Birds

  I looked out the window into the dramatic winter sun today. I saw our local Little Egret in the tree on the lawn. Its bright white colour was hidden in the silhouette, leaving just a somewhat sinister image, with a very long sharp beak.

Two Dogs & a Tree

Milo, and now Layla, have their own Christmas Tree presence. My Croatian painted biscuit decoration for the Tree, given to me by an ex Partisan and his wife, has finally crumbled away after 41 years.

 

Happy New Year

 New Years Eve we went for a great party at Sue and Eddy's. Great meal cooked by Eddy, great company from Robert, Kirsten, Richard and Liz. A quiz, Amerone. Great time. For the first footing Danielle volunteered to be the tall dark stranger. Here is  a worried Eddy responding to the knock on the door ...