It has been rather quiet on my blog lately. I moved house, changed jobs and went to Germany for a while. Once back in England I realised that I had forgotten my camera charger on the continent, so I was rationing the life that was left in it until my dear dad sent his distracted daughter the forgotten item. Needless to say, I was not exactly a prolific photographer for a few weeks. But now my life is starting to have more of a routine again and I'm hoping to breathe some life back into this blog.Today I was once again able to snap as many photos as I like without having to worry about being without a camera. So we left Hull and headed further "oop norf" to the beautiful village Thornton-le-Dale to get back into the habit of walking no matter what the weather... As we were getting close in the car we actually ended up in a little snow storm and I could already see how this walk would go but we ended up being very lucky! There was hardly any rain at all and towards the end, I'm sure I even saw the sun.
A few locals smirked at our plans to go for a hike and the path really was very muddy indeed. Every now and then my foot would completely disappear in puddle of brown sludge. All the sheep around us were far from being huggable balls of fluff. They were stalky legs with a dollop of sheep-shaped mud cake plonked on top.We headed towards Dalby Forest. The last time I was there it was summer and the Visitor Centre was heaving with people but now there wasn't a soul in sight. It would have been great fun to Go Ape with having the woods all to ourselves but alas, there was no time. At this point, John thought he had spotted a fox but when a jaguar came into view right next to it, it started to seem unlikely. They were both just made out of wood. The fox looked very real for a long time as we were approaching it, though.
We were heading up some hills when we suddenly entered a cold pocket. You could feel the air getting colder immediately, there was fog between the trees and the ground was covered in snow. I felt like I was in an RPG with a huge world to explore. It reminded me of Oblivion: The Elder Scrolls where landscapes smoothly blend into each other and you get sunny Anvil and icy Bruma on the same map... Ah, good times.
It was the first snow I have seen all winter and the air was wonderfully refreshing. We had hot, homemade chilli con carne on a snow covered tree stump in the light fog before heading back to the car. I really love roaming around Yorkshire. Now I'm warming up by a fire with a cup of tea... it's been a good day.
