The North is completely different from the south of England.
The south is soft rich and pastoral. The north is harder and life clings more tenaciously to the rough hills.
It is quite beautiful and also very dramatic.
Below-at some point driving one has to negotiate small lanes like this.
One car wide you have to remember the last wide space you passed so you can back up -or the other driver does.
One car wide you have to remember the last wide space you passed so you can back up -or the other driver does.
Roads like that lead you to houses like this…
“Old” friends in England all live in “old” houses.
This one in Yorkshire that my friend Linzy lives in dates to 1604.
This one in Yorkshire that my friend Linzy lives in dates to 1604.
It sits atop a breezy hill and has the views taken in the prior photos which can be viewed from the bench in their garden.
Below- The horse stable has seen four hundred years of “modifications”.
On through the Peninnes to the Yorkshire Dales.
The Yorkshire Dales are a series of parallel valleys that run east to west from the heights of the Pennine Hills to the North Sea.
The Penines are England’s backbone or spine. It is a very definite geographical feature of the north that divides the east from the west sides of the country. At the highest parts it can be very lonely and desolate with few trees and just scattered wet sheep. Only heather and gorse grow up there.
As one descends into the valleys the hardness gives way to lush green fields.
Below-We stayed in the village of “Muker” (pronounced Mew-ker) in Swaledale.
We stayed at the Bridge House bed and breakfast.
Above-In Muker. Below– A pub nearby that smelled of peat smoke.
The village of Muker which was a Nordic settlement in the 800’s
Below-The hills are glaciated limestone and it becomes eroded dramatically in places.
This makes for great caving or “potholing”.
This makes for great caving or “potholing”.
Below- These sturdy stone barns that dot the landscape are built with no mortar.
CUMBRIA…
is the county in the far north and west of England that includes the “Lake District”.
Some of the most dramatic scenery in England is here.
The beautiful market town of Appleby lies in the Eden Valley.
Our old friends Phil and Jean live there at St Michaels Church.
Our old friends Phil and Jean live there at St Michaels Church.
They purchased this de-consecrated church many years ago and now live in the tower and use the nave for Phil’s art studio.
Below-Many times a day one they go up these narrow spiral stone stairs.
THE LAKE DISTRICT
Above– a typical village in Yorkshire.