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

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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.