Magical mystery wood

Regular camera club meetings have ceased for the summer but we do have a series of outings planned, which was why a dozen of us descended on the ravine in Ilkley known as Heber's Ghyll. The idea was to take it slowly and mindfully, noticing what 'spoke' to us and why. It sounds easy, is harder in practice. I found I do need a dialogue with my camera to discover the best compositions. I can see something with my eye and then need to refine the vision through the camera. Perhaps that's much like any artist (though I don't often use that term to describe myself) who translates a vision through a medium, paying attention to the properties of the paint for example. Acrylics behave very differently from watercolours and you take that into account. So too with your camera and lens. 

So I was watching and listening to the woodland and the stream, the rocks, wood and moss, the light and the colours and responding through my camera. The lighting was soft, with an overcast sky, and Heber's Ghyll seemed quiet and mysterious, slightly magical in its own way. 

Whether that quiet magic transmits through my photos, only you will know.... 

Sunday afternoon in the park

Roberts Park was looking at its best in the sunshine, with the cherry blossom in bloom. It was a Sunday afternoon and there was music in the bandstand by Hot Aire, a local and well regarded concert band led by Stephen Bradnum, with a lively and varied repertoire. The band has many young people among its members and is known for developing people's skills as musicians to a high level, whilst providing a lot of fun in the process. 

Classic Dodge

It's not often I do these kind of surreal photo effects. In this case, I spotted the classic 1958 Dodge car in the centre of Knaresborough and took photos of it. It was, however, impossible to avoid a cluttered background of other cars and people around, so the special effects help to mask all that. Don't ask me for details of the car - all I know is it said Dodge on the front and Coronet on the side - but it was rather thrilling, with a very long, low profile, rear fins and lots of bling. It had white leather upholstery with one of those wonderful front bench seats that seem to have died out completely nowadays. My own first car (a Rover 90) had one; fun for cuddling up when we were courting! 

Random Knaresborough quirkiness

Knaresborough has quite a few trompe-l'oeil-style murals scattered around the town, on buildings and in the railway station. I rather liked the jovial choir-master and his choristers, on a building opposite the parish church, and the church reflections in the windows on either side too. 

Elsewhere in town there's Civil War reference, with a Cavalier and a Roundhead dishing out some nasty treatment to those walking beneath. On the front of a pub called 'Blind Jack's'  there is Blind Jack himself with his fiddle. Born into a poor family in Knaresborough and blinded by smallpox at the age of six, Jack Metcalf (1717-1810) started his working life as a fiddler, playing in pubs. By grabbing opportunities as they arrived, he ended up with a distinguished career as a civil engineer, building turnpike roads across the north of England. Read about him HERE - fascinating.

Blind Jack is also commemorated by a statue in the town square:

So is Ursula Southeil (1488-1561), known as Mother Shipton, a soothsayer and prophetess, reputed to have been born in a cave by the river. Born with deformities, she was taunted as a witch and so learned to keep her own company, studying herbs and making potions. She was reputed to be able to see into the future, and made many prophecies. Much of what is said about her seems to be folklore and myth, but there seems no doubt that she was a real person.   

In the church, in the chapel that commemorates the Slingsby family, Sir William Slingsby (1563-1634), a soldier and later an MP, stands casually in a niche holding a shield with the family coat of arms. A rather dashing chap! 

Finally, and a bit random - I was amused by this sign. I've heard of a 'walking bus' (chaperoned groups of children walking to school) but never a 'pedes-train'!

 

Knaresborough

Although it's only about an hour's drive from here, I go to Knaresborough so infrequently that each time I just end up with the usual iconic tourist shots. One day I must try and find a side of it that is less often seen! It is an attractive place though, so you can't blame anyone for snapping a view like the one above, looking down on the River Nidd from Knaresborough Castle, with the railway viaduct in the middle distance. 

The castle itself is now just a ruin but has quite a history, dating back to Norman times. Read about it HERE. It was a Royalist stronghold during the Civil War and was besieged after the Battle of Marston Moor in 1644. When it eventually surrendered to Cromwell's troops, he ordered it to be demolished to prevent further use by the Royalists. The King's Tower and the Courthouse survive because they were used by the townspeople to hold and try prisoners. 

There are various steep steps and lanes from the castle and market square down to the riverside, where an elegant promenade has a plethora of bars and cafés to delight today's visitors. I enjoyed my first ice cream cone of the year as I strolled along the riverside. (I've had more since! 😋 ) The views are fascinating, with a real hotch-potch of very old and newer housing crammed together on the hillside. There's a thatched cottage and several buildings painted in chequerboard black and white, which seems to be a Knaresborough trademark. 

The steepest cobbled street is called Water Bag Bank, since it was this track that ponies used to carry water up from the river to the town. 

Down on the riverbank there are several places to hire rowing boats, should you feel the urge. 

Sakura hanami in Harrogate

In Japan, the brief season of cherry blossom (sakura) is, I believe, celebrated with flower viewing (hanami) parties under the trees. You could well do that on the Stray in Harrogate, where avenues of cherry trees bloom for a while in spring. I've seen lots of photos of them, so when I was over that way recently it seemed a good opportunity to stop and have a stroll to view them. They certainly are beautiful. 

There was a local artist, Anita Bowerman, enjoying the sunshine as she painted a representation of the view. She was using a cherry twig - rather than a brush - to apply the acrylic. She said each year she creates new pictures of the blossom for her gallery, specialising in nature images in uplifting colours - blossom, bluebells and local landscapes. See her work in her Dove Tree Art Gallery and Studio in Harrogate (HERE). 

The Stray is a large area of open grassland and park on the south side of the town centre, originally part of a royal hunting forest. By the late 1700s, as Harrogate developed into a major spa town, the land was awarded protected status to ensure that it would always be kept open and accessible to the public. It contributes to Harrogate's renown as an attractive 'garden city'. 

Serious business

I had my grandgirls for a day over Easter. Even though they're getting a bit grown-up now, they still insist on playing with the familiar toys I have here. A favourite is the dolls' house. It's rather dilapidated these days but then it is over sixty years old. My grandfather built it for me when I was a child. I clearly recall being given it one Christmas, when I was ill in bed with scarlet fever or some such childhood ailment. The dolls' house was placed beside my bed and helped make me happier than I might otherwise have been when I was feeling rubbish. Later my daughter played with it when she was young. It lives in my attic room - thankfully out of the way of normal household life, as it does take up quite a bit of space.  

Later on, we went down to the playground beside Roberts Park, where there is a sandpit. Odd how 'burying one's legs' can be so amusing... I remember doing just that on beaches in my youth. 

Of course, we then moved on to the serious business of ice-cream, which requires quite a lot of concentration to enjoy to the full. 

Falls and frogs

There's a valley that leads roughly north on the Bolton Abbey estate, up Barden Fell, following the line of a beck. It's called the Valley of Desolation but is much nicer than the name would suggest. (I believe the name comes from the aftermath of a storm that caused havoc in Victorian times.) Part way up at Posforth Gill, the beck tumbles over rocks in a rather pretty waterfall. My photo was taken on my phone so it is a little over-bright in the water, but you can see what an attractive pattern the cascade has. I'll have to go back with my big camera. 

Along the valley there are also some boggy ponds, which were full of frogs, many of them mating. You had to be really careful where you placed your feet to avoid steeping on them along the path!  A frog he would a-wooing go - heigh ho! 

I also spotted some rather attractive lichens and mosses. I once knew a botanist who was an expert in lichens and even had one named after him. I could have done with his experience on my walk. 

Beautiful Bolton Abbey

Beautiful scenes around the Bolton Abbey estate when I visited on a crisp, bright, early Spring day recently. The stepping stones across the River Wharfe need a bit of attention, but thankfully there are also crossings via footbridges, so a circular walk is possible. 

From the high path you can look down on the Strid Gorge and, when the trees are not in leaf, the view is quite good. The river narrows dramatically here and rushes through a dangerous stretch of rapids. Most of the river is quite shallow (as you can see where the fisherman is standing, above) but the depth at the Strid is reputed to be more than the equivalent of two double-decker buses, with swirling currents and underground caverns that have claimed the lives of several people.

The monument is the Cavendish Memorial, erected in memory of Lord Frederick Cavendish, an English Liberal politician, who was murdered in Dublin in 1882 by Irish Republicans, on the day he arrived to take up his appointment as Chief Secretary for Ireland. He was the second son of the 7th Duke of Devonshire, (the Dukes of Devonshire being the landowners of the Bolton Abbey estate.) 

 

Pink moon

On the evening of the Sundowner event in Roberts Park, the sunset was muted - but in the other direction, the huge, low, full Pink or Paschal Moon of April was spectacular, albeit a little hazy. (Not that I'm much good at taking moon photos, but I had to give it a go.)

Lantern Parade 1

The World Heritage Day events in Saltaire's Robert's Park culminated in a Sundowner Lantern Parade, featuring the huge puppets made and operated by Cecil Green Arts, a local community arts organisation. These were accompanied by a large numbers of lanterns and lit sculptures made by young people in workshops run by the arts organisation. 

The rather fancy skeletons seemed to be very friendly and kept giving each other hugs. 

There was a boar on a bicycle, who was circling round the park, and other odd creatures like a giant jellyfish and a wasp (bee? hornet?). The sculptures, lit from within, are intricately made from thin paper stretched over willow frames, light but seemingly quite sturdy. 

The parade processed right round the park and looked rather lovely reflected in the river against a soft pink sunset. 
 

 

I'm adding a separate post with a short video I filmed of the parade. (My first go at such advanced technology! 😂 ) It has sound too. The Peace Artistes led the parade with some great percussion. Do enjoy it. 

Lantern Parade video

 Click the arrow to start (may have to do it twice!) and have your sound turned up! 

Sundowner event

The Peace Artistes (see yesterday) were playing at an event in Roberts Park on Easter Saturday, to mark World Heritage Day. (Saltaire is a World Heritage Site.) There was music and a market, and lots of families enjoying the sunshine on what (happily) turned out to be the warmest day of the year so far - very pleasant. We've a friend who plays trumpet in a band called 'Eckythump Drummers', another local outfit that packs a punch. They were in the bandstand, producing some really fun, rhythmic music. It was a lovely family event for us as my daughter, grandgirls and various friends were there.  The evening ended with a lantern parade at dusk, which I'll show tomorrow.