Hilltop Visitors

 

Yesterday morning at breakfast we were pleased to see five Red Legged Partridge on the garden wall - they are such lovely birds and do not seem to visit us that often - the shot below is a zoom of the above photo to show the lovely plumage in more detail.

First Sign of Winter

View across to Punchard Gill from Gales Gate on Hilltop Track

Yesterday morning we had to go to Northallerton Hospital for an early appointment and it had been a clear cold night and everything was frozen solid when we came down the track at 07:30.  This view across Arkendale towards Punchard Gill was wonderful with dark frosted fields in shadow in the foreground and Punchard Gill and the surrounding hills in bright sunlight with a totally cloudless sky - breathtaking.

Hilltop Gale

Last Saturday the weather was really bad with driving rain and very strong winds and during this gale I was working in my office when I heard the concerted bellowing of cattle that seemed to be very close - when I looked out of the office window I saw a very wet and bedraggled herd of cattle huddled by the gate bellowing away and seemingly pleading to be inside and away from the appalling weather.


Laurence tells us that they will be inside the big barn within the next two weeks but of course that means the start of the usual ever-mounting feed bill for Laurence & Michael.  But whilst there is still grass available in the now sodden meadows I suppose it makes sense to leave the cattle out?

Bright October Day at Hilltop Farm

Janet called-in at the estate agents this morning in Leyburn & brought home the final edition of the sales brochure for Hill Top Farm and in a way the move is now suddenly "real" - all the phone call and visits and photos have now culminated in this and the "penny has finally dropped" that we'll be leaving Hill Top Farm.  Odd -but when it's on-paper like this and next Friday in the Darlington & Stockton Times as a quarter- page ad then it's started.  The sales brochure is on the GSC Grays site at www.gscgrays.co.uk

We have had this place for 25 years now and lived here full-time for over 14 years - the longest time we have lived anywhere in our married life - and together will all the work we have done on the house I have come to know every inch of the place and we shall miss it for sure when we  move down to Reeth.  But it will be a different life there and a life that fits better with our future as we grow older together - someone else will have the joy of Hill Top and the amazing life we have had here high in these wonderful hills.

Anyway just a couple of photos taken this bright morning - one looking North-West from the garden down into Arkle Beck valley and across to our two neighbouring farms - Park Head to the left & Dale Head Farm to the right - the other photo looking down towards Whaw.

View North-West from Hill Top looking down into Arkle Beck valley

Looking down Arkle Beck valley towards Whaw

 I love the way that from almost every front window one sees Arkle Beck winding down to Whaw - this shot of the Autumn morning sun making the beck a bright ribbon of silver is what I'll miss waking up to.

Autumn in Arkengarthdale

Suddenly the weather has turned - its feeling colder and this weekend the weather forecast says we shall be having a really stormy time - particularly in the South of the country.  So its likely we shall have the autumn leaves stripped from the trees by the beginning of next week.  We're a bit short of woodland up here in Arkendale so I got out and took a couple of photos of the woodland we have and the autumn colours before the leaves go.

Scar House Wood from CB Inn

This is a shot of Scar House Wood taken from the CB Inn in Arkengarthdale.  Scar House belongs to the Duke of Norfolk who also has the shooting rights on North side of the dale which includes the moors behind Hill Top Farm and the High Faggergill valley.  Occasionally there are shooting parties shooting over the Arkle Beck valley directly below our house.

There is a great walk that I use when training for my summer hut-to-hut trips in the Austrian Alps which goes left up the skyline in the photo above and traverses left to right along the skyline turning down to Booze which is the small hamlet "off frame" to the right in the photo and returning to Hill Top Farm by walking through Scar House woods and along by Arkle Beck up to Whaw then up to Hill Top Farm past Low Faggergill Farm.  The views from the top are just wonderful taking in the whole of Arkengarthdale all the way down to Reeth.  I guess I'll miss these walks when we move down to Reeth - it's great having them literally "on the doorstep" where I can just open the back door and start my walk.  I must compile a list of favourite "on the doorstep" local walks for whoever buys Hill Top Farm - it would be satisfying to know that someone is following my favourite walks from Hill Top. 

It will be rather strange waking the right-of-way past Hill Top Farm when it belongs to someone else - but I'm sure I'll get used to it very quickly.

Hilltops Wood from Hill Top Farm

 This is the wood directly opposite Hill Top Farm taken from our kitchen window - its just starting to change colour and looks lovely in the sunshine.  In the 25 years we have been here this wood has really taken-off & grown.  Its sad that when all of Swaledale & Arkengarthdale were Royal Hunting Forests in the Middle Ages one would have seen dense natural woodland everywhere carpeting the whole of the valleys - but the need for charcoal for the smelting of  lead put paid to that and now we have just got small "pockets" of woodland here and there.  However there has been extensive re-planting across the dale and in time - probably long after I have gone - the dale will be forested again.

Anyway Autumn chores call and tomorrow I shall be over at Lake Ullswater stripping the gear off my Freedom 21 DAYDREAM and bringing my tender back from the sailing club.

Hilltop - In the MIst

Hilltop in the sunshine - Thursday 17th October 2013

Today we have the kind of Autumn day that encourages one to stoke up the fire or sit by the AGA in the kitchen reading - its very misty and the clouds are down on the hills.  This is in marked contrast to yesterday when it was sunny and relatively warm and we were out  about in the garden replacing the lean-to greenhouse roof hatch which come loose and blew away in a Spring gale and only now have we got around to buying another & fixing it in place.  

We managed to get a 4 day fine weather spell a couple of weeks ago when the decorators came and painted the ooutside of the house - it now looks wonderful and sparkling again.  This time they used Dulux Professional Weathershield experior paint which hopefully will outlast the previous exterior paint I used.  I must be getting old - in that I am now less willing to climb ladders when it is windy and do all the preparation for exterior painting as well as the painting itself so I finally saw sense & got the professionals in and the result is great.

The lovely thing about this time of year is the colours that one sees everywhere - the bracken in Whaw Lane is turning an amazing rusty-brown and the Rowan in the garden will soon be turning red as well - the photo attached shown this Rowan as it was last year around this time.


Janet  is already planning Christmas, who sleeps where and how we can accommodate the usual Bishop/Parker/George family clans which now expands with granddaughter's boyfriends - we are expecting 12 to 13 depending upon who can get up to us.  We had the estate agents photographing Hilltop on Wednesday and we have to accept that this will probably be the last big family Christmas at Hilltop Farm - the end of a lovely 25 year long era - but there it is - things do & must change.  But it will be a Christmas tinged with sadness I guess.
 
Anyway with long term weather forecasts predicting a cold & snowy November we are stocking-up on essential supplies and I'll get my winter tyres on the SKODA Yeti by the end of the month so we'll be fully prepared for whatever happens.  The bright side of course is the skiing & toboganning on the back field - why have all that wonderful mountain gear & not use it I say.

Walling - Selected Poems

Seeing Pam Ayers on TV yesterday promoting a new book of poems I remembered her lovely four line poem of hers about drystone walling:

I am a drystone waller.
All day I drystone wall.
Of all appalling callings
drystone wallings worst of all.

I'm also quoting a thing I wrote recently for the Monday evening Reeth Writers Group on the "homework" topic of "stones" that also refers to drystone walling - by the way the use of "an" in naming "an Enoch Atkinson" refers to the fact that Janet's Ancestry searches have traced the name Enoch in the Atkinson family line back over at least 150 years and it probably extends even further back?  So its more than likely this wall was built by an Enoch Atkinson?

Walling

The pressure of the earth had bowed the wall

to gradually shed unbalanced stones.

Until last winter’s heave and swell of ground

had brought it down in its entirety.

I love the strict procedure, the order

in which these things must be done.

Stripping the wall and setting stones aside

in neat rows ranked by size and thickness.

Resetting tilted base stones, laying down

successive layers to match course and batter

Set first by an Enoch Atkinson

two hundred years or more ago.

I simply cannot comprehend the age

of this stone resting in my hands.

Sea sediment from ancient continents

compacted, hardened, quite  transformed.

Of all things I have done this wall remains, sound

against gales and drifts of snow.

So all that will endure of me perhaps

are these few metres of arranged stones?

Wilf Bishop

16^th September 2013

 

Young Kestrel on Hilltop Wall

Around teatime Janet noticed an unusual bird on the garden wall - our best guess is a young Kestrel preening itself before heading off hunting - lovely sight.  Photos will be a bit blurry since it was long way away & by the time I have cropped & enlarged the photos they are a bit disappointing - anyway there you go.

Any/all feedback from keen & knowledgeable birdwatchers would be welcome.  Seems to be an excessively fluffy Kestrel - that's for sure. 

Sheep Talk

I was chipping loose paint off the render this morning when Laurence, Gladys & Michael drove a flock of sheep past me to gather in the yard ready for sorting out which sheep would go to Leyburn market this week and it reminded me of the last time I saw my late Mother in Law Joan Graham back in mid 2002.  It reminds me of her, in that I think it was June when we were all sitting on the terrace outside having afternoon coffee in the sun when Laurence asked us to just clear a space for him to drive a flock of sheep by in front of the house - which is his direct way to take gathered sheep along to his yard and we sat back and watched as they streamed & jostled by.  We laughed about putting on a special show for Joan - who by that time was very weak and unknown to any of us was terminally ill with bowel cancer.  

She was not feeling at all well and so left us early to be back home with Peter & Margaret and having left us she was immediately admitted to hospital and very sadly died within two weeks - I still miss Joan and her wonderful robust, outspoken but incredibly loving & warm character.  After her death I wrote the following short poem about our afternoon in the sun & the sheep passing by: 

For Joan - Counting Sheep
 

We sat apart that afternoon basking in the Dale’s sun.

You with a rug across your lap gazing at the hills beyond the beck,

I propped against the dry stone wall reading.

The sheep used our terrace as a path to the meadow.

I moved you back to watch as they streamed and jostled by,

flowing, erratic with that vacant absent-minded look about them.

You said how big they looked close too

and laughed when I said we couldn’t always fix a cabaret like this.

And then you left for the last time,

frail and huddled in the car,

needing to get home.

And I forgot to kiss you goodbye.

Anyway - Janet was at the hairdresser's in Reeth this  morning and was talking to her hairdresser about sheep and the pros & cons of different breeds.  When she got home she commented that where else in the country would one get a good conversation about sheep farming as one had a haircut?

Finally a shot of sheep gathered by the gate to the West of Hill Top Farm - taken a few months ago.

 

Wildlife ( & not so Wild) News

Introduced Laurence Atkinson's handsome new tup "Chris" to our granddaughters Mimi & Tilly George.  Chris is a Swarble breed of sheep aparantly coming from the Netherlands where they are accusotmed to the harsh weather coming in off the North Sea - hence thay will feel right at home here in Argengathdale.  As well as being very hardy their fleece carries a significant price premium because of the exceptional quality of the wool so hopefully Laurence & Michael will get something from the fleece from Chris & his offspring rather than the negligible price they get for ordinary fleeces?

The white blaze on Chris's  muzzle and the white socks & tail are a characteristic marking for these sheep - how come Mimi is so worried about a big tup?  By the way Chris has recently been clipped - hence he is lacking his usual bulk and lovely dark brown fleece - odd that when clipped his remaining fleece is black underneath!

We had a Kestrel perch on the garden wlll just  outside the kitchen window yesterday - seems that it is an ideal resting place where they can scan the whole of the upper Arklebeck valley whilst sitting comfortably.  We have seen this happen before but of course by the time I have run upstairs for the camera they have moved off!

However we also had a group of six young Pheasant wander by on the terrace seemingly grazing and again by the time I got my camera only one remained.

Must keep the camera in the kitchen to get these instant wildlife shots (excluding Chris from the wildlife category of course as he is incredibly friendly - in fact so friendly that it is sometimes difficult to get him to move away from the gate so that one can get the car through).

Still waiting for the house painter (now about 4 weeks overdue) - if he cannot do the job then I guess I'll have to do it as we really need it doing before we can put Hill Top on the market since our purchase of Highfields in Reeth can oly be a few weeks away now.

    

Hilltop Wall - Micro Lichen/Moss Garden

Just a couple of photos of the amazing micro-forest of lichen & moss that seem to thrive on the top of the garden stone wall.  Someone said that this happens when one has clean unpolluted air & we have lots of that up here - slight problem of course is that this wonderful quality air is often moving by a quite a pace!

Hilltop Swallows Depart

We had a meeting of Reeth Writers Group up here on Monday evening and whilst we were working the swallows were zooming about outside and clustering on the wires in an unusually frantic state of activity and then the following morning we came out to find them gone.  There are still swallows down at Low Faggergill Farm and one wonders if the usual cycle at the beginning of their annual visit applies when they leave, namely the pattern of them gathering down at Low Faggergill then the Hilltop contingent coming up to us about 4 - 5 days later - so maybe they "go-down" to Low Faggergill to gather there for a few days before they move out together and head south for Africa for the winter?  Or do the Hilltop group head off directly from here and not gather first with the "downland" swallows before leaving?

It's so much quieter now up here with the departure of the waders and the Swallows - a bit sad but of course part of the year's cycle and at least we can be sure they'll all be back again next year.

Favourite View Down Arkengarthdale

View down Arkengarthdale from just above Punchard Gill Bridge

We were down in Reeth checking the site dimensions of the house we are buying in Reeth and on the way back our estate agent had asked us to take some shots of Hill Top Farm from the Tan Hill road and whilst doing this we took this lovely shot of the pale hayfields above Whaw.  II love the way that each cropped hayfield has its own paleness that gradually warms back to a dense green as the new grass grows and each meadow carries the paleness associated with when it was cropped.

We surprised a Heron on the way back up to Hill Top and it suddenly rose from behind the wall up as we approached the wet-gate - no time to get a photo sadly.  They are such lovely birds and so huge when seen so close!

Just thought I would also attach a snap of Hill Top Farm taken from the fields going up to Dale Head - we'll be sorry to leave when the time comes but we both know its the right thing to move down to Reeth as we are getting older.  But we'll miss Hill Top Farm - that's for sure.

Hill Top Farm from Dale Head Meadows

 

Clipping Time at Hill Top Farm

Took out some tea & coffee yesterday to Laurence, Michael & Gladys who were busy shearing sheep in the end barn - by the way shearing is referred to as "clipping" up here in upper Arkengarthdale.  Its hot sweaty work wrestling the sheep over onto their back to get started clipping and then holding them down & twisting them over as the clipping progresses.  The very strong handsome brown tup (called Chris evidently) took two of them to wrestle him over and surprisingly when he is clipped he is black underneath although his fleece is dark brown.

Michael was using a battery driven electric set of clippers whilst Laurence was using hand shears - interesting that when Chloe was doing her Anglo Saxon & Viking history degree at Newcastle she showed us stone engravings of that period - over a thousand years ago - showing shears exactly the same as the ones Laurence was using.  Probably Viking settlers who came here to Arkengathdale (In old Norse "the valley of Arkil's enclosure" evidently) were also grumbling about such a sweaty hard job long before the Norman invasion?  I'll get some shots of clipping to post shortly - today they are taking a rest from the job but they'll be back at work on Monday.

We are preparing Hill Top Farm to put on the market during August after the painters have finished the huge job of clearing-off the loose paint from the cement render on the front of the house and doing a full repaint for us.  Yachtsman say that ones boat never looks smarter than they day you buy her & the day you sell her - obviously this also applies to buying & selling houses.  There is of course a mass of jobs to do such as re-sealing the cast-iron guttering on the front of the house - a job I have been putting off for about 2 years - now its done.

Collapsed Section of Wall

Add caption

Another job to be done ASAP is the repair of a fallen section of dry stone wall to the West of the house.  The section I have already repaired is not so good as walling done by Laurence or Michael but its OK . But it takes me about 5X the time they would take.  If anyone ever wants to learn stone walling there  is an excellent course run locally at the Middleham Key Centre.

My Previous Rebuild (maybe scoring 7 out of 10)

Back home from the Stubai Alps

This is a view taken from about half way up Habicht in the Austrian Stubai Alps where I have been hut-to-hut trekking with a group from the UK branch of the Austrian Alpine Club - simply amazing weather and lots of difficult soft snow high on all the mountains & passes as a result of the huge dump of rain that happened in Germany & Austria last month that made things a bit tricky - anyway its back to the wonderful (though non-glacial) Yorkshire Dales.

The Curlews, Lapwings and Oyster Catchers have of course all gone now - and we have the Swallows now gathering for their epic journey South so the dale is much quieter now.  There was a big flock of Fieldfare on the second field going out yesterday evening which reminded me of the time I was doing an Alpine training walk a few years ago when I came upon an enormous flock of Fieldfare as I came down off Fremington Edge heading for Langthwaite - there was in effect a carpet of Fieldfare covering the whole hillside and as I descended the birds nearest to me rose and skimmed over the rest of the flock to settle on the lower side of the "carpet" and as I continued down this "carpet" of birds flowed down the hillside ahead of me - an amazing sight.

The hay has now been taken from the meadows around Hill Top Farm and the cropped meadows have a pale colour to them until they can "green-up" again - as I drove home from the Airport I could see the pale patchwork of fields long before I could make out Hill Top Farm.  I'm sorry to have missed helping the Atkinsons with their haymaking - its a bit of a treat for a "townie" like me to be chucking hay bales about and sharing their tea, sandwiches & cake at break time.  


Janet tells me that the weather has also been amazing up here for the last two weeks and the photos below show how lovely the garden is at this time of year - it seems another world when the garden was waist-deep in snow drifts.  Summer at long last.

 

 

Lapwing Nest

I just came across the photo below of a Lapwing nest that a friend took in the next meadow about 3 years ago at around this time of year.  We were walking across the meadow and almost stepped on this lovely nest in a hollow - the perfect geometric arrangement of the eggs in the nest and the colours are just wonderful.

Training Walk - Alpine Trip

Since I'm off the Stubai Alps on 6th July for a 2 week hut-to-hut tour I felt that I should get up very early and get out with a bit of weight in the rucksac and do a few miles to break-in my new Alt-Berg boots in preparation for the trip.  The meadows are still all-yellow with buttercups and at least at the start the weather was fine and sunny.  My usual training route takes me up to Dale Head then over to the Reeth to Tan Hill road then up via Little Punchard Gill onto the tops at Whaw Edge.  The view from up there is really geat - looking out over Bowes Moor to the North and looking back North East across Arkengarthdale to the maze of stonewalled fields surrounding Hill Top Farm.

Looking South West from Whaw Bridge

Curlews & Lapwings everywhere and occasionally Snipe & Oystercatcher as I progress along past Great Pinseat past the remains of the lead mining pits until turning down North by Tottergill Pasture & Hungry Hushes to get back to the road at Spence Intake.  By now it had clouded-over and the wind had picked-up - nevertheless the lovely yellow meadows were still gleaming as I went down to Whaw & hence home via Low Faggergill.

Looking South from Whaw Bottoms

 

Return to Arkengarthdale

We have been away for a week in Northern Scotland and as we come down-dale from the Tan Hill Pub up on Bowes Moor in late afternoon we see the huge carpet of yellow meadows above Whaw - always an amazing sight at this time of year - even though it's blurred a bit by the light drizzle sweeping the dale.  This isn't the harsh glare of yellow that one gets from vast fields of Rape but it's a warmer, softer golden yellow - altogether kinder to the eye and with us only for a week or two before it fades as taller meadow grasses over-top the buttercups.  Enjoy it whilst its with us.  Then we follow the single track lane below Whaw wood and turn up the steep hill to Low Faggergill Farm, collect our week's post from Laurence & Gladys and drive up to Hill Top Farm.

At Gales Gate a Curlew suddenly rises up out of the thick reshes startled by us & wheels away skimming the drystone walls  - so huge when seen close-by with those elegant curved wings and the long curved beak.  Then again another couple of Curlews start-up as we pass into the Hill Top Farm hay meadows, with the reduced farm traffic at this time of year and us away for a week they have not been disturbed much all week I'm sure. As we unload the car the rippling sound of Curlews song fills the dale - perhaps the most wonderful of all the birdsong in the Dales - yes Scotland was just great but its so good to be back home.

 

Meadows & Lapwing

Meadow on Whaw Bottoms Road

Hill Top Farm is situated at 1250 ft and its interesting to see the difference in the condition of the wildflower meadows between Hilltop and the meadows down at Whaw which is about 270ft lower down by Arkle Beck.  If you compare this photo taken yesterday with the photo in the previous blog - it's quite amazing how much further on the lower meadow is.  We also see this altitude difference when the Swallows come back in the Spring - we see them first in the yard down at Low Fagggergill Farm when we drive down the track and they seem to take another 10 - 14 days or so to get up the 200ft to Hill Top Farm and settle in.

Fledgling Lapwing

This year we seem to have only a couple of pair of Swallows and occasionally they perch on the wire fence immediately outside my office window preening themselves meticulously - one year I saw a Swallow swooping by her fledgling who was sitting on the barbed wire fence feeding it with tit-bit bugs "on the wing" - amazing flying & coordination.

This shot on the left is of the fledgeling Lapwing in the top field - still not able to get airborne when I open the car door to take the photo - I'm sure the agitated parents swooping about in alarm and making a din will be happy when the fledgling finally takes to the air which has to be any day soon.

June Evening - Hill Top Farm

20:30 It's a lovely warm, calm & sunny June evening - sitting in the garden overlooking Arkle Beck I'm watching the Oystercatcher, Curlew and Lapwing wheel about in the quiet dale.  Sadly there seem to be fewer & fewer Lapwing nesting in the fields around us each year.  But when we drive the track we see every day the one Lapwing chick scurrying about on the level field watched over by an anxious mother - it seems to grow by the day and we always slow down watching out for it every time we drive the track.  There were two chicks originally but I guess one was taken early on so we are willing this remaining one to make it to adolescence. 

Looking South from Hill Top Garden

It's half eight and as the sun goes down it's begining to get hazy in the depth of Arkle Beck valley but it's not yet cool enough to go in - so peaceful; just the noise of a couple of Curlews wheeling overhead and the faint background bleat of sheep in the valley bottom. We have waited so long for this lovely  weather after such a poor Spring and it's so good.

SSSI Meadow - Hill Top Farm

The SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) meadows behind the house are just beginning to blossom with the first wildflower stage where buttercups form a carpet over the whole meadow - later on other wildflowers will take over and eventually when they have seeded they will be overgrown with the long grass and my farmer neighbor will take his hay crop.  I'll keep you posted on the progress with photos.