The last day of summer...

And the sun came out!

Didn't get up for the sunrise, and stuff needed to be done, so a brief walk, actually 3 miles, and along the road as we thought the paths would still be a bit soggy.

Already felt like autumn, but a few flowers remained and the bees were still feeding...

A small white hid in the long grass...

Another attempt to make a puddle look interesting..

A tribble!

On the way back to the car we were walking into the sun and I started to notice little glints catching my eye.  Down the centre of this single track road in the middle of pretty much nowhere was a fine trail of broken glass.  The photos of course can't pick up the beam into the eye ...

An emerald...

And a diamond...

I think that now the dustcarts are collecting glass that some must be weeping out of the lorry, else why would there be one fragment of green glass in the middle of the road?  A whole bottle is easy to explain, but one small fragment?


Any way the shops beckoned and the view from the scarp was not exactly clear but what we called when the kids were small a "three power station day".  Another, clearer day I will name all the landmarks you can see from here.

Back home with the shopping and the last of the Buddleia was met with the last hatch of the tortoiseshell and the odd peacock...

More soon...

A few dashes between the showers

 

Have you ever got the thought that you are being followed?

 

But these chaps seem to change their paths to over-fly us.

In the old days - before the first Gulf War, the A-10 Warthogs would fly around here and if, I was out with myex-collegues working on the old weighbridge test unit ( a distinctive - ney, unique vehicle) you would see them.  "They will be back." said the driver, and sure enough from two directions 15 seconds apart they would come, one head on and one from the side.

The vehicle was distinctive enough to establish if the crews could acquire and re-find.  I suspect that the Tucanos are doing that with us walkers as after passing us by they often return on a direct line over us.  Are they training against walkers and not tanks?

The civilian aircraft I will put down to chance, but I have got its number just in case.

In all a bit of a dull week so far, an interesting moth...

And a bracket fungus that would have made a fantastic gargoyle...

The crops are still (mostly) in the fields...

Last year, I think most of it was in...

Anyway, a brief sunny spell and a stop at South Dalton between showers...

South Dalton church is just too tall to get it all in one photo.

(Actually you can. just look up Canon EOS Tilt/shift lens on Amazon and you will realise why I say it can't be done)


I think I could just about manage with a place about this size...

(And a tilt/shift lens so my building at least looks upright)

When the sun becomes suddenly hot the odd bit of shade provided by the lime trees is welcome, the cows graze them to a convenient height...

Next day and gloom again as the 10 minutes of sun was missed before breakfast.  Millington Pastures was a riot of thistles, docks and nettles..

Regarding my comments about the hawthorn and other hedgerow being a bit poor this year, this is Warter Road on 24th August last year...

Dawn at Danes Dyke, Blustery at Bempton and Beverage-less in Bridlington

Another early start, but yet again no sunrise.  Not missed this time but buried under fold after fold of cloud.

 

 

 

Danes Dyke was the choice but  it was a bit gloomy and overcast.  Brid sat in the background...

 

 





 

 

If the pics look a bit blue it is because it was nearly dark and I had to push up a few levels to get a picture.

 

 



Piddocks!

 

 

I don't know if you noticed, but I just used an exclamation mark, a screamer, no less, but I will try not to do it again.

 



 

 

Dane Dyke's attractions faded quite quickly in what felt unseasonably cool. 

To Bempton then.  The puffins have gone, of course, but the gannet chicks are clinging to the cliff edge saying "Feed Me, Feed Me" until they are so fat thet they fall off.  Fledge I think it's called; I think of it more as a sort of "plundge".  They can only breed where there are cliffs that the young can fall into the sea when they are too fat to hang on.

It is quite high up at Bempton...

The gannets tease the bad photographer, they point their beaks so that they are just out of focus.  They clearly know that under this poor light that depth of field is compromised and they choose to point their beaks away when photographed...

Gannets are  fantastic, even when I can't take a decent photo.

A third year juvenile, you can tell by the piano key marks on the wings ( see I read and learn ).

 

A drilling rig moved into view...

Alas there was no clear view to decide what it was.

 

- - - - -

Unfinished business at Lisset.

There was a bit of a breeze so we went under the turbines and found 68 dB which is the level of normal conversation so - so far so good.  I have to say that where they are I quite like them. A bit of change of heart, but I still don't want to see them all over the Wolds.

I had failed to actually photograph the memorial at Lisset which is quite powerful.  A local story about the squadron is here,  The pattern on the clothing are the names of the lost.

 

 

 

 

 

Poor pathside pickings predicted

A walk on the regular route on Warter Road.  Overnight rain had led to us deciding that a road walk would be advisable.  Rain was predicted for later, for now the mist dominated.

The wheat had not yet been harvested...

The rain had left a pattern of streaks down the trunks of the beech trees...

A strange (to me, I hadn't noticed it before) small plant with white flower heads about an inch across...

And feathery leaves...

(Addendum: since taking this I started seeing this plant everywhere.  I think it is Yarrow (aka Milfoil) used for the treatment of wounds )

It all felt so autumnal that it was hard to imagine that it was only last Sunday that I took these photos in the same place-

Mystery flower (clue: its poisonous and grown in vast numbers...)

  
Answer: potato.  And this is Scarlet Pimpernet

Plantain?

 
A slightly more golden looking crop

Newly hatched Peacock and Large White

 
That looks expensive, its   (altogether now...very deer)...

Anyway, back to Saturday


The cows were lying down, a sure sign that it is either going to rain or not...

The sun tried to come out as this reflection shows...

The beech hedge by Shiptondale Farm which had a severe pruning two years ago is just starting to show a bit of a recovery...

We had the mists but the mellow fruitfulness looked to be in very short supply.  There were very few haws on the hawthorn. This was one of the better examples...
.

The brambles, as commented on before look dreadful...

The elderberries look a sparse shadow of other years...

And the sloes are even worse.  In looking for them there seemed to be the tattered remains of last year...

And then a single sloe, in total isolation...

A picture of my flower of the week to cheer things up...

Back home, and then the rains came.  half an inch in half an hour...

Station Road flooded again, but thankfully it stopped short of any houses.  Fortunately in Middleton the rainwater drains separately from the sewers, so it was a quite civilised flood.

Within another half hour the sun was out and the water was receding...

 

 

Apart from a few grumbles within a couple of hours it was as if it had never happened.