Dancing Stone, Danby

We came across the ‘dancing stone’ on a walk around the countryside at Danby.  Starting at the car park next to the church, you follow the path down through the woods, along country lanes before making the ascent up quite a steep hill – which was like walking up a river when we were there as it had rained the days before. 

Nevertheless, the view from the top is amazing; you can walk out onto the stone looking down over the patchwork quilt of the moors. 

Romanby and Newby Wiske

A couple of weeks ago, we decided to go out for lunch somewhere further afield. We’d decided to head to Harrogate, but the weather was a bit grey so we stayed a bit closer to home and went to Northallerton to Betty’s Tea Rooms. There was only a small queue so it didn’t take us long to be sat down at a table. I ordered my usual – egg and cress sandwiches. We also got a portion of chips to share and Betty’s tearoom blend tea, which was delicious. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time for pudding but we did look around the shop before we left and we got to sample a couple of the chocolates.

It had stopped raining as we left, so we decided to drive home via the little villages nearby so that I could get some photos of the Autumn colours. We went first to Romanby, a village not far from Northallerton. I got a few pictures including one of a lovely willow tree draped over a bridge. We also found some conkers to take home to protect us from spiders. 

Next, we drove through the villages of Yafforth and Warlaby, both of which I’d never heard of. I got some lovely pictures of the Autumn leaves and managed to photograph a hiding squirrel. We then parked up in a village called Newby Wiske where I managed to take a photo of a heron in a stream; which would have been lovely had it not been for the chorus of especially loud mooing coming from a nearby barn. There was also music blaring but we couldn’t place where it was coming from as we were in the middle of nowhere which was quite odd. The place had a bit of a weird feel so we drove on to the next village. 

We went through Sandhutton and Carlton Miniott before getting lost and ending up in Thirsk. We didn’t get out of the car in Thirsk because it had started pouring down again so we headed home via Carlton where I got some autumn photos.

Thorp Perrow

On Saturday, we decided to visit Thorp Perrow in Bedale. It’s described as a Victorian Arboretum with 100 acres of trees and gardens. We got there about midday so it wasn’t too busy when we arrived however, the Halloween trail had just started that day, and there was a giant (fake) spider in a tree which was unexpected, so it was probably busier than usual.

We walked around the lake and then managed to find a quiet spot to eat dinner. There’s also a tearoom at the entrance but we had brought our own food; although the tearoom seemed like a better option once the wasps took an interest in us!

We then went to watch the bird show. There are two shows daily; we went to watch the 1 o'clock one and it was quite busy by the time we got there. The seats were all taken so we had to stand; it turned out that I had the best view in the end - stood right next to where the owl was sitting. I also got some pictures of the other birds, including the cute owl below. During the show, the owls and falcons are able to fly off before returning for food and swooping over the audiences’ heads.

Gibside

We went to Gibside at the beginning of October; the weather was still quite pleasant so we decided to do one of the longer walks. (There were 4 to choose from.) To get in is about £9, so not too expensive and, once inside we headed off on our walk, beginning with the gardens. There were lots of little apple trees and such like – I was on the lookout for more conkers after an incident with a spider earlier in the week. I took some photos in the orangery, then we stopped off at the stables.

After a brief pit-stop we trekked up through the woods, breaking off from the other routes so it was a bit quieter.  There were cows in the next field which I was a bit wary of – one walked in front of us, blocking our way! After navigating past the cows, we crossed a stile, headed along a quiet road, before re-entering the woods. I made the most of the quiet and took some photos and found some chestnuts. I remember seeing roasted chestnuts at the Christmas Markets last year but I’ve never actually tried them!  

At the end of the forest route Liberty’s Column came into view; we made our way over, passing the ‘Octagon Lake’ on the way. There were only a few people at the monument when we arrived so I could take as many photos as I liked. There was an avenue of trees towards the end of the walk but they were nearly all oak trees so I gave up looking for conkers. We had a quick look around the markets that were on before we headed for the exit. As we were leaving we found a lone conker tree - but I only managed to get one as they were all still high up on the tree. It's currently sitting on my mantelpiece at home to scare away spiders.