wood anenome

The wood anenome is not a very interesting plant on the face of it, but it spreads very slowly (something of the order of six feet per century I read somewhere) so you know you are in an ancient place if there is a whole hillside covered in the stuff as you can see down in Billy Banks Woods, it contains a toxin known as protoanemonin which means it has a place in our past as a traditional medicine (for rheumatism I believe) and it mostly lives underground and only appears for these few weeks of early spring before the trees come into leaf and block out the light. So although it's not very interesting it's quite nice to see it, reassuring, or something like that.

turnpike

This is the old turnpike sign carved into the bridge over the River Swale, between The Green and Sleegill. As you can see it's been recarved in recent years to remedy two hundred years of weathering, which is quite a lot in these parts. There were two terrible road accidents involving folks from this country at the weekend. In one four people were killed, three from the same family. In the other five were killed. One happened in West Cumbria, the other in South America. One involved ordinary folk who were probably not out looking for an adventure, the other bright young things with the money and freedom to travel the world at a young age. One received widespread and comprehensive national news coverage, tributes to those lost and a message of sympathy from the prime minister, one will be entirely unknown to you unless you watch the BBC local news for the North East and Cumbria. It's a funny old world.

spring

This was the scene on easter sunday morning. The snow here in the town was only an overnight dusting that didn't survive the first sunshine but up on the fells the A66 was closed at the weekend, although to be honest that road get closed if a workman makes it slippery by sneezing on it, and there was still snow on the moors today. It was bloody freezing all weekend in fact, the kind of weather that makes you want to do nothing more than stay in with a bottle of something to keep out the cold watching black and white films on TV, which is why I had to send Mrs Clewley out before breakfast to take this picture.

middleham

On Good Friday the trainers around Middleham in Wensleydale, several of whose yards are right in the centre of the town and just off the main street open their stables for a few hours to allow seasoned punters, curious small children and everyone in between to meet the talent face to face. The thing about horses is that even someone who can't tell one from another when passing them in the road can see how different they are in personality when up close. I don't know if being close to horses taps into some deep vein of past human reliance but there certainly is something very special about them. It was good timing too as just for those few hours the sun shone on the dales before the snow clouds blew over at lunchtime. If I had the money I might well buy a share, an ear or a tail, of one of these creatures but I think it would be much more fun to have a whole one.

arkle beck

It was grey and cloudy mostly today but the sun did try to come out once or twice so this is Arkengarthdale, through which flows the mighty Arkle Beck down to the River Swale at Reeth. Past the top of the dale and up on the moors is the highest pub in England, the last surviving building of a long vanished mining village. If you're up this way in May/June time then why not check out the Swaledale Festival programe for this year. There's a new dynamic director who's got some class acts coming up, although they've always done quite well on that front, and it seems to be less of the late afternoon stuff for retired civil servants to listen to whilst their walking socks dry out and more like a proper music festival. He's even got that bloke who did the music for The Deerhunter, so you don't need to blow your brains out to hear John Williams this year, although the director might when he does the accounts in July unless he flogs an awful lot of tickets, as no doubt that what ever subsidy they used to get has been diverted mostly to pay for the Norman Foster designed steriod injecting facilties at the London Olympics. If you're not the arty farty type then come and visit anyway, but if you like to go for a walk leave those damn pointy telescopic poles at home. If you get attacked by a sheep then a few stong words will almost always suffice to pursuade it to desist, you don't need to beat them off with a stick, they are vegetarian you know. I don't know, some people just got into that movie far too much...hey, flossie, this is this, this ain't something else...maaaaa...

richmond

This is Richmond from the coast to coast footpath just west of the town. The green bit in the foreground is the West Field which was bought from the District Council about five years ago by public subscription to prevent the council selling it to their property developer friends. That's the castle keep obviously in the centre. The flat bit beyond is the northern end of the Vale of York and that's the Hambledon Hills on the western edge of the North York Moors on the horizon. If you followed the picture round slightly to the left the hills on the horizon would give way to the Tees Estuary who's cooling towers and flare stacks you can see from the old racecourse a little higher up and into one of those is hopefully where Gareth Southgate is going to find himself dropped after today's result in the football. Click to enlarge, as they say.

st agatha's

Jesus saves, although no longer with Northern Rock. Now we've got that one out of the way Saint Agatha's parish church in Easby stands next to the ruins of the Premonstratensian abbey and the River Swale just a mile or so down river from Richmond and although it also stands on the drummer boy walk from the town it's a very beautiful and peaceful little church, unassuming on the outside but with some 14th century fresco secco wall paintings that you don't see very often in english churches because of the reformation era's view on graven images and the victorians' anticipation of TV makeover shows in their enthusiasm for plain walls. The church is also formerly home to the 7th century Easby Cross which, not being actually physically attached to the walls like the paintings, well actually that wasn't true for several centuries up until the 1930s as it was then serving as part of a repair to the walls which is how it survived, inevitably ended up in London and now resides 250 miles away in the V&A. Now we just have a cheap replica, which seems apt because some might say that's all that's left of the original Church of England itself.