Sunday Stamps - Winter: Great Britain, Canada

 We moved into our present home in 1991. At that time we could stand at the windows at the back of our house and see the North Yorkshire Moors in the distance. This view has now been lost due to new houses blocking the way.

In 1992 the first series of the Four Seasons - Wintertime was issued and included this ...

Hare on the North York Moors
Great Britain - 14 January 1992

It is difficult to match winter and the snowy conditions in the Canadian World Heritage Site, The Dinosaur Provincial Park and there's not a dinosaur to be seen as a competitor of our Yorkshire hare.

Canada - 21 August 2015

However you may see competing Canadian animals and another of the GB Wintertime series at Snow on Sunday Stamps

A-Z Challenge 2018 - British Rivers: 'L' Leven

This North Yorkshire river rises in the North Yorkshire Moors  and runs into the River Tees at Yarm.

I'm ashamed to say that although I have walked beside it where it passes through - 

Great Ayton 
(The childhood home of Captain Cook)

and over the packhorse bridge at -

Stokesley

and  I know it enters the Tees -

River Leven entering the Tees at Yarm

I have no photos of my own of this river which is around 30 miles long.

I usually see it from a car window where it goes under the road at Leven Bank or under a viaduct which carries the A19 dual carriageway over it. 

This sketch map shows the stretch from Yarm to beyond the A19.

(Ex Teesmouth Bird Club website, with permission)

Now I must walk as much of that route as possible. I just wonder why part of it is called Weary Bank.

Photo attributions:

• Great Ayton - River Leven between High and Low Green: 18 October 2007 ex geograph.org.uk by Trish Steel - CC BY-SA 2.0 licence
• Stokesley - 17/18 century packhorse bridge over the River Leven: 19 October 2010 ex geograph.org.uk by Carole Walker - CC BY-SA 2.0
• Mouth of River Leven as it joins the Tees at Yarm: 9 August 2006 by Andrew Duffell CC BY-SA 3.0 licence.

Landscapes - Thematic Photography

My last thematic post before Christmas finished in a farmer's field with this load of -

Muck

However this field also provides some landscape views to be admired, even on a winter's day.

North Yorkshire Moors

The pylon detracts from the view a bit as does a modern

Mobile phone mast

If you know the area then you probably also know that the column on the skyline is a monument commemorating Captain Cook.

Following on, to the left again, gives a view of Roseberry Topping and - 

Two of the five wind turbines, all in a line

A farm sits on another boundary to the field.

Further on houses are tucked among some trees.

However I must admit I prefer the landscapes to be seen, earlier in the year.

At haymaking time.

I hope you will agree that this a good collection for just one field that I see at least six days a week.

Here's wishing you all a Happy New Thematic-Photographic-394 Year.

Vegetation - Thematic Photography

When I saw this vegetation theme my first thoughts were of what grows in my garden.

Fern

However when I saw the North Yorkshire Moors on our way to Whitby yesterday I knew I had to show sometime a bit wilder.

Less than 20yds from the main road from Teesside you could find yourself up to your neck in in a bracken bank.

Bracken with hedge bindweed (belibine) flowers

I wish now that I had some close-ups of the flowers of the bindweed which. in gardens, is regarded as a pest.

More bracken and a single plant of Indian balsam (pink)

The Indian balsam is another invasive species.

But the view that I found best included the plant that gives the open moor its purple colour at this time of year.

Purple heather

Ferns with heather in the background

Although there was vegetation visible at the top of the cliffs below Whitby Abbey

Whitby Abbey (viewed from afar)

it was this shot that got to me.

Birds of a feather (a week too late)

They would be more interested in fish than vegetation.

Don't let that stop you however, checking out the vegetation on view at Carmi's Thematic-photographic-308.