9th June

Sheep escaping the heat of the sun at Appleton-le-Moor

The photo of Rievaulx abbey at the top of my blog was a reminder of how beautiful this ruined set of buildings are lying in the valley surrounded by steep sided hills and also because I came across a painting of J.M.W.Turner painted at a different angle and in that idyllic view of the countryside. Today, behind the abbey is The Terrace a landscaped garden, which we haven't visited yet.  The question I asked were the hills as steep as portrayed in the painting, my photos show something slightly different, the hills are less wooded but the protecting atmosphere of these hills enfolding this great abbey is still there.  Perhaps just a touch of artistic licence...

Rievaulx Abbey the new museum - Culture24
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The other thing that grabbed my attention yesterday was an old photo of the little shed that stood on the land our house was built on.  Apparently early on in the 20th century it had been a butchers. I had been looking for more information on Margaret Wood, a lady who is fascinating, for it is her cottage and land that have new houses on.  Her cottage fell down around her ears I suppose is the best way to describe it, as she grew older she retreated downstairs.  One of the bedrooms fell through to the ground floor, apparently because there was a heavy bucket of old coins balanced on the floor that caused the collapse.  Someone who had visited her during the last years of her life, described her as a Miss Havisham of  Charles Dicken's Great Expectation fame.  She must have inherited the land and some cottages in the village which were left to her by the post mistresses at the little Post Office shop in one of the cottages.

Looking at the stack of stones outside the building, they are probably all still buried in the garden for every time I dig a hole for roses, there are ALWAYS stones and bricks.

The butcher's shop, the coke house is peeping out from behind.

The church coke house

Dyeing link