The Cleveland Hills on a Myst-Hakel Morning
I slogged up through the old whinstone quarry, staring at the ground, my thoughts elsewhere. I braced myself to find the usual rubbish left behind by quad bikers, as if the world is their personal skip. I could hear them active yesterday. The frost-covered, sterile earth stretched ahead, with the bikers’ berms and humps standing around like forg ...
Sliding into Oblivion: Adventures in Cliff Rigg Quarry
Ah, Twelfth Night at last—perhaps now we can be rid of those garish Christmas lights for another ten months, though no doubt someone will cling to their festive cheer until next month.
After all the news programmes whipped themselves into a frenzy last might over the impending snowstorm and freezing rain, waking up here in Cleveland to quite a pitifu ...
On yet another foul day …
... so I didn't venture far; instead, just bagging Roseberry Topping and picking up Cliff Rigg on the way back. Cliff Rigg has a quarry that has been the subject of my posts on several occasions.
This ridge is part of the Cleveland Dyke, a tough volcanic rock that forcefully juts through the much older sedimentary formations surrounding it. Forged some 58 million years ago by a v ...
Celebrating Capt. James Cook
Well there goes another February 14th. Evenings of whimsical sighs, chinking champagne glasses, and adoring compliments across the Pacific as indigenous folks send their thanks out to the Hawaiian cousins that took care of business, and finally put an end to the diseased, kidnapping, murderous, thieving invader called Captain James Cook.
So wrote Tina Ngata (Ngati Porou), a Māo ...
A Nature Whodunit: The Case of the Wayward Eucalyptus
Attention green-fingered readers. Can anyone identify this tree? It's growing in a pretty exposed spot on Cliff Rigg. According to the 'Seek' app on my trusty phone, it's a member of the myrtle family, and opinion is that it might be part of the Eucalyptus genus. If that's true, this tree has ventured quite a long way from its native Australia.
...
Christmas Contemplations
On this eve of Christmas Day, I found myself deep in thought. It seems a mere five minutes since last year. Maybe it's just because of that old chestnut: "time flies when you're having fun." Each morning I do wake up excited as to what adventures the day will bring.
Dopamines, those pleasure-inducing chemicals, supposedly interfere with our internal ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=34045
#CliffRigg #EasbyMoor #EasbyMoor #Gribdale #Gribdale #NorthYorkMoors
Late afternoon on Cliff Rigg
A morning spent volunteering alongside the National Trust, cutting sycamore saplings in Cliff Rigg Wood. Not exactly a photogenic opportunity, but later the dog was insistent that we ascend the ridge to bask in the waning afternoon sun. There, the lighting nicely highlighted a strange remnant from a bygone industrial era, the rocky pinnacle once referred ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=33555
#CliffRigg #GreatAyton #NorthYorkMoors #NationalTrust #whinstone
S by W and beyond — the view from Roseberry
Sundays are not my preferred days to climb Roseberry, as they tend to draw throngs of visitors, making the summit less quiet than I prefer. Nonetheless, this morning, helping the National Trust with their 'Tea on the Topping' event, I found myself on the summit, and briefly took in the view towards Cliff Rigg and the Cleveland plain, seemingl ...
The Cleveland Dyke
A view that looking northwest from Cliff Rigg along Langbaurgh Ridge, both part of that striking intrusion of igneous rock known as the Cleveland Dyke. Formed when molten magma flowed like a fiery torrent from a volcanic fount near the distant island of Mull in Scotland, a staggering 58 million years ago. A remarkable journey that took a mere five days before it reached Cleveland.
This rock ...
Hey, it’s good to be back home again
John Denver could have sung about this old hill being like a long-lost friend. OK, I've paraphrased. He was actually singing about his farm.
A month away and the changes around here have been absolutely dramatic. The bluebells, the mayflowers, and the primroses. They've all had their moment and moved on. But the bracken, of course, is still on the rise. ...
A view along the Cleveland Dyke
A view looking down on Gribdale Terrace, a row of white cottages built to accommodate the quarrymen employed at the adjacent whinstone mine and quarry.
The line of the Whinstone or Cleveland Dyke can clearly be seen in the photograph, stretching from Cliff Rigg in the distance to behind the cottages where it follows the line of the road. The presence of the yellow gors ...
An early run taking in the top of the quarry at Cliff Rigg
A super morning, dry and sunny with some noticeable southerly winds. To the west, a large bank of cloud looks ominous but kept its distance.
The quarry, now under the custodianship of the National Trust, is the result of the extensive extraction of Whinstone or dolerite, an extremely hard igneous rock that was ideal for road maintenance. Sandstone w ...
Sunset from Cliff Rigg
A very wet run this morning over the Cleveland Hills.
And after lunch, the sun came out. Blue skies.
So I dragged the dog up to Cliff Rigg for the sunset.
And she repaid me by thorough belching — I made that phrase up, inspired by the 18th-century expression of a 'thorough-cough' which is coughing and breaking wind backwards at the same t ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=31131
#ClevelandHills #CliffRigg #18th-century #lexicography #NationalTrust #sunset
The talus of sandstone boulders at the foot of Roseberry Topping resulting from the landslip that occured in 1912
A scene of rocky confusion.
'Talus' is a strange word. It's a word I actually find uncomfortable to use, long past its sell-by date. In this context it means the slope of rock debris but an alternative meaning is an anklebone. Each derives from different Latin words. Until 1830 ta ...
