Richard Bell's nature sketchbook since 1998
Sycamores, bus passengers, limestone pavement and a glacial overflow channel at Newtondale, all drawn on a trip to Leeds (but two were from photographic murals in hospital waiting rooms, a change from drawing chairs for me).
Newtondale
Limestone pavement
Bus folk
The Calder Valley at Addingford, down Addingford Steps from Horbury, is looking at its best now with hawthorn and cow parsley in flower.
I was intrigued by the old building in Fearnside’s Yard (now renamed Fearnside’s Close) off Horbury High Street. There’s no trace that it was ever half-timbered but it looks very old to me. Those rows of through-stones make me wonder if it was originally faced with stone too.
I got a chance to re-photograph the boy’s entrance to the Wesleyan Day School on School Lane, opposite Fearnside’s Yard on the south side the High Street. When I photographed it for William Baines’ centenary in November there was a skip in front of the window (previously the door for the boys’ entrance).
A new route for the footpath was recently excavated alongside the mineral railway. The embankment’s shale, sandstone and occasional lumps of coal, has been exposed. This kind of debris was once a common sight on colliery spoil heaps and there was always the chance that you might spot a fossil plant such as the bark of a giant clubmoss or horsetail, a reminder of the lush forests that grew here – when this part of the Earth’s crust was close to the equator – 300 million years ago.
The Gaskell School, more about the Wesleyan Day School and William Baines
Happy birthday to Rombold’s Moor Rambler Roger.
Planting the runner beans yesterday I came across this bead – or perhaps I should call it a stud, as the cylindrical cavity in it doesn’t go right through. It’s exactly one centimetre across.
In close up you can see that it’s not cut with machine precision. That could be clay that’s filled the cavity but I’m leaving it in place for the moment in case it’s a part of the original artefact – some kind of cement, for instance?
As I explain in my book Yorkshire Rock, a journey through time, Whitby Jet is fossil monkey puzzle wood from the Jurassic Period, used by the Victorians for making jewellery.
We’re meeting up with some friends, Jenny and Clive, on holiday at Whitby in July and Jenny, who has never visited is determined to find a piece of Whitby Jet on the beach. That could easily take up the entire holiday, so perhaps we better take this piece as a stand-by.
Yorkshire Rock, a journey through time, available from my Willow Island Editions website
On my errands this morning I managed to find time for a quick walk around Newmillerdam lake, plus a break for coffee, cake and a sketch.
Happy birthday to Wordle genius and veggie chef par exellence (which might explain her inspired guesswork) Liz.
Sunday, 14 May, 2.30 pm: To me the River Idle, downstream from Retford at the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust Idle Valley reserve, looks pristine. Its clear with long tresses of water-weeds wafting in the current, although I haven’t spotted any fish darting around but its designation is that it has a ‘moderate’ ecological status, although it’s ‘good’ for invertebrates and fish get a rating of ‘high’.
From the edge of a car park near Retford, North Nottinghamshire, pebbles eroded out of the Bunter Sandstone, originally deposited in temporary lakes in desert landscape 225 million years ago. They’ve since been redeposited as alluvial sands and gravels.
Testing out my new field guide, Britain’s Insects by Paul D. Brock. I got a good look at the click beetle, which was flying slowly past me, wing cases outspread. I caught it in the palm of my hand and after a few seconds lying on its back it performed its click, springing up from my hand and landing, right side up this time on the ground.
For the small hoverfly I’m going to have to refer to the companion field guide to Britain’s Hoverflies.
We’ve been trying to meet up with Kathleen, my now 93 year-old cousin, since before the pandemic but at last we got to see her today at Bragazzi’s, on Abbeydale Road, a part of Sheffield where my mum grew up. Her local cinema, the 1,560-seater Abbeydale ‘Picture Palace’, built in 1920, is currently being restored.