Doug Shepherd's photos

HFF 30/922

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The view is from the west coast of the Trotternish Peninsula Isle of Skye (Inner Hebrides), looking northwest over the Minch towards the mountains on the island of Lewis and Harris (Outer Hebrides). The cottages in the middle ground constitute the crofting community of Totscore/Totasgor (Gaelic). The Hebridean islands can be divided into two main groups, separated from one another by the Minch to the north and the Sea of the Hebrides to the south. The Inner Hebrides lie closer to mainland Scotland and include Islay, Jura, Skye, Mull, Raasay, Staffa and the Small Isles. There are 36 inhabited islands in this group. The Outer Hebrides form a chain of more than 100 islands and small *skerries located about 70 kilometres (45 mi) west of mainland Scotland. Among them, 15 are inhabited. The main inhabited islands include Lewis and Harris, North Uist, Benbecula, South Uist, and Barra. * A skerry is a small rocky island or islet, that may be covered by water at high tide or during storms. Usually too small for human habitation, It may simply be a rocky reef. The term skerry is derived from the Old Norse sker, which means a rock in the sea.They are often used by seabirds and seals for resting on.

This field was until recently used to grow on seedlings of larch and pine for planting in Forestry Commission England plantations. The grass was planted in this and other fields when the nursery closed, in order I think, to minimize wind erosion of the sandy soil. In some fields nature is doing the same job with wild plants such as thistles, clover etc. The silver is a result of sunlight on the grass that is being blown about by a strong wind.

One from the archives Hackness is a village and civil parish in the Scarborough district of the county of North Yorkshire, England. It lies within the North York Moors National Park, and is situated at the foot of two moorland valleys, Lowdale and Highdale. The parish population rose from 125 in the 2001 UK census to 221 in the 2011 UK census. Hackness is mentioned as the site of a double monastery or nunnery by *Bede, writing in the early 8th century. The present Church of Saint Peter is a Grade I listed building, parts of which date from the 11th century. There have been two monastic foundations at Hackness, first an Anglo-Saxon nunnery founded in 680 and second a cell of Whitby Abbey that was used as a refuge when pirates forced the monks away from the coast. The original establishment was a nunnery founded by **St. Hild or Hilda of Whitby in 680, the year of her death. According to legend the bells of Hackness tolled at the moment St. Hild died fourteen miles away in Whitby. Hackness Hall and its landscape gardens were created in the 1790s. The house, a Grade I listed building, was commissioned by Sir Richard Van den Bempde-Johnstone, who had inherited the estate through his mother. *Bede (672/3 – 26 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable, was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom of Northumbria of the Angles (contemporarily Monkwearmouth–Jarrow Abbey in Tyne and Wear, England). **Hild (614 - 17 November 680) is a significant figure in the history of English Christianity. As the abbess of Whitby – a monastery for both men and women – she led one of the most important religious centres in the Anglo-Saxon world. In 664 Hild’s monastery hosted the Synod of Whitby, which set the course for the future of Christianity in England. A lot of history for a small village

Brave to the end. RIP little lady. (1st April 2008 - 25th July 2022)

The Bee is on cow parsley and the ladybird is about to have a meal of (I think) aphids.

Left - Perorate St. Johns-wort* Centre - Nipplewort Right - Birds Foot Trefoil Perhaps of interest: *Wort is a derivation of the word “wyrt,” an old English word meaning plant, root, or herb. The suffix wort was given to plants which were long considered beneficial. The opposite of a wort was a weed, such as ragweed, knotweed, or milkweed. Just like today, “weeds” referred to undesirable types of plants (though this isn’t always the case). Source www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/info/what-does-wort-mean.htm

The flowers cover an area of approximately 7 to 8 square metres. They grow to a height of approximately 2 feet (60 cm). A typical grassland plant, the oxeye daisy thrives on roadside verges and waste ground, as well as in traditional hay meadows and along field margins, as is the case in the picture. Its large blooms appear from July to September and are so bright that they appear to 'glow' in the evening, hence the other common names of 'moon daisy' and 'moonpenny'.

Not a drop of rain did we get. The storm drifted eastwards out over the North Sea, about 4 miles/6 km away.

Sawdon Dale is a small, quite deep, steeply sided dale approximately 2.5 miles (4 km) in length. The dale follows the course of Sawdon Beck (small stream), south from high ground to the north of Sawdon village, to join Rushton Beck at the village of Rushton in the Vale of Pickering.

The area is the now closed Forestry England Wykeham Nursey. The establishment of the nursey was unique to Wykeham, accounting for just over 70 hectares of the plateau upon which Wykeham Forest (1114.6 hectares) is located.