Saturday, August 11, 2018 at 9:44 PM 
Brimham Rocks in North Yorkshire...sculpted by the elements more than 320 million years ago...
...that's 100 million years before the first dinosaurs walked the earth...
Wednesday, August 8, 2018 at 8:11 PM 
Lichen-covered wood rough beneath my arms
Dandelion clocks floating by on a warm, gusty breeze
The scent of hot summer grass, strong
A heron wheels above me, huge and prehistoric, while lower down the slope five dainty Cabbage Whites dance in harmony
Behind me, the sound of trickling water
From two fields distant, the bleating of a noisy lamb
Down in the valley bottom, the sticky air is motionless
A pheasant leads her brood of babies away from me
Past the home of Ronnie the Rocking Horse Maker where a branch of crinkled brown leaves overhangs the wall
And now up the steep slope at the other side, sampling blackberries as I go
Suddenly a stampede of raucous sheep across the hillside
Sunday, August 5, 2018 at 4:51 PM 
This heatwave summer has brought hordes of butterflies to Dixon Hill. Clouds of Cabbage Whites...vibrant Peacocks...and the rarer Wall Browns.
The Cabbage Whites flutter in flocks...as if the creamy sweet peas that climb the garden wigwam have taken to the air and are dancing. As I harvest herbs or meander through the long grass, they erupt before me, flit about my head then bob away, leaving me laughing out loud with delight.
The Peacocks and Wall Browns are not so playful. They are irrisistibly drawn to the buddleia bushes which have invited themselves into the cutting patch, where they're thriving and living up to their reputation. Like bees to a honeypot...like butterflies to a buddleia bush. At my approach, the petal-soft insects zigzag off only to settle moments later on another pendulous purple bract. Gorging themselves on sun-warmed nectar...making the most of every minute of their too brief lives.
Tuesday, July 31, 2018 at 11:22 AM 
The silage bales are wrapped in sugar pink this year. As if some passing giant has spilled his bag of sweets across the valley...
Sunday, July 29, 2018 at 6:28 PM 
The moor is the colour of chaff this evening. I don't recall it ever being quite this shade before. Weeks of intense heat and no rain have drained the pigment from the landscape.
But today the heatwave broke. There've been intermittent thunderstorms all day. Hundreds of sudden puddles have appeared. The parched earth has forgotten how to drink.
And now I'm chasing rainbows. They're there in every direction, some vivid, some the faintest whimsy; some fading in the blink of an eye, others growing taller and brighter as the minutes pass by. A son et lumiere performance of psychadelic curves as the clouds shift and collide and the light continually alters.
It's deserted here tonight. Lately so populated of an evening, the rain has drained the land of people, too. The puddles and the rainbows are mine. All mine.
(Walk taken on 28/8/2018)
