Looking for the wood among the trees

I enjoyed the glimpses of gold among the dark, straight trunks in the larch woodland on the hillside, though it would have been even better with a bit more sunlight. Larches are one of our few deciduous conifers in the UK.

Along the Dalesway

The Dales Way long distance footpath skirts the Scargill estate, on its way from Ilkley to Bowness in the Lake District. It makes for a good walk up the hillside, along a decent track at this point. 

Despite the drizzle, it was good to keep stopping to look back - gave me a breather too, as the track is quite steep here. You can literally see the weather coming at you along the valley!

Eventually the track levels out onto a flattish ridge, and here the views are broader as the valley opens out to the south. You can perhaps make out the overhang of Kilnsey Crag in the middle distance of the picture below.  An outcrop of limestone, it's a magnet for climbers. 

Up here there's also a small patch of limestone pavement, its deep fissures holding ferns and mosses. I always feel like I'm back in my school geography lessons when I'm up here. I can hear my teacher explaining about 'clints and grikes', and teaching us how contours on maps work, by use of a nifty plasticine 'hill' in a tub that she filled up with water, stopping every inch to gouge a contour line in the 'hill'.  

Scargill's gardens

Scargill's gardens are lovingly tended by the resident estate team, assisted by many volunteers who often come to stay as 'working friends'. The gardens around the buildings have wonderful views up and down the valley and across the fields. Tucked away in a corner is the walled garden. Once, I think, the kitchen garden when the main house was a family home, it's now a quiet place to sit, reflect and drink in the peace of the surroundings. 

Despite the late season, there were patches of colour: cyclamen tucked around tree roots; heathers in containers on the terrace;

a variety of skimmia (I think) with leaves prettily edged in pink; waxy hellebore flowers 

and some late-flowering fuchsia, vibrant even in the drizzle.  

Autumn leaves were falling but there were still enough on the branches to shimmer in the occasional bursts of sunshine. 

Autumn is a wonderful season in the Yorkshire Dales and Scargill is a beautiful place to lap it all up. 

In Kettlewell village

As you approach Kettlewell village from the Grassington direction, the road crosses a wide bridge across the River Wharfe. Although up here in the dale it's quite a 'young' river, it nevertheless meanders broad and slow through the flat-bottomed valley, a textbook U-shaped valley gouged out by glaciers over 10,000 years ago. 

I've taken lots of photos in Kettlewell over the years and for some reason didn't feel that inspired on this latest visit. I did enjoy this vibrant red cotoneaster set against the blue paintwork and stone. It's been an amazing year for autumn fruit of all kinds. 

Kettlewell has a pretty church, St Mary's, which was open to visitors. It's not that old (1885) but stands on the site of an earlier church. 

A brief burst of sunshine outside cast attractive shards of colour onto the stonework from the stained glass windows. I love that effect. 

Many of the windows in the church are memorials, as above. That below is one of a pair that were relocated from the village's Methodist church when it closed in 1986. It shows 'The Good Shepherd', an appropriate image in this farming valley full of sheep. 

Elsewhere in the village, I was drawn to document the 'vintage' garage. I don't think Burmah petrol actually exists any more, taken over by BP around 2000. It looks like you can still buy petrol and diesel of some kind here, which I'm sure is welcomed by residents although there's a rather more modern fuel outlet in nearby Threshfield.  

Walking down to Kettlewell

I spent a few days recently at Scargill, the Christian community in Kettlewell, in Upper Wharfedale. It's one of my favourite locations. I'd hoped for good weather to make the most of the autumn scenery but, apart from a few brief lulls, it was dull, damp and rather dismal. On one slightly brighter day, I had a brisk walk down the lane to Kettlewell village, enjoying the brief glimpses of light on the far fells. 

Long time readers of my blog may remember my account of a ramble up that steep, walled track on the hillside that you can see in the photo below. (See HERE) It was a rather hot day when I did that, rather a contrast to the chill and damp of a few days ago. It's all so beautiful though, whatever the weather. 

There aren't as many stone barns in Wharfedale as in some of the other Yorkshire Dales but they still punctuate the fields, as of course do the many dry stone walls. 

Flaky

Perhaps it's a bit 'flaky' but I can occasionally be found taking multiple photos of an old door or metal panel, when I come across one on my walks. The peeling paint and rusty marks strike me as really quite exciting and interesting. These patterns are far too strong to be useable as a texture on another picture, I feel, yet the colours and shapes still attracted me. 

BD: is LIT #2

More photos from BD: is LIT, the light show in Bradford. City Hall was bathed in a moving tapestry of colour: 'Worstedopolis' by Ronan Devlin, which celebrated Bradford's textile heritage. 

Elsewhere, 'Eternal Ensemble' (ONYVA studio) had four screens showing ethereal projections of a cellist, with accompanying music - 'music as living light'. It was rather beautiful (even though deaf old me couldn't hear the music!)

My own favourite was 'Rainforest Butterflies' by Anne Bennett. Inspired by the iridescent blue morpho tropical butterfly, they shimmered among the trees in Norfolk Gardens. Such a gorgeous blue, they looked quite real and were rather beautiful.

'Phenix' by Julien Menzel was also rather delightful, 'rising in light and flame' with ever changing colours from cool to warm and back again. It looked amazing set against the back drop of one of Bradford's Victorian jewels, St Georges Hall, attractively floodlit. Perhaps it's a good metaphor for our city, which is striving to 'rise again'.

BD: is LIT #1

It's not uncommon for cities to stage 'Light Nights' at this time of year. Bradford, as part of the City of Culture 2025 celebrations, was lit up for two nights so I popped down to the city centre to see it. I really enjoyed it. The light installations were, for the most part, rather good and the atmosphere around town was good too - a kind of buzzing calm; lots of people, lots of families out enjoying the sights. 

'Monolith' by  Urban Spy 'explored humanity's shifting relationship with data and technology'. It was huge and impactful, whether you made sense of that narrative or not. 

'End over End' by Studio Vertigo was a giant, colour-changing Slinky, playfully tumbling off the building. 

'Rever' by Outpoint Studio was again a colour-shifting display: 'a cascading waterfall of colour and music', with wreaths of mist giving a dreamlike sense to it. 

Golden light

Some days lately, the light has been just gorgeous, making my usual walk a real pleasure. You don't often see fishermen on this stretch of canal nowadays but there was just the one. He had an absolute ton of equipment: a seat and an umbrella; at least eight different rods, all on stands; plus boxes of bait, nets and so on. He needed a large trailer thingy to transport them all in. To my eye he looked a lot nearer but my phone's camera has rendered him as a tiny speck in the distance! Never mind, I wanted that autumn tree in the foreground and I didn't really want to disturb his peace with a closer shot. 

I rarely take a photo at this spot at the side of the railway bridge, but the blue sky and all the trees on Shipley Glen looked beautiful. Network Rail have recently felled a lot of trees and shrubs on the side of the line. It seems a shame and looks rather denuded now but they don't like a lot of 'leaves on the line' as they can make the rails slippery. 

Below is the view from the other side of the bridge, with Saltaire's towers and chimneys in the distance. Again, it would have been better with my telephoto lens but I only had my phone with me, not expecting the light to be so lovely. The best camera is always the one you have with you! 

In the little nature reserve, there are two small acers, which were absolutely glowing in the sunshine. 

Lest we forget

Saltaire's Caroline's Social Club currently has an impressive display for Remembrance Day, with hundreds of knitted poppies and some wooden ones too. It also has symbolic paintings on most of the windows. I don't recall them doing this in past years but I may be wrong. Perhaps it's because it's the 80th anniversary of the end of WWII, and probably one of the last times there will be any actual veterans of that war still alive. They have clearly put a lot of work into it and it's a nice example of community spirit, involving at least one local school too, I think. 

I'm sure most of us won't 'forget', though I can't see it makes any difference really.  There are still wars... seemingly more, and more brutal, than ever... and so much division and hatred seems to be surfacing in our societies lately. Ironically some of the worst attitudes seem to be among those who hang on fiercely to our notions of sovereignty and national pride. Personally, I'd like to see a lessening of the trend for sentimentality that surfaces when tragedy happens; all those flowers and teddies and candles left at key sites, by people who never even knew those concerned. All those balloons and flaming lanterns released 'in memory', despite that we know how harmful they then prove to be to our wildlife. Yes, we need to teach the younger generations about our not always glorious history and we should always be deeply compassionate to those who struggle, for whatever reason, but I'm not sure we should sensationalise things. I'm not against the respectful commemoration of those who gave their lives and wellbeing for the sake of others, but maybe it's time to dial back on some of the indulgence of nostalgia. (I realise this may not be a widely held view but it's how I feel.)