Up hill and down dale

I was back to see my friend Lucy in Skipton the other week – it works out really well for me as Skipton is about 15 minutes’ drive away from Keighley where West Yorkshire Spinners is based, so I can often combine the visits if I need to call in to see my WYS friends at the mill as well.  WYS is also on the industrial estate as the company that we buy our dog’s food from so I can call into their onsite shop and save the delivery charges too.  It’s a win all round!

By the time I got over to Skipton from Keighley, it was time for brunch so Lucy and I put the world to rights over a brew and something lovely to eat (I think I had poached eggs on toast – that’s got to be my favourite brunch option!), and then we headed out for a walk around Skipton.

Now, the reason that I have called this post “Up hill and down dale” is that there are some pretty big hills in a small area as we walk around Skipton Castle woods and it got me thinking about how different the landscape is in Skipton compared to Winwick.  Obviously this is a particular woodland walk and we do have these in Winwick, but Skipton is in Yorkshire and Winwick is in Cheshire and I think that the two counties have a very different feel to them.

Lucy and I spent ages hanging over the barrier looking at the rocks underneath the waterfall.  They look as if they’ve been deliberately laid out that way, don’t they, but it’s just the way the rock has worn under the movement of the water.  I’ve written before about the stone in this area when Lucy and I have been out to Bolton Abbey; I think I must be more of a geologist than I ever thought as I do get very fascinated by rocks!

And then from here, we started walking up, up, ever so gently but the ground was rising steadily beneath our feet.  The reflections were amazing on this day; it was very still – not that warm – but a lovely day to be out and walking.

The willow stag was waiting for us at the top of the steps, so we said “hello” and carried on walking.  The stag decided not to come with us.

Towards the end of the walk (and still going up hill before dropping down into the town!), we passed a couple of cottages that are right on the outskirts of Skipton, tucked away along a small road.  That’s the back of Skipton Castle that you can see there; it’s still lived in by the descendants of the original castle owners and Lucy and I paused here, by the back garden of one of the cottages, to wonder what it must be like to live in a castle at the top of the high street of a busy market town.  Imagine your postal address as “Skipton Castle, High Street, Skipton”!  And then we said, “Imagine if this was the view out of your kitchen window every morning!”  That would be a lovely view, wouldn’t it?

Driving home from Skipton – and across from Keighley, and even back from Keighley if I go that way round – the landscape is rolling hills, green fields and sheep.  No crops, just sheep and sometimes cows or horses.  Stone walls and big skies over the hills.  We’re only about an hour and half away from each other, Lucy and I, but the landscape couldn’t be more different.

Winwick is actually a high point around this part of the country – it’s higher than other parts of Warrington but our landscape has very few fields with anything other than crops in them.  The fields around Winwick at the moment have crops at various stages of grow, from barely showing green above the bare earth to the bright yellow of flowering rape which you absolutely can’t miss!

The dog and I have been walking through a field of rape crops recently on one of our walks, and it’s amazing how the plants went from not much over the winter to suddenly being ready to flower …

to full of bright yellow blooms in only a few days.

But look how flat it is!  You can see right across the fields to the horizon with no big hills to break up the vista.  So many different landscapes within this one country of ours, it’s amazing, isn’t it?

No hills or dales or castles out of our windows, but I love our views anyway – and I love have the opportunity to go and see a different one every now and again too!