North Yorkshire
The Ancient Kirkdale Sundial Hidden in North Yorkshire
We nearly drove past it. St Gregory’s Minster sits in Kirkdale, a quiet valley between Kirkbymoorside and Helmsley. There are no shops gathered around it and no village street leading up to the door. Just the church, its graveyard and the wooded slope behind it. Patricia spotted the sign. I was looking for somewhere to ... Read more
When You Know Spring Has Started Back Home
There’s a particular point in the year when we start thinking about Yorkshire again. Not in a vague, nostalgic way. In a practical, slightly impatient way. It usually happens sometime around now. We’re sitting at the house here in Galicia, the rain doing its usual quiet tapping on the roof, when Patricia will suddenly say ... Read more
The Yorkshire Books We Keep Finding in Spain
You’d think that once you spend the winter in northern Spain, Yorkshire would give you a bit of peace. Apparently not. We discovered this yesterday in a small bookshop in Santiago de Compostela, which we’d wandered into after coming down from the cathedral square. We’d driven in from the house earlier that morning. It’s only ... Read more
North Yorkshire Moors Railway from Pickering (Winter Steam Train Day with Bertie)
We took the steam train from Pickering on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway just after Christmas, one of those cold Yorkshire days where everything feels slightly slower than it should. We’d come back properly this time, not just passing through on the way back to Spain, but settling into it again for a few weeks. ... Read more
The Long Drive South: Plymouth to Santander (and One Very Cross Terrier)
We left Pickering just after dawn, the sort of start that feels adventurous until you realise you’ve left your tea on the windowsill and neither of you can remember locking the back door. James reassured me (four times) that he did, and I chose to believe him somewhere around Driffield. The drive to Plymouth is ... Read more
Bertie’s Farewell Tour: Favourite Walks Before Spain
We’ve done all his favourites this week. Bertie knows something’s up — he always does. The suitcases are out, James has started making long, contemplative noises in the shed, and I’ve washed the car mats, which apparently signals a full geopolitical shift in Bertie’s universe. So we walked. First was the easy one — down ... Read more
Late Spring in Pickering: Last of the Light
The cow parsley’s already tall enough to tickle Bertie’s ears, which is my usual cue that we’re slipping into the tail end of spring. I swear it’s earlier every year — or maybe I’m just getting slower to notice the change. James insists it’s because I always get distracted talking to strangers in the bakery ... Read more
Grandkids Visit: Chaos in the Caravan
They arrived like an ambush. No warning, no warm-up act—just the sound of car doors slamming and then a small voice shouting, “GRANDAD, WHERE’S THE TOAD?” before I’d even put the kettle on. Four of them. Four small, unstoppable humans, all under ten, with muddy shoes, suspiciously sticky hands, and the boundless energy of creatures ... Read more
Rain, Rain, Go Away: Wet Weekend in Malton
It started as one of Patricia’s bright ideas. “Let’s go to Malton for the weekend,” she said, folding the map like a woman planning a small invasion. “We’ll eat somewhere nice and poke around the food market. Might be good to get out.”I should’ve known we were doomed when she packed the good umbrella. We ... Read more
James’s Workshop Reopens: Yorkshire DIY vs. Spanish Siesta (ft. Solar Madness and Kev)
The shed door groaned like it remembered me—and wasn’t pleased. Fair enough. I hadn’t opened it in months. A winter of wine and sunshine in Spain, and now here I was, back in Pickering, wrestling with a rusted padlock and a grudge. I finally kicked the thing open and was met with that particular Yorkshire ... Read more