Mandarins

I spotted a pair of Mandarin ducks on the River Wharfe at Bolton Abbey. Aren't they attractive? The males are very showy with their bright colours and 'sails' but I love the more softly coloured females, so dainty-looking. Originally introduced to the UK from China, they have become established in the wild following escapes from captivity. They're not particularly common here but always nice to see. 

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. 

The little details

It's interesting to notice what catches my eye when I'm out walking. Things 'call' to me. It can be a trick of the light or a slight movement, or an artful natural arrangement, like the bleached autumn leaf nestling among the ivy leaves, above. 

Fungi and moss abound in the healthy air in the Dales, far enough away from major towns and cities to be relatively free of air pollution. 

Spring being 'in the air', the birds seem to be pairing off. Mr and Mrs Mallard were hunkered down among the wood anemones. 

The black-headed gulls seemed to like their individual fence-post perches. They are moving into their summer plumage, though the one in the middle looked to be lagging behind, still sporting his white winter cap. 

Oystercatchers usually overwinter at the coast and some move inland to breed. They are distinctive, with their orange-red bills and legs and stark black and white plumage. (Though it took me a good half-hour to remember what they're called. My aging brain!) I gather that curlews are returning to breed too, though I didn't see any. They tend to prefer the higher moorland, away from the river. 

A flash of white and a bobbing movement on the rocks in the river alerted me to this dipper. S/he was almost too far away to get a good shot through my camera lens.  

Then I started to enjoy the water itself: the swirling currents, the bright leaves caught on the rocks, the dreamlike reflections...

 

Barden Tower

At Barden Bridge I took a slight detour up the hill to revisit Barden Tower. It has quite a history. It was once a medieval hunting lodge, rebuilt in the late 15th century by Henry Clifford, 'the Shepherd Lord', who preferred to live here rather than in Skipton Castle. He also built the neighbouring chapel and Priests House (see my 4th photo). 

After his death in 1523, it was neglected and rarely used. In the mid 1600s the buildings were restored by Lady Anne Clifford, then once again became derelict, stripped of its lead and roof timbers by the 1800s. The tower itself is now a ruin, simply maintained for safety reasons. You can't go inside it, though you can see into the interior, where fireplaces hang halfway up the walls, the floors having fallen away. 

The Priests House and chapel are kept in better repair, now used for weddings and functions. (See HERE) 

On the tower, above the main door, is a plaque commemorating its restoration by Lady Anne Clifford, helpfully translated, though not entirely accurately, on another adjacent sign. She appears to have been fond of the place, perhaps because it gave shelter to her mother when she was pregnant with Lady Anne, who was eventually born in Skipton Castle in 1589.

Isaiah 58:12 says: 

'Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.'

Bolton Abbey estate walk

Another trip to Bolton Abbey for a walk... This was on the 10th March... we're at that time of year when the lag time between me taking photos and posting them here makes a difference. Spring is springing, but in early March there were only subtle signs. Things seem to be moving slowly this year. The day had promised to be bright and sunny. It was dry but there wasn't much sunshine, disappointingly. 

I parked in the Strid car park for a change, walked down through the woods to the river, upriver from the aqueduct (above) to Barden Bridge (below) and then back along the opposite riverbank. It's a very pleasant walk with more open views than you get further downstream. There were plenty of people about, mostly with dogs, but it rarely feels crowded there.

Everything seemed somehow to be poised, waiting, caught in that liminal space between seasons...

Stress buster

I seem to be having an incredibly busy few weeks. It's all good things but I notice I'm feeling a bit more stressed than I usually do, having a lot going on in my head. (I don't know how I ever managed to work and be a mother and all that. Getting up and ready for the day now seems like 'work' and I can only really cope with one major event in a day! It doesn't really matter, given that I'm retired and can largely please myself as to how I spend my time. It just amazes me that I ever managed more.) 

Anyway, finding myself with a precious day free of other plans, the only thing to do was to seek out trees and water, always good for stress busting. So I took a walk along the River Wharfe at Bolton Abbey to enjoy the autumn colour, which is really developing now. 

The Wharfe at Boston Spa

Isn't this a lovely view?  It's the River Wharfe as it runs down through the village of Boston Spa. After recent rain, the river is much fuller than it has been. On the right you can just see Jackdaw Crags, an outcrop of limestone that's protected as a SEGI, a Site of Ecological and Geological Importance. 

In the centre of the village, a long-standing and significant river crossing point, once a ford, is now spanned by the five arch Thorp Arch bridge, constructed in 1770.  

Looking upstream from the bridge you can just see the 18th century weir that once harnessed the water's flow to supply local corn and textile mills with power. 

It was hard to get closer to the weir because of the vegetation on the river bank. Where once it was a hive of industry, now it has modern residences with tranquil views over the water. In the foreground you can see the recently constructed fish pass, part of an environmental scheme to enable fish, particularly salmon, to migrate up and down our rivers, bypassing the man-made obstructions. 

I did attempt a more 'arty shot' of the weir through the trees but, given that by this stage I was reduced to using my phone and not my camera, it didn't quite work! 

And finally, here I am with my phone - photo courtesy of one of my friends! 

 

Rural Boston Spa

A short walk along Boston Spa's high street brings you to fields and woods, and we turned down a lane that led back to the village centre along the riverside. A farmer was busy ploughing the stubble from the cornfield, closely attended by numerous gulls feasting on the grubs and worms the process upturned. The natural cycle continues, irrespective of whatever weather we are blessed with. 

On our walk we were treated to a capricious mix of light showers and sunny intervals, though it felt quite warm. Not a bad day for a ramble. 

I was enchanted to find patches of pink cyclamen, in the church's graveyard, in the bases of hedges and in the woodland. It originates from the Mediterranean region, not a native plant in the UK, but it is now naturalised here. Delicate and pretty, they add a splash of autumn colour and seem to enjoy dappled shade. 

Boston Spa

A few of us from the camera club went over to Boston Spa to meet with a friend and former member who lives there. It's a village about 25 miles from Saltaire, on the way to York. The village really came into being in the 1770s, when a sulphur spring was discovered that led to the development of a spa where visitors could 'take the waters'. By the early 1800s it was growing and thriving, which has left a legacy of fine Georgian buildings along the main street. As nearby Harrogate's popularity as a spa grew, Boston Spa's declined but the village remains an attractive and desirable place to visit and to live. 

The parish church of St Mary the Virgin (above) isn't very old as British churches go, built around 1880 on the site of an earlier church completed in 1814. 

Of course it is all much changed, but close attention to the buildings reveals details like arches through to yards at the rear. They were probably designed to allow horses and carriages through to stables at the back.  

Along the high street, I noticed a fine example of an old-fashioned milestone. 

Walking along the high street, I was trying to photograph some of the varied and attractive buildings - Georgian, Victorian, Edwardian and some much more recent that have been carefully designed to reference the styles of the older ones. (I'm always in two minds whether this is a good thing or not.)

It was around this point that my camera decided to die! All of a sudden it decided not to focus and completely jammed up, so that I was obliged to continue the rest of our walk using just my phone. (See if you can spot which photos I took with which instrument, over the course of my three posts about the day!) Thankfully, once I got home I was able to sort it out, though for some reason all its settings were wiped so that I had to start over and set it up 'from new'. 

Otley town centre

The far end of Gallows Hill Nature Reserve (see yesterday) is right on the edge of town, where the residential streets give way to fields with flocks of sleepy sheep. At the road, I turned back into Otley town, a short walk of maybe half a mile, as fields become gardens and then an edge of town supermarket, shops and civic buildings. 

A boarded-up pub still has a vivid mural of a cyclist. Otley prides itself as a cycling town. Otley born Olympic Silver Medallist, World and National Champion Lizzie Deignan (née Armitstead) is the patron of the local cycling club. The town periodically hosts world class road races too. 

Otley has been a market town since 1227 and is a significant centre for surrounding agricultural communities, with regular livestock auctions. It very much retains its 'local' feel, less 'tourist-ified' than many of our small Yorkshire towns. (I'm not sure where all those outdoor-gym-using Otleyans were... certainly not much in evidence around the town centre!)  

The market area has an impressive Victorian Jubilee Clock, installed in 1888. 

By 1900, the town was reputed to have 30 inns and hostelries, many of them coaching inns and posting houses (where mail coaches stopped). It still seems to have a lot! The Black Bull was reputedly drunk dry by Cromwell's troops on the eve of the Battle of Marston Moor in 1644. Whether this is true or not, I don't know, I suspect it's just folklore - but they won the battle, which was decisive in terms of securing the north of England for the Parliamentarians, against the King.