Tag: North York Moors

Whinbusks in bud

  I walked up onto the moor yesterday morning, there had been a hard frost overnight covering the ground dusty white.  Through the cold came the birdsong and the gleam of the rising sun and I felt the push of spring despite the chill. Once on the moor path along Lastingham Ridge, I’m aware of […]

Stone, a bird, and a man in a top hat

  This stone is an example of 19th century rock art (graffiti) at an ironstone industrial railway site in the North York Moors – it shows a man in a top hat, and a bird.  Someone has spent time in carefully carving out this image, it is no idle sketch, there are charming details, feathers […]

Lovely Ling

    The heather on the North York Moors just now is breathtaking – I love the deep honey-sweet, woody smell.  There are hints of peat too and occasionally the wind blows over the aromatic scent of Bog-myrtle.     The senses are filled up, long stretching views of purple hue, a distinctive atmospheric light, […]

Out on Lastingham Knoll

  If I walk a few hundred yards of steep hill out of Lastingham village, I’m on the moor.  A track leads out along Lastingham Ridge with spectacular views over Spaunton Moor, all of which is part of the greater North York Moors. I wanted to clear my head, and the air up here is […]

Smoke Signals

  It is a familiar sight at this time of year, billowing smoke on the horizon.  I remember as a child playing camp and sending smoke signals back to the house with and old blanket waved over a makeshift wood fire.  I hoped the smoke would be seen from far away,  and my magic messages understood […]