Tapestry

 A riot of colour - a grassy bank covered in flowers. 

'I moved not with my feet, but mid the glooms

Pierced with my charmed eye, contemplating

The mighty multitude of fresh May blooms.'

PB Shelley

Wayzgoose

A few more pictures from Otley's May Day celebrations... These dancers are Wharfedale Wayzgoose, a Border Morris side from Otley who 'make a lot of noise, drink a lot of beer and occasionally do some dancing'. It's lively stuff, with sticks, face paint and elaborate costumes. 

Incidentally, the proceedings were taking place under the watchful eye of Otley's Bellman (Terry Ford), the town crier (see above left), accompanying the town's current mayor, Councillor Paul Carter.

'Border Morris originated in the agricultural communities of the Welsh Marches – Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Shropshire. Farm workers dancing at festivals and collecting money from the very landowners who employed them walked a fine line. The solution was simple and brilliant: if no one could tell who you were, no one could hold it against you come Monday morning. Their disguise took many forms: rags, tatters, blackened faces, but the principle was the same. The dancer disappears; the performance remains.'

The Morris side is led by a Squire. (I assume that is the man pictured above, who seemed to be taking charge, but I may be wrong.)  They also had a (Wayz)Goose with them, dressed in a 'tatter' cloak of rags, who was delighting (or terrorising) the youngsters, depending on the bravery of each individual child. 

May Day in Otley

I realised to my surprise that it's eight years since I last went to the May Day celebration in Otley. This year it was a much warmer day, with a hint of sunshine, so there were a lot more people watching. That meant it was a bit harder to get photos but made for a great atmosphere. 

The event is organised by Otley's Buttercross Belles, a North-West Morris dance side. They are able to use the Otley town maypole. The actual pole they dance round is a newish one, but there has been a maypole on this Cross Green site for upwards of 200 years at least. Maypoles have a rich history in British folklore and celebrations, particularly on May Day, symbolising fertility and spring. It's a lovely tradition to keep alive. 

The first half of the celebration saw the team encouraging children to dance around the maypole, weaving in and out to make simple patterns round the pole with the ribbons. It was predictably chaotic!

The Buttercross Belles then did a couple of dances. They use handkerchiefs and textile bobbins in their dances, a reminder of their tradition's origins in our mills. 

They were supported by Kitchen Taps, a local Appalachian dance side: 

and The Flash Company, also Otley-based, who have taken traditional Morris a step further, dancing to more modern music designed to appeal to a new audience. They were all having lots of fun.  Morris dance is impossible to watch without wanting to jig about! 

Each Morris side has its own musicians but much of the music for the Maypole dances themselves was supplied by the band that accompanies Wayzgoose, the Border Morris side based in Otley, who were also there dancing. 

 

Bolton bluebells

Sorry but I can't resist a few more bluebell shots... It's May Day so I need to celebrate. 

These were actually taken on April 22 at Bolton Abbey. I met a friend there for a walk. This was only about a week after I visited previously, when the bluebells were just coming into bloom. A week on - and some sunshine - and the flowers had mostly unfurled right to their top bud - 'peak bluebell'. As I mentioned before, they're a good couple of weeks earlier this year than one would usually expect. 

They look better when photographed in soft light rather than sunshine - but glorious nevertheless. 

It's by far my favourite time of year. If I was condemned to spend the rest of my life in an English bluebell wood in spring, I wouldn't complain! Happily there are a few very good local sites where you can be sure of seeing them. 

In the space of a week, the wild garlic has gone from being just leaves to being studded with white flowers too. So pretty. 

Lilac

We need smell-o-vision here! On my walk down to the canal I pass a small lilac tree in someone's garden. At this time of year it is glorious, with lush clusters of blossom and the most heavenly scent. I've sometimes wondered whether to knock on the door of the house and beg a few sprigs... but I'm not bold enough! I do enjoy it though, stopping to inhale the fragrance as I pass. 

I like it especially because it reminds me of the little white lilac tree in the garden of my childhood home. White ones don't tend to be quite as strongly scented but I still loved that scrappy little tree. I've even managed to dig out an old photo of me standing in front of it. I guess I was about twelve at the time. Nostalgia! 

 

Square eyes

My mother used to warn/threaten us, as children, that we'd 'get square eyes' from watching too much television. (Worries about 'screen time' have been with us for decades!) Nowadays, I sometimes decide I'll take my 'square eyes' on a walk, just for a change. It's funny how imposing a restriction, like setting my camera to a different ratio, can sometimes make me more creative, or at least free me up to look at things a little differently. 

I made the most of a bright, dry morning with a trip to Bolton Abbey - and timed it perfectly. The rain started just as I drove away from the car park to come home! It was all very beautiful, quite possibly my favourite time of year when the new leaves are bathing the trees in varying shades of soft green and amber, interspersed with a few bursts of blossom.  

I just blissed out and really enjoyed finding square compositions. When I got home and uploaded the photos, I wasn't sure that my bliss in the moment had translated into all that many wonderful images, but it doesn't really matter. I had fun. 

Pink explosion

I find it interesting that, despite having lived in my previous home - where I was very happy -  for over 25 years, I don't miss it a bit. I'm totally content with my new apartment and relieved not to have to worry any more about the maintenance of a house that was over 120 years old. The only things I do miss are my lovely neighbour (and we are still in touch anyway) and the cherry blossom: mature trees at the end of the street that, for a couple of weeks each year, explode in a riot of pink. It's that time of year now and, happily, just a short stroll down the road takes me back there to enjoy their colour. 

When the blossom is over, the petals fall like confetti and get swept up in the breeze. I used to find my front garden absolutely covered in them, like pink snow. It was pretty but messy! So I don't really miss that either. 

Random notes from a walk

The view along the railway line towards Saltaire has been opened up quite a lot since Network Rail has been assiduously felling trees along the length of the line. I assume it is to prevent problems with fallen trees, and leaves on the rails in the autumn, though I did read that it was part of a programme to encourage lower shrub and hedge growth, which are apparently better as wildlife corridors. Who knows? I was a bit dismayed as the bare patches and stumps left behind currently look a bit unsightly but I suppose it will all recover somehow. I note that they have also removed the young birch tree that was growing through the parapet of the railway bridge. That did need doing, as it would soon have seriously destabilised the stonework.

Meanwhile, growth in our woodlands is unchecked. There are currently hundreds of celandines blooming. Their yellow, sunburst flowers look very pretty en masse. I almost like them as much as the bluebells that come later... and I especially like them when they're interspersed with wood anemones. 

There are a few early bluebells just beginning to unfurl on the south-facing banking alongside the river. These are always much earlier to flower than those in Hirst Woods, where it's more shaded. 

The old, repurposed boat by Hirst Locks is getting more fragile as time goes on, but when the spring flowers bloom it still looks quite attractive. 

Spring teaser

We are being teased with the odd day or two of beautiful spring sunshine and then the weather reverts to rain, wind and cold. We all respond to the sun. I'm making the most of it with longer walks, the trees are soaking it up to fuel their new leaves and the spring flowers - yellow, white, blue - are twinkling in the woodland. Gorgeous. I just wish it would last for a few more days at a time. 

Blue sky day

Another balmy blue sky day... Although I'd had appointments in the morning, I felt I needed to make the most of the warm sunshine, so in the afternoon I walked up the hill to Northcliffe Park. The view across to Baildon was a little hazy but you can just see the top of Salts Mill chimney jutting above the trees in the middle. That shows how Saltaire sits deep in the valley, down by the river. Once the trees have leaves it gets hidden altogether. 

This being a park rather than a completely natural area, there are daffodils in the woods. Quite pretty but they don't really fit in woodland, in my mind! 

I don't hear many birds (because of my deafness) but I have the Merlin app on my phone and I enjoy watching as it picks up and identifies the sounds around. It's not guaranteed to be 100% accurate but I think it's pretty good on the whole. It helps me to feel closer to nature and I can sometimes scan around and spot the little birds once I've been alerted to their presence. I could hear the wood-pigeons ('My toe hurts, Betty!') and the cawing of the crows. I also heard the woodpecker tapping. But the little birds are too shrill for me to pick up. 

At various points of my walk, as well as those listed above, the app picked up: Carrion Crow, Jackdaw, Nuthatch, Song Thrush, Coal Tit, Goldfinch, Chiffchaff and Siskin - and I saw a few Magpies too. There are Jays in the woods - and sometimes Ring-Necked Parakeets too, though I wasn't alerted to either of those that day. It just goes to show how important these suburban green spaces are. Well done to the late Sir Norman Rae who, in 1920, gifted Northcliffe Park to the people of Shipley in perpetuity.  

Willow trees are among the first of our UK species to 'green up', though in reality that early colour is a strident acid yellow! Echoing the yellow, there were hosts of daffodils around the children's play area, as well as in the woods.

It was a 'good to be alive' kind of day. 

Early Spring at East Riddlesden

Early spring at our local National Trust property, East Riddlesden Hall...  The daffodils were amazing. 

The gardens are very well cared for. Whether by volunteers or employed gardeners or a mixture of the two, I don't know, but the flowerbeds were weeded and the shrubs and trees pruned neatly.  Spring flowers were starting to bloom. There were some huge snowdrops, lots of hellebores, the pretty blue scilla and, of course, more daffodils and narcissi. 

The ruined Starkie wing was built as an extension to the hall in 1692 but became neglected and unsafe and so it was demolished in 1905. An adventurous mallard was exploring around the other side of the wall from the lake... 'and he went with a quack and a waddle and a quack'. 

Sunshine and celandines

This last week it has really felt like spring, with warm sunshine and a fresh feeling in the air. I spent the morning of 17 March at the 'Listening for Life' centre at the hospital, having intensive hearing tests and discussing cochlear implants (no decision made yet!) so a de-stressing walk in the afternoon made perfect sense. The TV weatherman said it was the 'Spring equilux' in the UK, when day and night are both 12 hours (not to be confused with the Vernal equinox, which was on 20 March). I have to confess I'd never heard the term equilux before; I learn something every day. 

In the woods, the celandines have suddenly burst into flower, a cheerful yellow carpet of stars, here and there brightened by milky white wood anemones. 

Blue and yellow are very much the colours of spring and the Aire Rowing Club on the far side of the river is decked out accordingly. 

The absence of foliage means you can see things that are hidden in summer. This bridge (below) is the aqueduct that carries the Leeds-Liverpool Canal over the River Aire, and a trick of the light meant it was much more obvious than usual. It actually has seven arches but the river now only flows through two or three of them and the others are silted up. 

My favourite trees were surrounded by dairy cows - and soaring overhead there were two red kites (birds), though you can barely see them in the photo. At one time red kites were nearing extinction in the UK but a protection and reintroduction programme has been very successful, numbers increasing by 2,464% between 1995 and 2023. They're now a common sight around here but nonetheless thrilling to see, soaring on the warm thermal currents. 

In Roberts Park, the young cherry trees are flowering, a pretty addition to the bottom meadow, planted only in the last two or three years. 

Magnolias have suddenly burst into blossom, so I hope we don't get any frosts. Those on the park promenade (below) are not fully out yet, as they don't get so much sun.

I'm not sure what the white blossom is... some kind of cherry I suppose. 

I enjoyed my walk and certainly felt more relaxed and peaceful as a result.