Cockayne: The Land of Milk, Honey, and Mumbling Clerks
Medieval peasants dreamed of a place called Cockaigne — a land of luxury and ease where roasted pigs wandered about with knives in their backs to make carving easy, grilled geese flew directly into one’s mouth, and the wine flowed freely. Streets paved with pastry. Skies that rained cheese. You get the ...
https://www.fhithich.uk/2026/04/23/cockayne-the-land-of-milk-honey-and-mumbling-clerks/
The Humble Bluebell and the Heavyweight Rift
The bluebells in Newton Wood seem a bit thin on the ground. The coverage of these flowers is not as full as in previous years. It is still early days though. In a fortnight they may well be more vibrant.
Some people like the flowers. Others might remember the Scottish group called The Bluebells. Their track "Yo ...
https://www.fhithich.uk/2026/04/22/the-humble-bluebell-and-the-heavyweight-rift/
The Ancient Yellow Field
Every spring, Britain turns yellow. These vast, almost aggressive swathes of rapeseed feel utterly modern — the crop of motorway verges, cooking oil, and biodiesel. Surely this is a 20th-century invention?
Sort of.
This is almost certainly some genetically engineered new cultivar, but let’s meet the navew. That is what our ancestors called ...
https://www.fhithich.uk/2026/04/20/the-ancient-yellow-field/
Where the Moor Ends and the Farm Begins
A shaft of sunlight illuminates the bright green fields of Farndale, seen from the old ironstone railway crossing at High Blakey Moor. Brown rushes surround a small peaty pool in the foreground. Dark drystone walls cascade down the hillside beneath a wide, cloud-filled sky.
The view tells a story in two colours. Up here: the browns of ...
https://www.fhithich.uk/2026/04/19/where-the-moor-ends-and-the-farm-begins/
Cleveland Way.. " crosses the North York Moors National Park, boasting great vistas from sweeping heather moorlands. Upon reaching the coast at Saltburn-by-the-Sea, the second half of the route then follows the North Yorkshire coast as far as Filey, taking in the highest cliffs in eastern England at Boulby."
https://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/en_GB/trails/cleveland-way/trail-information/
#SolarPunkSunday #ClevelandWay #NorthYorkMoors #NationalTrails #Nature #Walks #Bike #Cycling #UK #WildLife
Hatless in Great Ayton
A deep shadow hangs over Newton Wood while Great Ayton basks in glorious Spring sunshine.
I found this article in the Northern Weekly Gazette for 8th October 1869. It is a splendid little window into Victorian village life.
“FRISKY JACK ELOPES WITH A LABOURER'S WIFE FROM MIDDLESBROUGH”.
The quiet village of Great Ayton was, last week, ...
Chop Gate: Pedlars, Vikings and a Farmer’s Opinion
Chop Gate sits quietly in Bilsdale until the TT roars through and reminds everyone it exists. But the village has a quieter puzzle that never goes away: nobody can agree on what to call it, or what it means.
Travel guides and linguists will tell you confidently that it is pronounced “Ch ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2026/04/11/chop-gate-pedlars-vikings-and-a-farmers-opinion/
Coast to Coast Opens — But Not For All
The Coast to Coast is now an official National Trail. Years of effort, a considerable sum of public money, and another grand ceremony. But one writer greets the opening carrying not a celebratory banner but a rather pointed question: Who, exactly, is it for?
Charlotte Ditchburn is happy to acknowledge that these ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2026/04/10/coast-to-coast-opens-but-not-for-all/
Bloworth Slack—Not as Lazy as It Sounds
Bloworth Slack, just moments before it meets Badger Gill to become Hodge Beck. Bransdale again — but today we’ve been beside this quietly lovely woodland stream, its amber rocks lit by a sky so clear it almost seems rude.
I never took Geography at ‘O’ Level. I was a science boy, apparently, and Geography was firmly on the ...
https://www.fhithich.uk/2026/04/02/bloworth-slack-not-as-lazy-as-it-sounds/
The Duncombe Drive: Lost in Plain Sight
Repairs to fencing offered a rare glimpse into a part of Bransdale not open to the public.
The photograph shows Hall Plantation, where a line of beech trees accentuates what is clearly an old trackway, its course still visible beneath a deep carpet of last year’s leaves.
The track has been sittin ...
https://www.fhithich.uk/2026/03/26/the-duncombe-drive-lost-in-plain-sight/
#Bransdale #NorthYorkMoors #19thcentury #history #NationalTrust
Mick Garratt
Ma Quest 
