April: 'the opening of the year'
FROM the folk lore perspective, a lot happens during the month of April and that is probably due to the fact that by ancient tradition, April was often regarded as the opening of the year.
Fake news or is it an April Fool?
A PAIR of young elephants, a male and a female, have been found living wild in remote woodland in the Esk Valley of North Yorkshire.
Mishap due after Old Lady Day
TOMORROW, March 25, is widely known as Lady Day, or sometimes St Mary’s Day in Lent.
'X' marks the spot, but of what?
THE North York Moors are known for many things, ranging from the covering of purple heather in the autumn to the carpet of yellow in spring when the Farndale daffodils present themselves to the world.
Puzzle that criss-crosses Moors
THE North York Moors as a feature within the national park that bears their name provides considerable interest to those who explore this area of rugged uplands. Their sparkling becks and streams are a bonus.
Charming finches are all a-twitter
AS I compile these notes at least two weeks ahead of publication, the feast day of St Valentine is now past, and as anticipated on that day, the birds of our countryside began to sing that very evening and also select their mates – and so did a fair proportion of humans!
Secret TV history of Arncliffe
WHEN I was a child, my playground was a splendid stretch of deciduous woodland known as Arncliffe Wood at Glaisdale in the Esk Valley.
How a remote village expanded
I SPENT my childhood in a moorland village said by the author Arthur Mee to be “cut off from the world by the moors”.
A brolly rare sight in the Dales
TODAY is celebrated as Umbrella Day when many English people carry umbrellas to mark the invention of this remarkable device.
Happy to get in the Abbey habit
A BRIEF visit to the fascinating new Stanbrook Abbey in the hills above Wass, near Coxwold made me realise that, living in the vicinity as I do, my home is surrounded by abbeys, priories, minsters and churches.
