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Lake Legends

A grim old Yorkshire Day.

Heading towards that LAKE in the distance. Lake Gormire.

It’s been on our hit list for years. It’s one of those LAKES that has had many old legends attached to it.

It’s BOTTOMLESS and as such it’s a gateway to Hell. Bottomless or 22ft deep if you believe the geological measurements….

It has a prehistoric monster, just not as famous as the one in Loch Ness….

A headless horseman who rides around its shores at night…..

A witch who could transform herself into animals, who jumped into the Lake to escape being burned at the stake and reappeared almost instantly in a local market town, many miles away…. That’s clever as the local bus only runs a couple of times a day, not at weekends and if it turns up it’s running monumentally late…..

Not to be outdone, a Goose apparently did the same Lake disappearing trick ….

A village once stood here but an earthquake swallowed up the buildings, just leaving a lake in their place. Occasionally, when the stars align, you can see the village if you look really carefully into the water….

A mighty castle once stood proudly here, but the owner murdered his wife and as punishment a mighty flood submerged the castle…..

One lake fact which can be confirmed, it was once named by The Times in a list of the top 20 natural swimming locations in the country. Without any feeder rivers or streams, it apparently has hardly any current and has an unusually warm feeling.

On this grim old day these were the only beasts we encountered.

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Somethings are written in Stone

It’s been hot here, well hot for Yorkshire. Touching 30C for day after day. On top of that, it’s been seriously dry this year. Our area was the first in the country to get a hosepipe ban. Hardly a drop of rain for weeks, the reservoirs are no more than a third full. We do need RAIN.

Some things are just written in Stone…..

Hawklad loves F1 motor racing, so this year he got his first taste of seeing it for real.

The British Grand Prix at Silverstone. 165,000 fans about to get VERY WET.

Even the Drivers getting very wet….

One support race Red Flagged and stopped as the track was too dangerous.

Talk about four seasons in one day. Blazing sunshine, fork lightning, sudden wind storms, torrential rain.

But thankfully there was just enough blazing sunshine and three of the biggest sponges ever…

Hawklad got to see his first live F1 race.

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Peter Pan

Netherlands inspired Christmas at the local Country House. Maybe next year we can try a slightly downscaled version in our little bungalow.

Still the Country House is a good place to come when our village power is off, AGAIN. You don’t apparently get supply problems in Netherlands….

I was reminded that we haven’t been inside this place since our world changed back in 2016. We would come here often, then life abruptly changed course and our smaller family stopped coming. That’s been a common theme.

It’s been a while since I read Peter Pan. From what I can remember it’s about the inevitability of growing up and plans suddenly changing. Life happens. Too often losing our sense of adventure and missing opportunities. Losing confidence to LIVE and FLY. BUT IT DOESN’T have to be this way.

Need to remember this….

It doesn’t have to be this way.

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Those Northern Lights

Last week Hawklad was talking with my sister. The intrepid exploring sis was on the phone from somewhere near the Arctic Circle. On a cruise ship….

She was trying to describe the wonders of seeing The Northern Lights. Hawklad so wanted to see them one day. His Dad as well. Occasionally Aurora Borealis can wander south just far enough to reach Yorkshire. Unfortunately then the wonderful Yorkshire weather kicks in and any light show is hidden behind the cloud and rain. I’m not saying the weather is unusually grim here but after all these many decades, this muppet was still waiting on his first glimpse of this wonder.

So we decided to add ‘way up north’ to the bucket list.

One day….

Then just a couple of days later, look what happened to our part of the world. A magnetic storm brought the light show to Yorkshire (and even further south) AND unbelievably the clouds parted.

Our first glimpse from the house back door. The photos are a bit blurred as my poor old iPhone isn’t so hot in low light and I never did buy a tripod for it.

The green sent the two of us scampering to the car and off we went on our version of storm chasing. A few moments later a more open northern view revealed the glorious light show.

Gradually just a hint of red. We took a gamble, jumped in the car again and headed to The Moors.

And wow was it worth it.

We got back home at just after 1am, what an adventure. You just never know what the day will bring.

Hawklad loved it.

Maybe next time we can see them from within the Arctic Circle.