This time last week I was travelling back from Yorkshire, after a fabulous bank holiday weekend catching up with ‘old’ friends. The ‘green’ highlight of the weekend was a walk on the Bolton Abbey estate, starting at the Bolton Priory ruins, a 12th century Augustinian monastery overlooking the River Wharfe.

At this point, not being the most sure-footed of individuals, I opted for taking the bridge over the river. For those less concerned about getting their feet wet (aka, my husband!) the alternative is to hop across 57 stepping stones (some, a little wobbly!).

From the other side of the river, we followed an uneven path up into Strid wood, a site of special scientific interest and one of the largest areas of acidic oak woodland in the Yorkshire Dales. At this time of year, it is still carpeted with bluebells, and the trees and river banks were alive with birds.

At river level we spotted a dipper bobbing up and down in its search for food among the rocks, while pied flycatchers and grey wagtails skimmed the surface of the fast-flowing waters in their quest for insects.

Further along the path, someone had left several piles of seed out next to a bench, and we reaped the benefit of their thoughtfulness with an impromptu photography session, as nuthatches, coal tits, blue tits, great tits, robins – and even mallards – swarmed over the easy pickings. And we didn’t get much further down the path before we glimpsed a treecreeper inching its way up a rough-barked oak.

We passed the ‘Strid’ itself, a narrow section of the River Wharfe where the water gushes with extreme force through a deep chasm of rock. The strid gets its name from the Anglo Saxon ‘Stryth’, meaning tumult or turmoil.

After a brief (uncomfortable!) rest further upstream, we crossed the river at the turreted aqueduct. The impressive castellations of this elaborate bridge hide the pipe that carries water from reservoirs in the Dales to the conurbations of West Yorkshire.

We then headed back downstream along the opposite bank, back to the start of our walk, where we tucked into hot chocolates and fudge cake. Yum!

‘The arrival of spring’

As for the rest of the weekend, given how close we were to Saltaire, it would have been rude not to check out the work of local artist David Hockney. His only permanent collection in the UK is exhibited at Salts Mill, a former textiles factory built by Sir Titus Salt in 1853. It is now a complex of art galleries, bookshops, shopping outlets and cafes across several floors.

The star attraction at present, rather apt for the time of year, is David Hockney’s collection of 49 five-foot framed pictures, all drawn on an iPad, entitled ‘The arrival of Spring’. Each picture depicts a specific day between 1st January and 31st May, 2011, and are a detailed study of the change in scene on Woldgate, near Bridlington, East Yorkshire, during that period.

The introduction to the exhibition summed up how I feel about 15minutesofgreen and the time I spend in the natural world:

These pictures depict fleeting moments of intense beauty, reminding us of the importance of – and the joy we can get from – looking very closely!

Saltaire village

Titus Salt also built housing, a church, schools and almshouses for his work force, and we enjoyed a meander around the fascinating Victorian industrial village of Saltaire, which is now designated a world heritage site and well worth a visit.

I loved the Saltaire lions: ‘Determination’ and ‘Vigilance’ are positioned outside the former factory school, while on the opposite side of the road ‘War’ and ‘Peace’ watch over the Mechanics’ Institute (Victoria Hall).

Lots of lycra

So we’d experienced the nature, wallowed in the art, and nearly come to blows over politics at the dinner table (but that’s another story). And so to the sport, as our visit just happened to coincide with the Tour de Yorkshire, one of the biggest cycling events in the UK this year. We positioned ourselves along the high street in Ilkley, where an over-excited crowd had gathered.

After a lot of waiting, we saw … a lot of bikes … going very fast! Blink and you missed them.

I didn’t manage to get a glimpse of Bradley Wiggins (the only cyclist I stood a chance of recognizing), but I cheered on the rest of the peloton, and clapped extra hard for the stragglers further back (I know that feeling!).

Within a couple of minutes, they’d all gone past and I reverted to the serious business of admiring the town’s flower displays, which were simply stunning.

All in all, an excellent bank holiday. Thanks to Steve G for organizing!

Everyone talks about January being the bleakest of months, and for the most part it is pretty grey and dreary. So when the sun emerges and the sky turns blue … get out there! Last Sunday, the wind dropped and the sun shone over Hampshire, so we laced up our walking boots and set off – with friends – along a (very) muddy footpath out of Odiham.

After our  new year Exmoor exploits, the beauty of this walk was …. no hills! We tramped over squelchy fields and through waterlogged woodland up to the Farnham road (A287), crossing over the busy thoroughfare to pass between two lodges, which were previously the gatehouses to the Dogmersfield Park Estate. From here, we followed the driveway up past a redbrick lakeside mansion, before continuing on a grassy track through picturesque farmland (complete with Highland cattle) towards Tundry pond.

A few more fields and a lot more mud later, we emerged on the Basingstoke canal towpath, which we followed back to Odiham.

2 hours well spent!

Exford is almost the geographical centre of Exmoor, and it is from this attractive village that we started our new year’s eve walk. At the far end of the village car park is the first of three kissing gates. Now, kissing gates are so called because the gate merely ‘kisses’ (brushes) the enclosure on either side, rather than needing to be securely latched, but I prefer the romantic notion that the first person to pass through has to close the gate to the next person and demand a kiss in return for entry. It was a good way to secure lots of kissing on the last day of 2014.

After the gates, it was time to head uphill again – well, a walk in Exmoor wouldn’t be a walk in Exmoor without a hill!

Lots of mud and a couple of fields later, and once again we were enjoying those undulating Exmoor views – a patchwork of fields, hedges and woodland on the slopes of the Exe valley.

In a land where we we seem to have to fight for personal space, here is a corner of England where you can truly get ‘far from the madding crowd’ (well, in the depths of winter, at least). We only met two other people in 4 hours of walking. There must have been others up here recently though, as, bizarrely, someone had decorated a hawthorn bush with several strands of tinsel and a bauble, an incongruous sight so far from the bustle of civilization.

As we passed from field to field, down towards the Exe river, I was particularly struck by one of the boundary hedges, a gothic-looking line of dark beech trees, bereft of their leaves, growing tall out of a mossy bank and disappearing over the horizon of the field.

We continued down to the Exe river, where we stopped for a very quick lunch. It was a rather bleak scene at the bottom of the valley. Grey clouds loomed and there were a few spots of rain, but that didn’t spoil our riverside walk, slopping around in mud.

 

We climbed a few more fields, away from the river, which thankfully were frozen over or would have been pretty boggy. Nearly back at Exford, that just left three kissing gates to negotiate – a good end to the year!!

Dunkery Beacon one day, Selworthy Beacon the next. 30th December 2014 dawned clear and bright over Exmoor, so we figured we might as well head high again, only this time on foot.

We walked from Porlock down to the bottom of quiet leafy Bossington Lane, where Bossington Hill loomed ahead of us. From Bossington car park we crossed over a stream and into woodland at the foot of the hill.

We climbed gradually, first through the trees and then past tufty grass and bracken around the side of Bossington Hill. Even at this height, we had fabulous views across the calm sparkling waters of Porlock Bay. Straight ahead of us was Hurlstone Point, but instead we began the ridiculously steep climb up the cleft between Hurlstone Point and Bossington Hill. The path had been churned up by cattle, so it was hard-going in areas, but soon we could see the signpost at the head of the combe and made the final push for the top. It was then only a short walk further along the grassy top to Selworthy Beacon.

We paused at the beacon for a quick bite of lunch, surrounded by huge gorse bushes in full winter bloom and fabulous panoramic views across the Vale of Porlock to the thickly wooded valleys and the moors beyond. The sound of galloping hooves alerted us to a small band of wild Exmoor ponies just down the path from us.

Next, we crossed over the top of the combe and into woodland, following well-sign-posted tracks on a steep descent into Allerford. The woods were pretty devoid of bird life at this time of year, but we did enjoy watching a flock of long-tailed tits (Aegithalos caudatus) as they passed excitedly through the trees.

We came out of the woods at Allerford, over the much-photographed packhorse bridge next to a pretty cottage. Built as a crossing over the River Aller (from which the village gets its name), the bridge is thought to be of Medieval origin. We were rapidly losing the light, as the sun had already disappeared behind the hills.

From Allerford, it was a relatively short walk down to the 16th Century unaltered Lynch Chapel and back along the roads to Porlock, where we stopped at the Top Ship Inn for an early evening drink.

 

Walking along the Thames path in Abingdon, heading from Abingdon bridge towards Abingdon lock,  you can’t help but notice the striking lines of lofty poplars in Abbey Meadows park. But this week, some of them were going topless! The distinct sound of a chain saw, a shout and a crash, and the tree surgeons’ work in progress became apparent.

All trees need to be pruned from time to time to maintain the desired size and/or shape and to keep them in a safe condition. Pruning also promotes growth and improves the quality of flowers, fruit or timber. These poplars were getting a bit more than a short back and sides.

I think the tree surgeons deserve the award for the highest 15 minutes of green this week!

I’m sure they had amazing views from up there, but I was content at ground level, with the tranquil reflections on the water and dappled light amongst the trees. Another stunning lunchtime walk.