Riddings Farm

Better viewed large

It's been a frustrating day spent working and not making progress anywhere near quickly enough. I feel like I'm running out of time and it's beginning to get a little stressful. I need a bit of stress, in terms of a deadline, to focus the mind and be productive, but too much of it becomes counter-productive because the ability to focus gets overtaken by anxiety. If I can get a few things working tonight I'll be able to get that stress level back where I need it and tomorrow will be a much easier day to face.

I was very disciplined and restricted my playtime to a spin out to Burnsall and back, my standard 25 miler used to recharge the batteries. It's an hour and a half blast with some good hills and fantastic scenery all the way around. I can report that I got rained on for the first time in at least 6 weeks! It was actually rather refreshing and encouraged me to keep the pace up. Always fun to have energy at the end to pick up the cadence on the back road through Nesfield with a good strong wind on your back.

The farm buildings here date back originally to the 17th century, but I understand that they were rebuilt about 150 years ago. This scene would not have looked very different then, the only difference being that this tree would likely have been just a sapling. I don't use sepia very often but the scene seemed to lend itself to this kind of treatment. I'm not sure how it works but it seems to confer a sense of timelessness.

Thanks for the wonderful reception to yesterday's Descent to Malham. You guys just blow me away with your generosity. You've left me speechless today. I've kind of run out of ways of saying thank you! By the way, this new map feature is wonderful and has been beautifully implemented. I went back a couple of days and immediately realised how satisfying the process of geotagging was - and stopped. I'm going to put catching up with your journals before that little exercise.