One misty, moisty morning

(Back to the mini-break in early March) 

'One misty, moisty morning' is the title of a 1973 Steeleye Span song that still plays in my head from my student days. It was apt for the second day of my mini-break in Wensleydale, when the blue sky disappeared and left drizzle and a cold, damp mist hanging in the valley. It was atmospheric though, and not much can spoil the beauty of those stone barns and rambling drystone walls. 

On the road between Askrigg and Hawes there is a stand of trees on top of a hill that caught my eye, with random walls meandering across the slopes. I think I prefer the mono version, though the way I've processed it makes it look less misty. 

 

Cherry blossom time

Passing through Ilkley the other day, I noticed the cherry trees on The Grove are covered in full and rather splendid blossom. (Odd, as similar trees at the top of my road are not showing blossom at all yet.) I only had my phone with me but I couldn't resist taking a few snaps. It's a glorious sight and may not last long. We have wintry weather forecast for later this week, after a week or so of warm sunshine. Capricious!  

Spring has sprung

A week of warm sunshine has really kick-started the spring flowers - and it's such a joy to see them. These pictures were taken in the grounds of Keighley's Cliffe Castle Museum, which has grassy slopes awash with daffodils...

and some magnolia blossom too. The star magnolia (magnolia stellata) is a bright white and reminds me of fireworks. There was also a huge, mature magnolia (soulangeana - the pink and white type) in bloom. They always look stunning against a blue sky. Magnolias here in the UK are, however, very vulnerable to frost and with a cold snap forecast those waxy blossoms may soon be shrivelled and brown. So sad. 

 

Unlocked

Ilkley Camera Club's biennial exhibition had to be cancelled last year because of the Covid pandemic, so we are pleased that it is now on show in the opulent surroundings of Cliffe Castle Museum in Keighley. Some of us went along to the upper gallery to view it on the opening day, which was the first time I'd seen the whole thing hung, although we'd been busy framing the prints a couple of weeks ago. 

I have five photos on show and I'm delighted with how they look. (It's surprising how much a mount and a frame adds to the professional look!) We have some excellent photographers in the club and there are prints on display with a wide range of subject matter and technique, reflecting the variety of interests within the club. I'm very proud of what we have achieved, despite the difficulties caused by the Covid lockdowns. 

The exhibition runs until 28 August 2022 (closed on Mondays).   

I understand it will be viewable online too, in due course. When it is, I'll post a link. 

 

MOT D

(Breaking up my Wensleydale mini-break series with some more current, 'spring' pictures.)

No, not Match Of The Day but MOT day, the day in March when I have to take my car in for service and MOT. Sadly, it needed new brake discs and pads this time, at an eye-watering £400+ (ouch!) so a second visit is required before it is fully sorted out. The garage is in Silsden so I habitually go for a long walk whilst I'm waiting. Some years it's damp and dreary, occasionally you can feel spring is on the way. This year it felt like a midsummer day with sunshine and a balmy temperature of 19°C.  I was overdressed, of course! ;)  I had a very pleasant amble along the Leeds-Liverpool Canal to the nature reserve in Low Wood. The trees are not yet in leaf, though there are some signs of greening. There are more spring flowers coming out and a few early lambs in the fields. 

On the way back I passed 'Titus', Saltaire's trip boat, returning from its overwintering in Skipton. By the time I'd pulled my phone out, I only just caught the back of it! 

Just for a change, I've cropped all these photos to a 16x10 format. My phone pics (which these are) are a 4:3 ratio. In processing, I usually crop my photos quite randomly to suit the image. Sometimes it's good to try something different and I'm usually pleasantly surprised when I do use a 'standard' format, that it works quite well. It has cropped slightly too much off the reflections in the top pic but never mind. 

Aysgarth Falls

I hope you're not tired of seeing waterfalls! There seem to be as many in this area of the Yorkshire Dales as there are in Iceland, though perhaps not quite so spectacular. The light was fading by the time I arrived at perhaps the most famous of them - Aysgarth Falls. In fact along this stretch of the River Ure there are three sets of falls - Upper, Middle and Lower, all within a half a mile or so of each other and all quite easy to access. My photos show the Upper Falls. 

By the way, the dale is called Wensleydale, after a village, rather than Uredale after the river, which is a departure from the style of most of the other Yorkshire Dales. There are, however, several places that have Yoredale in their name, harking back to the older name.

The amount of blur a waterfall photo needs is a matter of personal preference, I guess. I quite like the milky effect of a long exposure, as it suggests the motion of the water tumbling down. 

Cauldron Falls at West Burton

There are inevitably a lot of waterfalls in the Yorkshire Dales, and my journey took me past several notable examples. This one is Cauldron Falls, in the village of West Burton at the mouth of Bishopdale, where Walden Beck tumbles over a rocky outcrop. It is well-known as it is so accessible, only a few steps from the village centre. It was sketched by JMW Turner in 1816, during one of his tours of Yorkshire. The Falls have not really changed at all since then. 

It's arguably prettier here in autumn but one advantage of a visit in midwinter is that there were few people about, so I didn't have to fight to place my tripod in a good spot. I did see one lady wild-swimming in the plunge pool below the bridge. It must have been freezing! 

The village of West Burton itself is not unattractive, though difficult to photograph as it has a very long and wide village green through the middle. At one time it was an important market town for those working in lead mines and quarries in the area. 

The market cross dates from 1820, though there was a market held here long before that. There's also a pub - and, lo and behold, it was open! So I did eventually get my coffee. 

Cray Falls

The road from Upper Wharfedale over into Wensleydale skirts round the side of Buckden Pike, where there are several waterfalls that cascade off the fell side. I stopped to photograph Cray Falls, named after the hamlet that sits below it, which has just a couple of houses and a pub (closed on Tuesdays, as was the pub in Buckden - sigh! Still no coffee... Was starting to wish I'd taken a flask.) 

I thought that you could get up close to these Falls, but I couldn't find a route, perhaps because recent rain had left the fields boggy and the streams swollen. With my longest lens I still managed to capture some of the beauty of the cascade, although I think there are more falls even higher up that I couldn't see from this vantage point.

Snowdrops and sunshine

I had a short break in the Yorkshire Dales at the beginning of March. Driving up through Upper Wharfedale, I stopped at Kilnsey Trout Farm, expecting their very nice café to be open. Sadly it wasn't, and I didn't get any refreshments until much later. It seems Mondays and Tuesdays are closing days in the Dales.  

As always, I enjoyed the lovely view of Kilnsey Crag across the fishing lake. I reckon that blue sky really suits the Dales scenery, despite it generally being frowned on by photographers (boring, chocolate-boxy). A harbinger of Spring, a swathe of snowdrops added to the beauty. (Spring marches on. Now, a mere three weeks later, the snowdrops have been replaced by crocus and daffodils everywhere.) 

Even though the café was closed, there were several people fishing around the lake. (All men; I wonder if there are ever any female anglers? I've never seen one.) As I was watching, one of them landed a trout, though it didn't make much fuss being caught. I expected much more splashing about but it was reeled in and neatly netted so that I hardly got time to capture the moment.  

Spring in the air

We've had a few days of much brighter, dry and crisp weather, with sunshine and a little warmth during the day though still very low temperatures overnight. It tempts me out to walk - too good to miss. I haven't done my favourite 'out along the river, back along the canal' route for a while so I took a few phone snaps as I re-acquainted myself with that. There are welcome signs of spring... 

The flowering currant shrubs are early bloomers; this one is in the allotment in front of Salts Mill. 

There were rowers practising on the river, which is now really low compared with a couple of weeks ago. Weeping willows along the bank are often the first trees to show some soft greening. 

In the woodland along the riverbank, spring flowers are beginning to unfurl: marsh marigolds in the boggy areas, 

lesser celandine on the banks:

 

and white wood anemones among the trees. 

Returning via the canal side, I was able to see that the 'heavy leakage on the headgates' at Hirst Lock, that I reported a few days ago HERE, has now been repaired. There was a Canal and River Trust barge going down through the lock. 

I enjoyed my stroll - there's always something new to see - and bumping into a former work colleague added even more delight, as we had a good catch-up and chatted about the state of the world. Simple joys...

In lock step

The Leeds-Liverpool Canal between East Marton and Gargrave must be one its prettier stretches, with far ranging views and lots of canalside interest. There are numerous bridges and no less than ten locks, six of them within a very short distance at Bank Newton. My photo above shows Bank Newton Top Lock, with some old canalside cottages alongside.  A little further on there are some wide pools or winding holes where boats could turn. This area was the site of a boatyard and a carpenter's yard that made and repaired lock gates. In years gone by, apparently, the canal company provided deceased employees with a free coffin, made here in these workshops! The buildings are now converted to residential use, very attractive but perhaps a little too exposed to view on all sides for my liking. 

Nearer still to Gargrave, the canal crosses the River Aire on a short aqueduct and there is a railway bridge over the canal too. The railway (Leeds-Settle-Carlisle line) crosses the river on a viaduct, making an attractive view - though I just missed a train passing over! 

East Marton

The farthest point on my walk from Gargrave was East Marton, where my route picked up the towpath of the Leeds-Liverpool Canal to take me back to Gargrave. East Marton is a cluster of farm buildings, cottages and a pub, with a newer residential area on the lane down to the church. There is a short stretch beyond Williamson Bridge (above) where narrowboats moor and there is a water point. One of the bridges, below, is double-arched. It was initially a packhorse bridge but was raised when the Skipton-Gisburn turnpike road, now the A59, was built. 

The towpath is on the inside of a bend in the canal here, and  I noticed this wooden roller, designed to prevent the towropes of horse-drawn boats from rubbing on the wall. Either the roller hasn't always been there or it is not entirely successful, since you can see grooves in the stone worn by ropes rubbing. 

Some of the buildings in the hamlet looked pretty old. This cottage had a datestone of 1698 above the door, though you can't always tell if that is original or simply added from an earlier building. It had nice detailing in the wall and round the windows. 

Gallivanting round Gargrave

A crisp and sunny winter day seemed a shame to waste indoors, so I drove over to Gargrave and took a circular walk of about 6 miles from the village, along the Pennine Way to East Marton and then back along the Leeds-Liverpool Canal. It's a lovely scenic walk, which I've done before the other way round. Somehow things seem very different viewed from the opposite direction so it felt like a 'new' walk. 

Recent dry weather had reduced the water level in our rivers. The Aire through Gargrave, viewed from the bridge near the church, looked very benign in the sunshine.

Fields near the village were full of very pregnant and rather sleepy-looking sheep, who didn't move despite my close proximity. There are signs everywhere saying 'Lambing time; there are penalties for worrying sheep' - so I was careful not to mention climate change or the war as I walked past. 

Once away from the village I had to concentrate. It was difficult to tell the Pennine Way path from sheep tracks, apart from a few finger posts pointing the way - and the recent dry weather hadn't diminished the mud in the fields. Looking back, you can see Gargrave church and Flasby Fell in the distance, a lovely view though visibility was was a bit hazy. 

Stoppage at Hirst Lock

Walking past Hirst Lock the other day, I noticed they have cordoned it all off and set up a barrier to direct all the water down the slipway to the side, so that the lock can be drained. The Canal and River Trust website has an up-to-date list of 'stoppages', as they call them, so I looked up this one. They are carrying out 'works to repair heavy leakage on the headgates' (whatever that means!) The towpath is still open here but there are several places along its length where the Leeds-Liverpool Canal and/or the towpath are currently closed. Hard luck for any boaters wanting to make progress along it - and in some places walkers and cyclists will have to divert too.