Out and about in Yorkshire

Being born and bred in Yorkshire, I am very proud of my home county. It's a fantastic place to live, with its beautiful beaches and countryside as well as great cities, bustling towns and quiet villages. We even have our own Yorkshire Day! August 1st is a day to celebrate all things Yorkshire at any of the many events across the county.

Bridlington Harbour (May 2016)

Over the years I have visited most areas of Yorkshire. As a child I went on day trips to the coast with my mum, dad and brothers, Bridlington being a favourite place to head for. 

Scarborough (Aug 2015)

I remember visiting Scarborough as a teenager with several of my friends on a free coach trip organised by a local working men's club. Also in my teens, I was fortunate to have a couple of week long holidays in Whitby and another based at Flamborough, each organised by church youth groups. Not only were they great holidays but they gave me the opportunity to mix and live with groups of young people from differing backgrounds. I only have two photos from these visits which are group shots that could have been taken anywhere. I wish that I had more photos as reminders of these happy times at the seaside. Luckily I am still able to visit these places and seeing familiar sights often brings back fond memories from past years. 

Scarborough beach (Aug 2015)

Once married with my own children, I continued the tradition of holidaying on the east coast, though this time in a tent! Only recently I was reminiscing with my husband about the camping meals we used to cook on our two ring camping stove - the height of luxury then as it included a grill! Since then we moved onto holidaying in an old motor home and more recently a caravan. 

Sunset over Rydale (Oct 2016)

Two years ago we decided to site our touring caravan on a seasonal pitch in North Yorkshire. Having a home from home just two hours away is fantastic and we are now able to regularly fit in a three night stay in our caravan around family commitments. There are so many places of interest within an hour of our caravan site that we are never short of somewhere to visit and photograph. Having taken hundreds of photos with my new(ish) camera, I am planning on spending time over winter, whilst our caravan is in winter storage, sharing some of my best and more interesting photos of North Yorkshire on here. I'm just not sure of the best way to do this yet! 

Out and about - local parks and green spaces

Spring has arrived!

One of the great pleasures of taking retirement is having the time to meet up in the daytime with friends who are also retired. Often this means going somewhere local for a chat over coffee and cakes or possibly over lunch. But sometimes, and with one particular friend, it means making more of an effort and going for a walk too.

Our city, Sheffield, has more public parks and green spaces than most other European cities and is known for being the greenest city in Britain. It also has the Peak District National Park within its city boundary so there is no shortage of places to go walking here. 
Information about these parks can be found here on the parks and woodlands pages of the Sheffield website.

We thought it would be a good idea to try to visit a different park or green space each time we meet up, starting with those one or both us were already familiar with (and that we knew had a cafe!) and then moving on to ones new to us. There are so many possibilities that this project should keep us busy for many years to come. 

Although we do not manage to meet up as often as we would like, we have now visited several of our local parks. Apart from the much needed exercise we experience from walking around the parks, our visits have also helped me realise how much I still have to learn about the history of the city in which I live. We are extremely lucky to have so much green and open space which is mainly thanks to the generosity of public benefactors such as Alderman J.G. Graves, who presented Graves Park to Sheffield between 1925 and 1936, and Mark Firth who gave Firth Park to the people of Sheffield in 1875. 

High Hazels Park

The first park we visited together was High Hazels Park. This is a park I visited regularly in my childhood and which holds many memories for me of playing on the climbing frame and swings in the children's playground, roller skating on the bandstand and even sledging in the winter. The playground is still there as is the bandstand but the small shop at the side gates and the cafe at the top near the playground are now shut and the only place to buy refreshments is inside the golfers' clubhouse. 

Walking through the formal garden behind the clubhouse, we were sad to see that it was in need of some care and attention. As it was lunchtime we were provided with an excellent excuse to go inside and explore the rooms of this old building which I had never been in before. Built in 1850 as High Hazels House, it was originally the home of  the Jeffcock family and was a magnificent house with numerous bedrooms and stabling for 12 horses. 

Unfortunately I don't seem to have taken any photos on our visit to this park so it looks like I will need to return here in the near future with my camera! 

Whirlow Brooke Park

Whirlow Brooke Hall

The most recent park we have visited is Whirlow Brooke Park. This park was new to me though my friend had in the past attended meetings there in the Hall. 











I have driven past the entrance to this park many times on the way out to or back from trips into the Peak District but had not even realised that behind the entrance there was a park open to the public.  

I was amazed at just how big this park is and, although it was a cool day, it was really lovely to walk around picking out the first signs of spring. It is an extremely peaceful space and there are many places to stop, to sit and reflect or to quietly chat with a friend. In fact I don't think I have ever seen so many benches in a park as we noticed on our stroll around this one. I wish other places would follow this example. Places to rest or just take in the scenery are really important and not only for the retired!

I cannot believe that, although I wrote this two weeks ago before we went on holiday to France, I forgot to press the Publish button!!  

January Flowers

Poppies

Poppies:Wave

In  November 2015 I went with a friend to see the Poppies: Wave exhibition at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. This is one of two poppy sculptures, the other being Weeping Window, by artist Paul Cummins and designer Tom Piper that have been created to mark the centenary of the outbreak of World War I and are currently being brought to audiences around the country. Originally these sculptures were part of the extremely popular installation Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red at the Tower of London in 2014. As we hadn't made it to London to see the initial installation we were keen to view Wave whilst it was in South Yorkshire and so went during the first week of the exhibition. Thankfully we didn't try to go during the first weekend, which was so popular that cars were queued back to the M1 motorway! Even on the day we went there were huge numbers of visitors whose main purpose in being there was to see the poppies close to in person.

Poppies:Wave Nov 2015

Poppies:Wave Nov 2015 

Along with almost every other visitor to Wave we took photos as a record of our visit. As usual I took photos on my phone, which did an excellent job and I was very pleased with the results. There were several people taking photos on expensive looking cameras and I remember telling my friend that I would like to buy a good camera and learn more about taking better digital photographs but not until I had managed to digitise and organise all our photos sitting in albums in my study. As I am only about half way through this project I was not expecting to be in possession of a sophisticated digital camera any time in the near future but I had not realised then that my husband was already planning on buying me one as a present for Christmas! 

Wave after the flood Jan 2016

At the beginning of January, I realised that the exhibition of poppies at the sculpture park was due to finish and I decided it would be a shame to miss the opportunity of returning to allow my husband to experience it and also to take photos of the poppies on my new camera. So we took our new car for a spin and drove up the motorway. Parking wasn't a problem this time but the mud was! We hadn't realised it but the park had been flooded in the previous week's storms and most of the paths were very muddy. As we were only wearing ordinary shoes, not boots, we chose to make use of the park's Poppy Bus that took us down to near the sculpture. This proved to be a good choice, not only in avoiding most of the mud but also because the driver was extremely helpful and very knowledgeable. He told us about the flood and how the farmer's newly manured fields had been washed down into the park and over the paths! He also told us that over a thousand of the 5000+ poppies had been washed away during the floods. We weren't, therefore sure what we would find when we arrived at the bridge. 

Wave after the flood Jan 2016

Again there were many people viewing the poppies but I did wonder how many of them realised what had happened and that about a fifth of the poppies had been swept away. The sculpture was still impressive but it can clearly been seen in the photo that it was missing all the poppies that had actually been sited in the river itself. Still well worthwhile visiting, though, and I hope that the sculpture get as good a reception in its future venues as it is brought to audiences across the country until 2018 as part of the 14-18 NOW programme. 

Garden flowers

Sweet pea flowering in January

January's weather here has been very unseasonal this year. Apart from waking up to a dusting of snow one morning, the winter so far has been much milder, if wetter, than usual. This seems to have confused many of the plants. Plants in my garden that the frost usually kills off are still going strong and some have even flowered recently. 

Last year I grew sweet peas for the first time in years. They did reasonably well but I wasn't impressed by the amount of flowers they produced in the summer. I was impressed, though,  when I went out in the garden to find one of them flowering in January! The geraniums (actually pelargoniums) are still flowering too and I couldn't believe my eyes when I noticed that the lavender had a flower too. I'd been really surprised when the strawberries behind it had had flowers and fruit in November but I have never seen a flower on our ancient lavender bush in January in all the years we have lived in this house. 

Pelargoniums in flower Jan 2016

Lavender flower Jan 2016

Commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the Sheffield Blitz

1940s' Christmas Treats

Saturday 12th was the 75th Anniversary of the first day of the Sheffield Blitz in which many Sheffielders lost their lives. Along with many others, we braved the rain to attend Sheffield Cathedral's commemoration event, Blitz Christmas.

War time memorabilia

Although we arrived looking like drowned rats, we soon dried off and began to learn more about what war time Christmas was like for ordinary people living in Sheffield in 1940. 

Thankfully no-one in my family nor my husband's was killed during the bombing of Sheffield, but at least one family friend was not so lucky. At 11.44pm on 12th December 1940, the Marples Hotel in the centre of Sheffield took a direct hit from a 500kg bomb and an estimate of 70 people sheltering there lost their lives, including my grandmother's best friend.   

Air Raid Patrol (ARP) Wardens' Equipment

For those of us born after the war, it is difficult to imagine what it was to like to live through the war years so commemorative events such as this one at Sheffield Cathedral are important in helping us to gain a little understanding of what people had to endure and how they coped. 

Would you leave your dog behind?

I didn't realise until reading the label on this dog that when going in to an air raid shelter people were expected by the government not to take their dogs with them.  

Rest station for those losing their homes

Many of the displays were put together by UKHomefront, a non profit Living History group, http://www.ukhomefront.co.uk/ who travel the country entertaining and education about life during World war 2 by portraying working class people during this time. 

I am really pleased that I now know of a home for an old brown suitcase and a couple of the old style woollen blankets that have been in the family for many years and that we have been very reluctant to throw out even though they haven't been used since I was a child. It is so good to know that they can be made use of and I am looking forward to passing them onto this group in the New Year. 

First outing with my new camera

Strawberries in October - a first for my garden

Well it's been a busy couple of weeks but, in between household chores, clearing out the loft space and scanning photos of our 1991 camping holiday, I have found some time to begin to get to grips with my new camera. 

Until today my experiments have been confined to taking photos in the house and garden, most of which have already been discarded. There is so much more freedom to experiment with a digital camera than with the old film cameras. Not only did my first Brownie camera take a mere 8 photos to a roll of film, but it would be ages before the film was processed and the results seen. Even when cameras took 24 or 36 photos per roll it was far too costly to "waste" many if any shots on experimentation. Now I can take as many photos as I like and just throw away any I do not want to keep. 

A wise owl watching over Ruskin Park

Today I took my camera to a local park. This was a new experience for me, to go somewhere for the purpose of taking photos rather than just using photography as a way of providing a record of something that was already happening such as a holiday, a meal with friends or Christmas with the family. 

Even though its only a few minutes away and I pass it regularly, it felt really strange to be going to a park on my own just to take photos, I am used to visiting such places with family or friends. Although no one was around I was surprised how awkward I felt going into a playground to take photos of the animal statues that are there. If my younger grandchildren had been with me I wouldn't have given it second thought and would have quite happily taken numerous photos of them and of any of the objects in the surrounding vicinity. 

No one told me that there is a gate!

Why can't I come in too? 

I was also amazed at how vulnerable I felt walking around on my own with a fairly expensive camera on a strap around my neck, even in the middle of the afternoon. I doubt that I will be doing much night time photography! 

Starting a blog - why now and not before?

Since retiring I have been thinking about writing a blog but until now have done anything about it. This is for several reasons, one of which is down to how busy I have been since retiring. I know that most of my retired friends and colleagues say that they can't understand how they ever fitted in work and I must admit that this is something I have wondered and said too. How did I manage to work full time for so many years alongside being a wife, mother, grandmother, daughter, and daughter-in-law and still have time for hobbies and a social life? But of course I didn't! Or at least I did when I was younger and fitter but not as I got older, work became more pressurised and family commitments changed. Hobbies fell by the wayside and my social life shrank. On retiring, I promised myself to catch up with old friends and to take up again hobbies I used to enjoy plus pursue new ones and so this how I have spent many pleasant hours over the last two years.

The main reason, though, for not starting a blog is that I didn't know what to blog about. I'm still not sure exactly what I intend for this blog but I have been spurred into action by being given an early Christmas present - a new all singing, all dancing digital camera.

Whitely Bay 1963

One of the things I began straight after I retired was scanning and digitising all the old photographs from our many albums. So many memories and I am only up to 1990! This week, I found an album in our loft which contains photos that I took on my first ever camera at the age of 10 during a school trip to Whitely Bay and Newcastle. One of the my photos won first prize in the school's photo competition. Not that there were many entrants as very few of my classmates owned or had access to a camera!

Boat on the River Tyne 1963

I still have my first camera along with several others I have owned since, each one having more facilities and able to do more than the last. But in recent years I have just been using my phone to take photos and whilst these photos are of a quality at least equal to my previous digital cameras, I really would like to take even better photos. I would love my photos to be as good as many I see posted on a daily basis in the Facebook groups I belong to. Considering how many photos I have left to scan, reason suggested that I concentrate on this task before attempting to further develop my digital photography skills. But my husband thought otherwise! 

Bridge over the Tyne 1963

So I now have a new digital camera, given to me this week so that by Christmas I will know how to work it! Having already spent hours reading the instruction book, accessing and following help information on the web in order to get this camera up and running and able to upload photos directly to the Cloud, I suddenly realised how many new things I have learnt and discovered since retiring. It occurred to me then that perhaps I had found something I could blog about on a regular basis. Lets's see!  


I once had to blog about my work on an on-line course so I am not completely new to using Blogger but that was three years ago. So my first job is to re-learn how to use the software!