St Ethelburga’s Church, Great Givendale, East Yorkshire.

I had visited the day before and walked along the track to the Scout hut.
And so today I returned to paint.
Before doing so I decided to walk across the field, below the church to explore the view. I was confident as I could see, in the distance, cattle with young calfs, behind a fenced off field. As I began to walk into the field a group of geese, high up the hill, away from the pond, saw me and began to hurriedly scramble back to the safety of the water. They looked rather comical, adults and young goslings, in a group, necks out-stretched heading downhill. I followed an animal track up the hill towards a copse, casually observing the fenced off cattle. I was heading for a gate which lead to the road. Just before I got to the gate I was surprised to see a large black bull sitting with the brown cows. I was even more surprised to see that the fence finished near me and the gate to the field I was in, was open. The cows were now looking over to me and showing interest. So, with some urgency I leapt over the fence and onto the road. I returned to the car looking down on clouds of hedgerow cow parsley, breathing in, the heavily scented air.
Below the church, the land falls away to a small pond. Or, so I thought, as I walked along the track, the size of the 'pond' became evident. It is actually very much more than the small pond that one initially sees. Trees hide the extent of the water which bends' round the hill leading to a heavily weeded, large pond, where moorhens tread lightly and irises' fringe the banks. However, the church disappears from view and so I returned to this side track to paint this simple scene.
I set up and began to paint. After a short time a father and son passed me walking their dog(s). Matt and Tiger were multi-tasking, walking the dog(s) and revising for 'A' levels using prompting cards.
A local farmer driving a huge vehicle turned into the lane and patiently waited as moved the easel. On his return we chatted and he mentioned the bull was called Ted and had a vicious nature.....only joking. So, a very pleasant trip and I am pleased to paint the church which I have not detailed too much. It gets the 'feel' of the building and it's beautiful setting, surrounded by trees and sitting on a hillside.