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!