East Yorkshire Wolds, Bradeham Dale, near Fridaythorpe.

It was a wonderful day again, bright with little wind (a good day for a rally, in London) and after my Saturday morning coffee and a catch up I set off for the Wolds. A earlier encounter with a good friend raised the idea of exploring the area twixt Tibthorpe and Huggate. After passing three farms I stopped and, with George, explored a public footpath heading south.

I began to think, 

As I walked 

Downhill past

The crop edge,

Passing linear 

hawthorn 

Waking  green,

On dark twisted, 

Trimmed fingers, 

That I could describe this

Pristine landscape

 As plastic free.

 But then I saw it.

 In a beech copse,

Among the dead litter

A hollow of terminal dreams

A disused ;

 brass capped

Blue plastic cartridge,

Pity it was not picked up at the time.

I walked on passing a set aside strip which was covered in tall grass, maybe forty yards wide and about a hundred yards long. I walked alongside more field hedges  suddenly, I stopped, I could just make out, in the distance a dancing, ghost white bird, I soon realized it was a barn owl. It flew past me and then it quartered the set aside strip. It flew slowly, tickling the air before hovering, listening, pin pointing, and dropping like a stone into the long grass. I watched it for about ten minutes and then detoured past Haywold Farm and back to the car. A car tooted and the driver waved, it was my senior farmer friend from yesterday.
Moving on to Huggate, I drove through the village down past Cow Dale, full of sheep hmmm... and stopped at the entrance to Northfield Farm to check the view back towards the church. It is a possibility, though too much shade today. I drove out of Huggate and headed north on York Lane, crossing the busy road which links Fridaythorpe and York. I found myself on Pefham Lane between Rigg Farm and Gill's Farm, where I spotted this view. It was a complex view of one obvious Dale or, so I thought. When checking my Ordnance survey map I discovered that the big Dale was Bradeham Dale and a distant smaller Dale to the right was Worm Dale. A feature of these higher Wolds is the amount of gorse growing on the slopes.
It was late afternoon when I started the painting and getting dark as I finished.
Behind the central tree cover is Broadholme Farm.