A Sense of Place

A stronger sense of place seen large

I haven't ventured too far afield today because, first, the cool and windy weather wasn't particularly conducive to cycling, and second, I got absorbed by the second team's cricket match in which No.2 son was involved. More of that at the end for those couple of people who might be vaguely interested in talk of cricket!

So I thought I'd try to capture a wider view of the local landscape today. For those far flung blippers who are following me this will hopefully begin to give a sense of place to some of the other blips in my journal. I've lived in Ilkley for over 20 years now. I'm a Southerner who likes to think of himself as an adopted Yorkshireman, but the locals are likely to think that I've got a good few more years to serve in apprenticeship yet. I was drawn to this place because of the hills. They provide me with a sense of place that I find is increasingly important to me. I love to get up high and see a view. It gives me perspective. It somehow allows me to see the bigger picture.

I try not to take where I live for granted. It's a very special little corner of the world and I'm immensely privileged to be able to live here. I'm really enjoying sharing my experience of it on this site. There is wonderful vicarious pleasure in taking photographs that I think other people are going to enjoy. This blip is a view looking south to Ilkley Moor and the Cow and Calf Rocks from just north of Middleton Village. It's a view that probably very few locals have seen for this little lane from where it was taken just ends in a remote farm. I've always rather enjoyed the solitude to be found on the moors on this side of town. The cricket match mentioned earlier is being played in the valley, almost directly under the point from where this was taken.

I live pretty much at the bottom of the road you can see climbing up to the Cow and Calf Hotel on the far top left. The Leeds-Liverpool canal, which has featured much in my journal, is about 6 miles away on the other side of the moor, in the Aire Valley, which runs more or less parallel with this valley of the River Wharfe. My quickest route to work on the bike heads straight up the hill out of the house, about half an hour on a good day, and beating any other mode of transport in the morning traffic!

Back to the cricket. Ben Rhydding were 15-6 when I left to try to catch my son bat. As it turned out he never got to face a ball! We recovered to get 160 and then proceeded to bowl the opposition out quickly to win by over a hundred runs, my lad bagging a couple at the end. It can be a funny old game! That was some comeback, and riveting to watch.