3 September 2013 - Today's outing was to the disused platform area of Bolton Percy Station which, again, is a nature reserve managed by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. However, I had previously spotted some bracket fungi on the road to Thorp Arch Trading Estate so thought that I might start there and also take in All Saints Church at Thorp Arch before making my way to Bolton Percy. God, that sounds so sad!

I parked up at Thorp Arch and immediately spotted a rabbit dashing back into it's burrow, so I set up my tripod and waited for about a quarter of an hour. He didn't come back of course and I took some pictures of the fungi and then made my way around to the church.

All Saints, Thorp Arch was mentioned in in the Domesday Survey and has undergone a number of rebuilds; first in the Norman style in C12, the Perpendicular style in 1485, and finally in the Medieval style in 1871/72 by the architect George Edmund Street. At the front of the church was a sundial mounted on an old looking octagonal pillar. I later found out that this was probably the support for a font presented by the mother of Revd. Christopher Atkinson in 1756. There was also a sundial on the side of the tower and a goodly collection of ancient gravestones, some looking rather Gothic in a cladding of ivy.

Then I drove to Bolton Percy, which is a rather small reserve. Most notable was a large bush just inside the entrance which seemed to be a butterfly magnet. I saw Tortoiseshells, I've no idea which variety, what I took to be Wood Whites, and a couple of yellowy Brimstones. I'm no expert so please take these identifications with a pinch of salt. Of course the trains roaring passed caused them to be very skittish and I wasn't very happy with the focus of the butterfly pictures. Hey ho.

Again, the whole set can be seen at https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/100919022204905244251/albums/5919683501069738609

30 August 2013 - By way of a digression, I 'ave mostly been taking some time off work and taking pictures of stuff. I started out on Friday by visiting Hetchell Woods, a nature reserve managed by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. It's a mix of woods and grasslands and has Bardsey Beck flowing alongside its edge. There were quite a few dog walkers when I first arrived so initially I just had a preliminary look around.

I started at an unusual area just south of the reserve itself, a set of earthworks associated with a Roman site called Pompocali. The location is distinctive for its many small circular features, with traces of tracks. These are thought to be kiln sites from the lime burning that took place between about 1700 and 1850. The lime was used for agricultural use and for mortar using the limestone quarried from the field close by, just across Milner Lane.

The trail through the woods took me passed quarry workings, either limestone or gritstone, and a set of rocky outcroppings known as Hetchell Crags. My path took me along the top of the crags at first and then further on was a hairpin turn and I came back along the base of the crags and adjacent to the beck.

Along the way I took pictures of flowers, fungi and insects as I went. There was a bit of a breeze but fortunately I had taken along a couple of freezer clips which held some of the flowers nice and still so that I could get some reasonable pictures.

The whole lot can be seen at https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/100919022204905244251/albums/5917973751674210241