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Saturday 26 April 2014

Fresh air and space


There is little better for a townie like me than getting out into the fresh air and enjoying all the wide open space of the Yorkshire Dales. Littondale feels particularly spacious. It's a broad-bottomed valley carved out by glaciers. It has a small river, the Skirfare, running through it but despite the fact that we have had a wet winter, there was no running water in much of the main riverbed. I can only think that the water runs underground, as the rock is limestone and very porous.  The stream you see here is a small tributary running off the valley sides through the meadows.

I saw plenty of sheep and spring lambs and a few cattle of an unusual type, black with a broad white band round their middle (Dutch Belted?). There were are also a good few birds about - lapwings tumbling through the air, a couple of oystercatchers in the meadows (not many oysters hereabouts for them!). I also saw a curlew, as well as the commoner species of country birds: crows, rooks, blackbirds, gulls, magpies, jackdaws, robins, great tits, blue tits and several magnificent pheasants, their plumage stunning at this time of year. I might have seen more, but I don't carry binoculars as well as my camera.

10 comments:

  1. Love the second photo - the way the stream leads off and the stone walls going up the hill.

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  2. I so agree Jenny.. as much as I'm a city slicker :) it does feel wonderful to get away sometimes. You really do have the most beautiful countryside in England.

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  3. You certainly captured the vastness of the countryside. Well done!

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  4. The Yorkshire dales are beautiful and the little stream is picture book perfect. Great shots.

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  5. Wonderful photography as always Jenny :-) Those cattle, if of a smaller than normal size, I know as Belted Galloways, afaik that's what the breed is known as in Australia.

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  6. The Yorkshire Dales look so beautiful no matter what the weather throws at it. I love the walls and streams that just seem to continue for ever. Have a wonderful weekend. xx

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  7. Beautiful! I love the stone fencing.

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  8. Such a beautiful area, Jenny!

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  9. I love this type of landscape...these photos are beautiful!

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