Fordham Dale

For anyone who is not familiar with the Yorkshire Wolds, this view of Fordham Dale looking south from high up on the North Yorkshire boundary, encapsulates so much of the Wolds landscape.  The deep, dry curving dales incise the rolling, high chalk plateau, and the grasslands are dotted with hawthorn shrubs.  There is a plantation on the left hand side, and on the Wold top on the right.  The plateau is largely productive arable land, sharply contrasting with the chalk grasslands of the dale slopes.  This Dale is better grazed than many, and it may be worth revisiting when the grassland flowers are at their best.

I began my walk from the Picnic Site next to the A166, headed north up Waytham Dale, then up through the plantation to get to this spot.  After that I picked up a Public Bridleway that descended Worm Dale (with a lovely restored Dew Pond), joined Thixen Dale, then south and east into Pluckham Dale.  This eventually deposited me back on the A166, and I resorted to walking on the far side of a hedge along an arable field rather than put up with trudging 700m along the road verge with cars speeding by.  I would have been better heading back along Bradeham Dale, then retracing my steps through Waytham Dale - but at least I have seen Pluckham Dale, which was mainly plantation, and I won't need to go there again.

I really enjoy walking the Dales, but the main detraction for me are the ubiquitous signs of the massacre of pheasants.  The birds are often driven over the plantations to be blasted by the waiting guns in the Dale bottoms.  It doesn't strike me as requiring a lot of skill with a shotgun, but it earns landlords good money.  It's not my idea of sport.

Back at home I made progress with the wood heap and the pallet mountain.  After dinner, I managed to dislodge the temporary crown that was fitted on my partially root-filled tooth in nearly 90 minutes in the dentist's chair on Friday.  Luckily, Hannah the dentist had a cancellation for next week which she offered to me rather than have me wait the six weeks for the scheduled appointment, so I won't have to go too long with the exposed stump of the tooth.  I'm mindful of this having lost a crown in Covid, and then breaking the peg of the exposed tooth, such that the crown could not be refitted.

For anyone who missed the backblip posted yesterday, there is a photo from our holiday in North Uist in 2019 here.  I shall try to blip a few more over the next couple of weeks.