Rancho Texas, Lanzarote

Flying vulture at Rancho Texas in Lanzarote, it passed so close to me I could feel the wind from its wings.

La Santa, Lanzarote

Teguise, Lanzarote

Swinsty Reflections

The last picture is actually a portrait shot of a fallen tree lying in the water, but rotated to landscape it looks like an upright tree.

Swinsty Reflections

There was a gunmetal grey sky when I was out walking on Monday which made for some lovely mirror like reflections in the surface of Swinsty reservoir.

It was a lovely afternoon's walk - until I slipped and smacked myself in the mouth with my own hiking pole which resulted in a trip to dentist to repair a broken front tooth.

Stained Glass

Window detail at Christchurch, Ilkley

Let Every Thing That Has Breath Praise The Lord

Stained glass window at All Saints Church, Ilkley.

Closed Market Stalls Amsterdam

Sea View From Dunstanburgh Castle

Alnmouth Beach

This was back in August. Meg took me on a day trip to show me some of the places that her parents used to take her as a child.  Alnmouth beach is lovely, hard flat sand and lots of interesting rock pools, and a golf course on which you almost tee off from the sand.

Joe and Ellie at Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Walking Yorkshire - Lovely Seat, Great Shunner Fell

This is great, a day's walking in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, and good company in the shape of Godson Joseph. We parked the car above Butter Tubs and set off up Lovely Seat as a warm up to the main hill of Great Shunner Fell, Jo was already leaving me behind on the steep sections and I had an inkling that I might spend much of the day watching him vanish into the distance ahead of me.

Jo sat in the seat at Lovely Seat

A fast half hour saw us on the top, "Is that it ?" says wonder boy.  "Yes that's it" I replied, well, as soon as I got my breath back I replied. We set off back down and then started the longer slog up the splendidly named Grimy Gutter Hags to Little Shunner Fell and then up again to Great Shunner Fell.  This bit was the only section of the day where I could reasonably keep pace with the boy, in soft boggy sections having longer legs has a distinct advantage.  As soon as we began the steeper and drier climb to the top of the fell I was back panting at the rear though.

Field barn in Stock Dale

Lunch was had at the shelter atop Great Shunner, then came down the Pennine Way into Thwaite, returning to the car up Cliff Gate Road, and what an epic bit of walking this was to be. Jo set the pace on the way back up, and like Alberto Contador he excels on the hills.  The pace was brutal, we passed two other groups of hikers on the way, Jo flying past, me trailing in his wake with every movement of my head loosing drops of sweat, panting and gasping for breath.  Almost three miles of 1 in 4 uphill walking and he doesn't slow down once except for a quick peek into the scary drops of the Butter Tubs themselves.

Jo enjoying a pint at the Farmer's Arms, Muker

We drove into Muker for a pint of Muker Silver at the Farmer's Arms, but they were not serving food until later so we drove back down to Grassington and had a nice dinner at the Devonshire Hotel.  A nice day's walking, but it is obvious we shall have to do a longer route next time, at the end of the day I collapsed onto the couch and fell asleep, Jo went off for an hour's badminton to run off the excess energy he had.

Tree and Road

Gorse Flowers

Dandelion Head

Bracken Fronds

National Farmers' Union Stand, Great Yorkshire Show 2011

Junior Beef, Great Yorkshire Show 2011

Big Wheel, Great Yorkshire Show 2011

Real Bales

These were in a field close to Ilkley Lawn Tennis Club, you don't often see proper oblong bales like these any more, most farmers seemed to have switched to the giant wheel shaped bales.  When I was a child there was a big field behind the Red Lion in Burley (which is a new housing estate now) and we used to play there in the cutting season, building castles from the hay bales.