A-Z Challenge 2021 - Photo Shoot: Y - Yarm

 If you follow the A67 from my previous post you will find yourself in the town of Yarm.

There you will be able to see the bridge built originally in the 1400s when it was the bridge over the River Tees nearest the sea.

Yarm Bridge with the Viaduct behind it.

Hopefully you will have seen a shot of the Viaduct under the letter 'V'.

You can get a feel for the size of it from this shot in the town.

The town hall (1700s) would probably fit under one of the arches.

If you have time it will be no problem to explore - 

Yarm Castle

Probably not what sightseers were expecting is it?

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.

A-Z Challenge 2018 - Theme Reveal:British Rivers

If you live in the United Kingdom you are never far from a river, as this map for England shows - 

My theme this year will be British Rivers and you will soon see that many I will show will not appear on this map.

The River Tees is the nearest major river to where we live so it's only natural that I should include a view of it here.

Railway viaduct over the River Tees at Yarm, North Yorkshire

Initial searches show me that I will be able to cover all but two letters (X and Z) without cheating.


Photo Attribution:

• Map Major Rivers of England: Map from File:Gb4dot rivers England.png 10 Oct 2010; Licence CC BY-SA 3,0

A-Z Challenge - Houses, some real, some not - 'P'

P - Preston Hall

Preston Hall and Park overlooks the River Tees at Eaglescliffe. The Preston Hall Museum and its surroundings in 100 acres of beautiful park land which has undergone a make-over as the result of a Heritage Lottery Grant.

In addition to the winter gardens at the right, the museum houses displays of art, which normally includes Georges de la Tour’s famous Dice Players, armour and social history. 

Exhibitions show visitors what life was like in the 1800s with craft workers in a typical local street of the1890s. The street includes the shop of John Walker from Stockton; Walker was the inventor of the safety match.

Permanent attractions include an aviary, riverside and woodland paths. The Butterfly World  contains hundreds of butterflies from around the world and even some meerkats.

You may ride on the Teesside Small Gauge Railway or take a trip on the river to Yarm and Stockton aboard the pleasure boat, the Teesside Princess.

The park is an ideal place to walk a dog. Other facilities include safe surface play area for children, crazy golf and a café.

The walks by the river and the Quarry Wood Nature reserve are havens for wild life. 

Grassy areas are perfect for picnics and if you have a piscatorial bent the banks of the Tees provide pleasant spots for plumbing its depths.

[This is an edited post from the first A-Z Challenge I entered in 2011]

Electrical & Infrastructure - Thematic Photography

Everywhere I go there seems to be someone working on our infrastructure, from 

Broadband

to 

Gas

and

Cable TV

Some things are just confusing

unless you can see

The bigger picture

But where would we be without Cartmells of Yarm, our

Sometimes an opportunity arises that is too good to miss especially if you are - 

A pigeon nesting inside a passage electric light

For more bright sparks and infrastructure insights check what others have found at Thematic-photographic-406.

A-Z Challenge 2016 - Wildflowers 'T'

My theme this year is wild flowers. Most of us will be aware of the flowers that grow in our gardens but what surprises me is how few wild flowers that I know.


I pass them every day but rarely look at them. Well this year will be different - even if many of them may fall under the letter 'X' for unknown.

'T' - Tansy, Thistles

This is a shot taken alongside the River Tees at Yarm in North Yorkshire. You should recognise one of the flowers in it if you have visited 'I'

The pink flower is Indian Balsam but it's the yellow flower that was involved in a country practice, to eat in a Tansy pudding at Easter in remembrance of bitter herbs eaten by Jews at the Passover.

The Tansy can have up to 100 flower heads in its dense, flat-topped yellow clusters. An aromatic herb, its strong smell has medicinal and insecticidal properties. Its fern-like leaves once were used to staunch and to prevent miscarriages.

The ferny leaves may be used to spice up omelettes and cakes. At one time Tansy cakes were  a traditional Easter treat.

A more macabre use was its insect repellent properties to keep blowflies off meat and .... corpses!

In preparation for the Challenge over the last year I have taken hundreds of photos of flowers. Now I have have come to write the posts I have discovered that I should have paid more attention to their leaves as well if I was going to differentiate between species.

I never knew, for instance that there are 11 varieties of - 

Thistles

The AA Book of the British Countryside illustrates the various sorts.

Spear Thistle - the famous emblem of Scotland

This biennial which can grow to a height of 6ft grows in hedgerows, waste places and disturbed ground is regarded by many as a vigorous weed. There is no mistaking its prickly nature.

The welted, melancholy, musk and meadow thistle have no prickles. The stemless (or dwarf) thistle will make you painfully aware of its presence should you be unfortunate enough to sit down on one at a picnic.

The flowers of the cotton thistle (the tallest of them all) are covered in white hairs and the woolly's flowers with a white cotton like growth. I have not seen any of these nor the white flowers that make the carline thistle stand out.

Carline thistle

Attribution:

• Carline thistle heads - 18 May 2008, ex geograph.org.uk, by May and Angus Hogg - CC BY-SA 2.0 generic.

Pleased be seated - Thematic Photography

Are you sitting comfortably? 

Then we will begin with photos from my archives. In the first, you have to guess the year in which the two had taken up the invitation to be seated.

Not exactly modern beach wear I think you will agree

Sixties' youths can get comfortable anywhere.

Our two boys testing out the harbour wall

While Dad and daughter sun themselves at home.

Yarm patio

But when the nest was empty a new patio became the place to be seated instead.

Be seated someone, please

There were even seats available in the empty new front bedroom.

Snow outside - 1992

The window down to the floor just had to go; a wall now retains the heat up to that cross piece. The radiator has been moved but the settee remains for anyone who wants to be seated there.

Into the 21st century Christmases may even be in Michigan from time to time. There is room for our daughter to request 'Pleased be seated' here.

When the meal is ready, that is.

Some do not have to be invited to be seated - just

Maxie. Sit!

Now it's you turn to respond to the the request, 'Please be seated.' with Carmi's friends at Thematic-photographic-331.

You can take a horse to water ... - Sepia Saturday

From the time I saw this week's prompt first appear ...

I been trying to get some local horses to take a drink.

However they all are quite happy to

Munch away at the grass

The smallest one might take a drink - 

If there was not a fence in the way.

He just has to be content to look at the water trough where others have been when I've not been about.

Police horses in a park alongside the Paint Creek Trail in Michigan have to do as they are told, but they do get a rest from time to time.

Rochester, Michigan - 2009

They even get taken to see the Clinton River nearby.

A drink for one

And them both on a hot summer's day

I'll try again with my local horses again tomorrow. If I do not succeed I know where I need to go to get a drink thanks to a special kind of horse.

The Cleveland Bay, Yarm

After all if you can't make a horse take that drink, there is nothing that says you have to abstain.

Cheers Sepians at Sepia-Saturday-271.

True Lovers' Walk - Good Fences 48

The River Tees runs through the town of Yarm in North East England. It's about a three mile walk from where I live.

River Tees at Yarm

The Teesside Princess uses this quay for boat trips up and down the river between Yarm and Stockton-on-Tees.

The red fence extends part of the way along the river bank.

The footpath continues alongside the wall on the left leading to True Lover's Walk and Yarm Bridge (in the background above).

Yarm Bridge (in front) - Yarm Viaduct (behind)

There is a fence in that photo but you need exceptional eyesight to see it.

Hard to miss this one on the raised path.

If we take a closer look the fence on the viaduct is easy to see.

Yarm Bridge and Viaduct

The original stone bridge was built c1400 by Bishop Skirlaw of Durham and for 400 years was the only bridge across the Tees connecting Yorkshire and Durham. Parts of the original can still be seen in the wider modern day bridge which carries road traffic over the Tees

Yarm, the Viaduct and the Bridge

The viaduct was built in 1849; it has 43 arches, contains 7 million bricks and carries the railway over the town and the Tees. Our fence must skirt its entire length.

True Lovers' Walk continues upstream under the viaduct with the flood defence gates to properties on the left.

I shall have to continue along the path on another day to see what other 

I can find.

In the meantime I'm off to check out other fence posts at Teresa's Good-Fences-48.

Fun(gi) Favourites - Thematic Photography

When it comes to showing more of my favourite shots I couldn't resist having a little fungi,

Jew's Ear Fungus (Auricularia auricula) - 2007

This grows on old wood and is soft and velvety to the touch. What's more it's edible and recipes for Jew's Ear Soup  exist. I've never been brave enough to try this.

Parasol Mushroom (Macrolepiota procera) - Tresco, 2008

Apparently this is also edible but beware there is a very similar 'shaggy' mushroom that causes stomach problems.

In 2014 I found this on on the grass verge between Kirklevington and Yarm. Having seen its appearance change from day to day I doubt that it is edible and I'm not sure what it is.

 Two days later it looked like this.

One to leave alone

Today I had a different kind of fun and took my first photo of the year - somehow I think it mighty figure in my year end favourites too.

It was the light that caught my attention. - the sky was black and not as blue as it appears.

For more favourite shots cross over to  Carmi at Thematic--faves-all-time.