It amazes me how quickly the days go… especially when it starts getting dark mid-afternoon! The grey skies have not helped…

In my last blog (31 October), I mentioned that we were going on a walk up in the Dales around Grimwith Reservoir… here’s some pics 😁

I am sure you will agree, even in the low cloud, this reservoir, which is approximately 6-miles east of Grassington, is a beautiful place… it was originally built in 1864 by the Bradford Corporation as one of eleven reservoirs in the Yorkshire Dales to supply fresh water to Bradford (approximately 20 miles away…). It is the largest reservoir owned by Yorkshire Water in terms of water storage – holding 21,772,000 cubic metres which is a lot of water! 😆

The walk around the reservoir is just over 4-miles with a path all the way round – well worth a visit if you ever find yourself in the Dales! It has car parking, a picnic area & toilets too – although there were not many people there when we visited (nice!) except for a few dog walkers & some nutters windsurfing out of the Sailing club based there… the windsurfers had those hydrofoiling boards – where they appear to float above the water with just the hydrofoil bit in the water (like me, you might have seen these at the Paris Olympics if anyone caught any of the windsurfing on’t telly!)

Despite the weather being a bit grey & damp, it was nice to get some fresh air & look out for deer and the wildfowl… but a bit too grey for close up photos of these!

Yesterday (2nd November) I went to see Mum… she was on great form and really happy to see me which was nice… We had a nice few hours together – me showing her the photos (or some of them) of our trip to Spain and her oohing and aahing over them – well, the ones of “views” and flowers as she’s not that enamoured with the historical buildings although she does like a stained glass window & church!

Pete came & picked me up after a couple of hours and we had a little walk down the canal… we managed to see deer and also a kingfisher (first one I have seen in yonks although no pics as it was way too fast for me!)…

Today, we had planned to take a ride out to Stocks Reservoir near Wigglesworth (what a great name!) which is near where we used to live in Long Preston, North Yorkshire… however, Pete popped out to collect the windfall pears from our allotment and felt we really needed to spend a bit of time down there instead to get it tidied up and winter ready! So, that’s what we did… here’s some before & after photos although I am not sure you can see much difference considering we were there for a good few hours…

The good thing about our change in plans meant that we went for a walk through the village this evening just as it was getting a bit darker… having passed an old chap having a stroll on the way out, on the way back he told us he had just seen the resident barn owl in the field opposite our road turning… we thanked him and decided to take a quick look as we hadn’t seen the owl for a while… and there he/she was – absolutely stunning… shame I didn’t have my camera but here are some shots our Andy took last year!

Tomorrow (4th November) we are off to the North Yorkshire Dales for 4 nights – a place called Grinton, which is just south of another called Reeth where we are looking forward to going to the community firework display on Bonfire night (Tuesday). We did this last year and it was great. The event is free to attend (although they ask for donations) and with a “Guy” competition for the kids (brothers of mine – do you remember our epic guy making for bonfire night? I seem to recall one we made of the hippy “Neil” from “The Young Ones” one year… 🤣🤣🤣)… they usually have a barbecue and the fireworks go on for well over half-hour… much better than doing it ourselves! And it looks like the weather is going to be clear this year – woohoo! Last year, it was very cold and very wet… oh, and whilst we are away, we are also planning a little walk up to visit my Dad at his last resting place (High Cup Nick – which is the photo at the top of my blog!) so that will be nice 🥰

That’s all for now but before I go… Happy birthday Sophie C for tomorrow! Hope you have a great day! 🎉🥳🎉

Laters… xxx 😘