Wednesday 24 July 2013

My Yorkshire Holiday - Part I

Last week, from Sunday to Sunday, I was visiting my family in Yorskhire. My mother-in-law lives in Ripon; one of my sisters-in-law and her family live in Littlethorpe, a village very close to Ripon, separated from the town only by a busy bypass.
You will find several posts and pictures from there on my blog; simply type "Ripon" into the search box in the top left corner, if you are interested.

This year, my sil and I dediced I stay at her house instead of Mary's. She is going to be 80 next March, and although I know I am very welcome at her place anytime, it would have been too disruptive to her daily routine.
My sil is a childminder, and her husband shares a dairy farm with his two brothers. He is out of the house from 4.30 in the morning to 9.00 (sometimes later) in the evening; these two are among the hardest-working people I know, and also among the kindest. Their daughter is going to be 20 in October. Last year, she started studying Egyptology at Liverpool uni, but she is home now for the summer. Add me to this busy household, and you're in for a very active week!

For the first time since I've come to Yorkshire regularly (which is almost 14 years now), I've had an entire week of uninterrupted sunshine and temperatures as high as I've never experienced in that beautiful part of the world. Some afternoons the thermometer went close to 30 Celsius - we often have that (and quite a bit more) in Germany, but I can not remember that from any of my previous Yorkshire holidays. It was lovely to get up in the mornings, not having to think about what to wear today in order to be ready for all sorts  of weather; I never needed an umbrella, and most days was carrying my cardy around rather out of habit than necessity.

Let me now show you some pictures of the pretty village of Littlethorpe:


My room for the week, and the view from it.


For the first time since coming to this place, I was able to have a meal outside on the patio! Ted and Dougal are twin brothers, now two years old. I am sure I have pictures of them from last year when they were still skinny teenagers.

St. Michael's Church. Littlethorpe has a village hall and this church, but no shops and no pub.

The former school house, now a private residence.

Oh, and they do have their own mailbox! (This one is for John.)

Many years ago, Ripon had a train station. After the line went out of service, up until last year it was still possible to walk along the old rail track. I had not done that yet and wanted to take a walk there this time, but when I arrived at the field where my sil had told me I could get on the track, I found it fenced off with barbed wire and clearly not accessible for walking. Maybe the embankment has become too dangerous to be walked on; it is full of rabbit burrows, hole next to hole. Instead, I just walked around the pasture along the old track, under close observation from the cows.


Rabbits are everywhere, but most of them were too quick for me to take pictures. These two were not in such a hurry to get away from me, it seems.

And this one definitely was not a rabbit!

More to come; Ripon tomorrow!

18 comments:

  1. Good to see some Yorkshire countryside in the sun. I've been looking at your pics on Photobucket too. I shall go back to them because one, at least, confused me but I was interrupted before I could look further.

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    1. Oh! I wonder which one it is that you find confusing, Graham. Thank you for taking the time and looking through the 180 or so I've uploaded there!

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  2. I think I read somewhere that there is the possibilty of reopening the railway line between Ripon and Thirsk, I don't know if this is the one. If so, they wouldn't be starting work yet, what I read about (last winter) was just a feasibility study.

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    1. It probably is that one, Jenny, since Thirsk is the nearest railway station to Ripon at the moment. For me, however, coming from Manchester Airport, Harrogate is much more convenient (changing in Leeds), so it could also be going that way.

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  3. Looks like complete peace, except I bet the rabbits don't feel that way with cat close by!
    xx
    julie

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    1. Ah, Julie, but the cat was far away from the rabbits - it was a different part of the village where I came across it sitting under that bush. You are right, it is very peaceful and quiet there, I slept so well with nothing waking me up - just like a holiday should be!

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  4. A beautiful place for a relaxing holiday, i'm so glad you got to go!

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    1. So am I, and I know I'll be back next year :-)

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  5. Are Ted and Dougal TWENTY years old now? Only you said they were no longer skinny teenagers so...
    What lovely weather you had for your visit, love the sun streaming in!
    I feel as if I know Yorkshire from the books by James Herriot. I would read those books again if the print wasn't so small.

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    1. Yes, Kay, I guess in cats' lives' terms you could say the twin brothers are now in their early twenties :-)
      Get the James Herriot books on a kindle and you can adapt the font size to what is more comfortable to your eyes.

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    2. Oh, how funny! I didn't know you meant the cats!!
      I have heard you refer to teenage cats before so I don't know why I didn't think of it!

      I think I need new glasses!

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    3. You are right, Kay - I did not explicitly state that Ted and Dougal are cats, I just thought it was obvious I meant them because it was right underneath their picture that I said this about them :-)

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  6. You know, whenever I see photos you post of the Yorkshire countryside, I want to book a plane ticket and visit immediately! It is so picturesque. I'm glad you had great weather and a good time! xo Silke

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    1. It really is beautiful, Silke. I am sure you'd enjoy a holiday there.

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  7. It seems I've reached the beginning, having "walked backwards" through your Yorkshire posts. Thanks for the tour - England has had a special place in my heart ever since our family travels there back in the early 1970s. And Yorkshire especially since I stayed there for a whole month in 1972 (alone, with an English family in a village near Doncaster). Always love watching Yorkshire TV shows and films on TV :)

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    1. Near Doncaster! That's where my family are from; care to tell me the name of the village where you stayed? My sil moved to North Yorkshire for her husband, whose family have been running a dairy farm there for many years, and my mother-in-law went to live closer to her after my husband had left home for Germany, to live with me.

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    2. The village was Wadworth - pronounced something like "woddearth" ;) I was there on a one-way student exchange programme (not really an exchange because no one came home with me, or came to stay with my family while I was gone). I travelled with a group of Swedish students to London and had one or two days there in group, but then we were scattered all over England. There were no other Swedes in the same school or village. I stayed with a family with a daughter my age and went to school with her. The school was in Edlington. This was in June (1972) and they were in their exams period so there wasn't actually all that much other serious school activity going on. My memories include very few regular lessons but lots of free periods and "hanging around". Also a couple of school outings, plus some with the family. All-in-all I had a good time. I blogged about it back in 2009 on my first blog, if you like you can have a look at the post here: About Me and Languages (5) In the sidebar of that blog (under the heading 'Time Travel Links' you will also find a list with links to the rest of my (eight) posts entitled 'Me and Languages', including our family trips to England in the 1970s.

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    3. Thank you, Monica, I am definitely going to have a look at the links you've provided! What an experience, it sounds great!
      Never been to Edlington or Wadworth, although High Melton (where one of my aunts live), Bolton-on-Dearne (where I have friends) and Wath-on-Dearne (where my husband was born) are all only a few miles away.

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