Sometimes you come across something truly beautiful. Something simple, yet seemingly perfect. So it was the other day when, on the way from a week near Kirkcudbright in Dumfries & Galloway we turned off the A75 near Dumfries to Shawhead and the...
Read moreAround a year ago, I wrote a few blogs about walking along the Rivers Skell and Ure in Ripon. The rivers run through Ripon and circle around the ever looming presence of Ripon Cathedral on the mount at Ripon's heart. The rivers bring the countrysid...
Read moreI went to small, all-boys prep school in Northumberland called Mowden Hall School, which still exists and is now a mixed prep school. In fact, my father went there the first year it moved to Northumberland after the Second World War. It seems so ol...
Read moreI have a confession to make - I am not a big walker that likes to conquer hills and mountains, even if I know I should be striding forth across moorland and up mountains. I am not a walker that goes into the hills for the beauty of nature; I ge...
Read moreFor someone with little spirituality, I spent much of last Sunday at religious events. Both of them were for Ripon Cathedral Choir School, which is celebrating 50 years since its foundation by Ripon Cathedral. Proof that little old Ripon can be a g...
Read moreOn Thursday 1 July 2010, I did one of Axel's Random Walks near Nosterfield and Thornborough in North Yorkshire. I recently bought myself an Ordnance Survey Explorer Map of Ripon & Boroughbridge (#299) and in the top left corner you can just find...
Read moreSometimes you visit some people, who really are so good and wonderful that it shames you a bit. The people at Jennyruth Workshops are some of those unsung heroes that underpin every society in the world; they just get on with it, doing good work, da...
Read moreSaturday evening saw the roads quieten off as everyone hunkered down to watch England in their first match at the South African World Cup. The constant background noise from the A1 disappeared as it only ever does on Christmas Day - England hoping f...
Read moreRipon is blessed with lots of fabulous waterways and green corridors through the city. One of the most noticeable is Ripon Canal, which cuts a straight caesura into the centre of the city, with the canal sitting on your left as you come in along Bor...
Read moreI mentioned in my first blog about walks in Ripon in North Yorkshire that I did not believe that Ripon had only been settled as a monastery in 650AD. I believe this basic historical fact about Ripon's history even less now after walking along the Ri...
Read moreYesterday evening, the Steenberg family finally went to visit the milk bar in Ripon. It was a treat after we took the kids to Evensong in Ripon Cathedral on Monday evening for the Whit Monday service; that was beautiful with the service sung by the...
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