Return of the native

C is watching two red kites that were wheeling and tumbling together in the dry valley below us. Her home village is in the background with the Plain of York stretching out below.

Bishop Wilton is located where the chalk scarp of the Yorkshire Plain meets the flatlands of the Plain. To my mind it therefore enjoys access to the best of both worlds, the mainly arable landscape of the rich soils of the Plain and the rough grasslands of the scarp where buzzards and kites hunt by day, and barn owls at dusk.

This is my first blip of the landscape since we moved here just over six weeks ago (though I shall post a few back blips). Now that we no longer have Gus to take care of, we can go for a walk together at the same time. The route we took is one I did many times with Gus when he was fitter, so there were still plenty of memories of him for me en route. We walked up Worsendale, cut across the dry valley to the top of the scarp and came down through the Park and back into the village.

Back at home, we had visitors to watch Scotland play Ireland, the result didn’t favour our visitors, but it was a great match to watch.