A few more photos from our walk can be viewed by clicking this.

I still think flickr is on of the best things on the interwebs. It encourages people to look at things and share what they are looking at. It’s a fantastically designed system of information with it’s main interface, being the humble, simple, still photograph. They’ve bolstered this ‘place to stick your photo’ with some of the worlds best online tools – meta tagging, geotagging, multiple auto sizes, lightboxes, slideshows, groupings, set, comments and faves are some of my personal fave tools it provides.   I still find its the best way to research a new place.  Instead of getting a glossy brochure eye view of a town, you’re getting the nit and the grit from people who know it. You’re getting the macro and the micro. You’re getting the main square, the ornamental garden just off the main square, a little ladybird who lives in the ornamental garden.

With myself, over the past near 7 years, I’ve personally added 6399 images into it’s space. Over 2 new photos a day average.  Most of these I’ve meticulously tagged – especially when it comes to things close to my heart – like Felix, Jaygo and Sophie. My more used tag is Harrogate and I’ve only got 720 or so untagged items.

People seem to curate their space with a bit more TLC than some of the other social networks. People seems to take more of a pride in their output within flickr. I’ts a great place to browse, to explore, to kill time, to find out about stuff.

Here are the last 36 photos of other peoples photos that I have chose to click ‘favorite’ on. No agenda, no real reason – usually there’s something about them (aesthetically, subjectively or objectively) I like or may find useful in some way. Vive la flickr.

1. Shopping. #harrogate #reflection #puddle #mall, 2. The Nose…., 3. _MG_66202, 4. enjoy it, 5. ” Choose your future. Choose life . . . But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life: I chose something else. And the reasons? There are no reasons.”, 6. So many rules…, 7. Natural History Roof, 8. Godson, 9. Congestion, 10. Good, 11. polished stones from the beach, 12. Centenial Red Kite, 13. Angel of the North, 14. Whitby, 15. King Lear – Abbey Shakespeare 2011, 16. DSCF1535, 17. King Lear – Abbey Shakespeare 2011, 18. King Lear – Abbey Shakespeare 2011, 19. Atari 1040stE, 20. Mr Strong, 21. IMG_9991, 22. Two toons, 23. Work hard and be nice to people, 24. 1307049722600, 25. Moo n River, 26. Untitled, 27. By Mr Chat, 28. 1307043874089, 29. 1, 30. Angels, Cherubs, Nymphs and Ninnies, 31. P1010091, 32. Shocking, absolutely shocking, 33. little man, 34. untitled, 35. 0185.19 Lollipop Man, Glasgow, 36. “So… Been to the races before?”

At the weekend we headed out to to top left hand corner of Yorkshire to celebrate Jaygo’s 10th birthday. We wanted to make it brilliant for him – regular readers will know he’s had a rough old time this year. I think I can safely say we ticked all the boxes.

Jaygo wanted a camping weekend. A couple of years ago we had a fantastic time in at Hoggarths (blog post)  - so I emailed them to ask how they were fixed for a large group – and they said they had another field nearby that we could use. From the map and photos I scoured of the area, it looked idyllic – an oxbow field surrounded on 3 sides by the River Swale .

Hogarths is billed as a wild camping experience. Friday night was textbook wild! Rain in biblical proportions hammered down – luckily after we’d set up a waterproof gazeebo and various other dry hangouts. A fairly chilled night around the fire ensued after the rains. The River had ‘doubled’ in size and was roaring and sandy brown with mud that it had ripped from the sides of its valley. Quite an impressive sight.

Saturday morning -I started the day by making a damper. A trip into Kirkby Stephen for supplies and a pint on the way back at the rather nice pint serving Black Bul Inn, Nateby.  Whilst England were winning the ODI cricket series on the trusty Roberts radio (one of my only concessions to electronics for the weekend bar my Nikon D70s camera) we saw our party pad out to it’s full compliment size of 31. Our field was not only home to Clover (our land ship) and all who sail in her, but Olive the Hymer,  A pop up waterproof gazeebo (brilliant invention), Bingo Bongo, several tents, a Yurt, a composting toilet tent and a battle arena which all the boys waged nerf battles all day long and absolutely loved it.

Sunday –  Jaygo’s birthday.  Beautiful day ensued. A happy chappy was presented with a scooter and an MP3 with some music on it. We pottered around and slowly packed up, soon after giving Jaygo is cake before heading up to the Tan Hill Inn (Britain’s Highest Pub) for a pint on the way home – a truly memorable weekend, shared by a lovely bunch of people.

Wild camping prep tips

We’ve never quite prepped as much for a camping mission as this one. The latest addition to our camping kit was a composting toilet – a ‘models changing tent’ from Argos for £16, coupled with a toilet seat on a sturdy wooden box, a sack full of sawdust and a spit for digging big ‘oles with and some sanitiser. We moved the toilet every 12 hours or so and capped the old one with a plug of turf we’d saved. This was suitable to service 30+ people amicably. As well as this, we’d previously acquired sails to act as shelter for the side of our van, and Tibetan Prayer Flags to act as pretty things and guy rope don’t trip over signallers.  The barometer was also quite handy, being utterly removed from the usual methods of telephone and internet signal luxuries. We had asked everyone to bring some wood for the fires, and sawdust – in the end I acquired a boat load of sawdust, but was very grateful for everyone’s wood contributions.

Best clothing for wet camping tips

Friday afternoon brought with it torrential rain. I actually quite liked that. My rain kit comprises of a Driza-Bone Sou’Wester, A Barbour Wax Jacket, trawler fisherman  waterproof trousers, RAB Gaiters and Asolo boots. A sou’wester is one of the best things I’ve purchased in recent years – they don’t restrict head movement like hoods tend to and gaiter / boot combo mean you don’t get cold and / sweaty feet like you can do with welly boots after a prolonged period.

Campsite midge protection tips

Near inland water, in North England and Scotland at this time of year – until mid September ish, midgies can be an extreme irritant. We’d purchased full midge protection – including mosquito head net hoods (although they look silly, and are a bit restrictive do the trick). Avon Skin So Soft (as used by the Royal Marines, so I’m told) – which acts as a base layer that midgies cant bite through and some deet wipes. All based covered. I also find smoking helps (although wouldn’t recommend unless you already smoke!) and a woodfire also help.

Best clothing for hot camping tips

As little as possible. Don’t forget the sun block!

A bunch more photos:

Click the image blow to see the photo set, or click here to start a slide show»

After a false start in April where we had a pseudo summer for a week, this weekend we most certainly had a bit of summer. Well – yesterday at least – was hot, blue skies, happy days.

We had a party / fire bin / bbq type thing at our house on Saturday night with a bunch of lovely people. Sunday I drove Felix out to Flaxby as he was paintballing (came home with a stunning bruise).Snapped this and some other photos from a country lane where I stopped for a while to enjoy the nature of it all.

Upon my return I had a hour of bliss in the hammock, reading my kindle (proving the advertising edict “You can read it in direct sunlight”). The afternoon saw us popping round to a friends house for some cool drinks and a stand in their paddling pool – whilst Felix, on his second social engagement of the day –  played a gig at the Harrogate International Centre with his band – the Harrogate Youth Percussion Ensemble (HYPE). This reportedly went brilliantly.

Wrapped up the weekend with a chilled, second of the weekend BBQ last night. I’m really rather hoping that there’s plenty more summer to come.

vin book, originally uploaded by DragonDrop.

I’ve just had this photo of mine used by in this article by  The Guardian.
Thanks to Simon TW for the heads up.

I think I should open a bottle of wine to celebrate or something.

Yesterday a accompanied a colleague on a road trip. He’s writing a piece on TV’s “The Trip” (2010 starring Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon.). If you’ve not seen The Trip – it’s good – they tour the North of England for a week, stopping at some of the finest gastro haunts we have to offer. They take in some of our spectacular scenery, etc. etc.

The weather was not brilliant for photography – but I snapped happy anyway. The Trip aside, we got to enjoy being ‘tourist’ in its most literal sense, around the Yorkshire Dales. Our 100 mile or so tour of the Dales was a comfortable day drive, with plenty of stops – Click here to see the route I recorded. Even though I’d been to nearly all the locations before I jumped at the chance of this Dales appreciation day.  We took in Bolton Abbey, Goredale Scar, Malham Cove, Kettlewell, Patley Bridge, Grassington and countless other view admiration stops.  We stopped for lunch at Angle Inn at Hetton – this fantastic multiple award winning foody pub didn’t disappoint. I had Queen Scallops followed by a stunning char-grilled Yorkshire rib eye.

I found it fascinating to experience first hand what holiday makers to the Dales could get up to in a day. I was surprised at how much ground we managed to cover and how many things we crammed in without it being hectic or stressful in any way. Our driving soundtrack was either Bon Iver of the sound of our own voices doing impressions of Adam and Joe doing impressions of Cilla Black doing impressions of the Queen. As per this clip.

I’ve bunged up a set of photos form our day here»

Had a bit of a rummage in our cellar this morning with a view to sorting stuff and clearing out some junk . There’s a few of things in there from the people we bought our house off about 11 years ago. I picked up a dusty old scrap of newspaper and was about to throw it in the bin when some of the styling on the adverts caught my designers eye.  I stopped what I was doing for while to look at it – as it had put a smile on my face. I was amazed to see that the print date – 15th May 1971 – was 40 years ago, exactly to the day.

It’s got some great stuff in there.  Some things never change, like the way Smiths the Rink set their stall out in this advert – but some things have changed quite radically. For instance a brand new Ford Capri would have only set you back £1,066. You could order a Soup of the Day for 9p and a Harrogate phone number comprised of just 4 digits.

The evening entertainment look rich and varied. Cat Stephens and YES we’re playing the Harrogate Theatre whilst you could choose between two cinemas – The Odeon we’re showing “When Eight Bells Toll” whilst ABC (now the golden arches embassy) were showing “Creatures That The World Forgot”. Club land listings – You could go to the Savoy Club and/or Countdown. Pre DJ entertainment looked interesting. Club land now seems to have forgotten all about the old formats. Caberet, and Live music with a racy bit of exotica thrown in with acts like “Naked and Naughty – Janet Montana and fantastic vocalist Yvonne Dixon dancing to the Pete Verity Trio”.

An interesting find. I wonder what else is down there that I’ve not noticed before..

Click to view more images of this newspaper

SQUID, SQUID BASE, SQUID LOC, originally uploaded by James Mulryan.

So, does anyone have any idea what these are referring to? It’s on the west bound A59 just north of Skipton, North Yorkshire – as per the marker on this map. We drive past it every day, it’s been there for months and it’s really starting to bug me now.

Good friend of DragonDrop James Mulryan shot the above as part of a failed quest at the weekend to find the destination that the signs are so boldly advertising. James ended up near Leyburn apparently, without seeing so much as calamari ring, let alone a whole base of squid.

At the time of writing this google only comes up with this actual photo, when you search, (and shortly, I imagine, once this page has been indexed, this page will appear top when you search for squid squid base squid loc. etc) – neither of which give me anything useful, as to what the squid is going on.

World Book Night, originally uploaded by DragonDrop.

I’ve been selected to be ‘a giver’ on World Book Night, which is today. If you’d like a copy – I’ve got 48 to give away. As I’m solo-dad this weekend, I’m beached at DragonDrop Centraal (near the back of ASDA, Harrogate) – gotta pop out a couple of times, but only to drop off / pick my Sophie Pi up from a party. Contact me with a way I can contact you if you’re in town today / this evening / fancy grabbing a freebee..  I may even throw in a cup of tea/coffee/glass of wine into the mix!

The book I’m giving is a gem of a read : “A Fine Balance” by Rohinton Mistery. A Booker Prize shortlistee in 1996, this book shows true mastery of wordsmithery. It transported me to a different time and place and left me thinking about it for weeks after – it’s still fairly fresh in my mind after nearly 2 years since I read it.  See the bottom paragraph of my original review blog here, written just after I’d read it.

Each book has a unique number. Readers can become members of the World Book Night website and track the journey of their book and take part in a conversation with subsequent readers.

“World Book Night is a celebration of great writing and the power of books and the pleaure of reading…. be part of the reading revolution” (taken from the back jacket)

cake, originally uploaded by DragonDrop.

We attended a 90th Birthday party last weekend. Eirene’s nana – who was 90 years young. Happy Birthday! Lovely evening / day / evening at Shrigley Hall near Manchester.

View a photo slide-show of the celebration»

View the album»

The Christmas clock ticked by, we ate all the pies then thought.. what do we do about new years eve? We decided to do something a bit different. We decided to go for a self catering cottage – we wanted home comforts, our own space, yet not at home. We came up trumps with a last minute cancellation – a stunning place called Cowdber Barn just over the border in Cumbria, near Kirkby Lonsdale.

The photos on the website don’t do it justice, at all – it’s hard to photograph charisma though and this place had it in abundance. I’d guess it’s an old converted coach barn and stables – brilliantly done; A well deserved, ‘Lancaster Design Award’ winner. A huge barn split into an impressive games room in the top, one of the bedrooms and a super cosy, open fired sitting room in the bottom. Two wings – one of which housed a gorgeous homely, (albeit ‘no frills’ ) kitchen and dining area with a boot room / utility room at one end leading into the main barn at the other. No shortage of places to hang out – probably around half a dozen separate places for groups of people to sit and play, read, chat, eat, watch tv, listen to music browse the stock of books, National Geographics, games, dvd’s and cd’s and generally hang out. All 3 joined buildings surrounded and overlooked a court-yard – which in summer would be beautiful as all the surrounding doors and windows can be opened. Whilst we were there, this courtyard had a resident chicken, which we named Hattie.

So much space – we were initially a group of 7 then expanded to 10 – all with a comfortable bed each. The kids loved sharing the double bunked dorm – we had the en suite double and there were two twin / doubles on top of that. I think it could have comfortably accommodated more – spare mattresses and bedding strategically secreted around here and there – I’m guessing this place has seen some bigger numbers in the past.
Highlights would be – although we didn’t take full advantage – the local – a Ribble Valley Inn pub called The Highwayman. (a proper gastro pub, of which I’ve had the pleasure of eating in it’s siter pub – The Bull at Broughton), the open fire and two wood burners with an ‘endless supply’ of wood (extra cost – very reasonable charge though) and the games room. The TV lounge, where we vegetated for most of New Years Day was like a room sized comfort blanket. So homely.

I’d utterly recommend this place – we would have liked to do more exploring of the surrounding area – but the essence of this holiday was a big fat chill. Box ticked.

As a wee snip of a bairn, I’d ticked off the days to Christmas day. As a late teen / early twenty something, I’d ticked off the days to NYE, as that was the killer party to end all parties of the year (allegedly). As a late twenty something, moving into my early thirties, the hype started to re align itself and last year, for the first year ever we spent NYE in the company of our children. Now I’m a big fan of this format, and until they get to late teens themselves probably will be the way it is. Having done some of the most spectacular parties on the planet I’m now a more than a little sceptical to the ‘joys’ of public NYE festivities. A private party with friends / family / loved ones is the way we liked the idea of things for this year.  We then decided, if possible,  to get away for a few days and invite a few close friends to spend it with us. I’m so glad we did.

Cowdber Barn on the English Country Cottages website»
My photos from Cowdber Barn»

foolishwood, originally uploaded by DragonDrop.

I wasn’t aware of this neck of the woods. The Foolish Wood. A beautiful woodland on the edge of The River Nidd in Knaresborough which is very easy to turn into a short walk. at We parked in the Yorkshire Lass and headed off to look for this geocache – in Foolish Wood. Geocaching is something we’ve not done for a while. After the initial obsessive race up to 100 caches, then 200 I started getting a bit despondent with the sport. This one put the fun and humour back into it though. It reminded us that geocaching is a cracking way to get out and about and discover some new necks of the wood – often right on your doorstep.

After the cache we walked over the little bridge over the weir and strolled though Conyngham Hall grounds before heading home. We had some friends pop over which was nice. I wrapped up the arvo with a big Sunday Roast – turkey crown, Yorkshire pudding, roast spuds and butternut squash and cabbage n gravy. Pogged now.

Harrogate, originally uploaded by DragonDrop.

We were lucky enough to be allowed up “Harlow Hill Tower” the other day, a purpose built astronomical observatory. It’s Harrogate’s highest point – 700ft above sea level and it boast incredible views in all directions – up Nidderdale in one direction and The Vale of York with York Minster visible on a good day, in the other.

It was quite amazing how much you could see. As well as the Minster, you can see Ripon Cathedral, The White Horse, Drax and Ferrybridge power stations, the wind farm and Menwith – as well as some closer to home land marks, such as Grove Road, The Conference Centre and probably all of the church spires in Harrogate. See more of my shots from the top – over here >>

Burning Boat from  ’A day up in’t Dales‘ photo set

On Saturday, I was lucky enough to be invited on a bike ride, setting out from Grassington with pubs as our waypoints. One of the ‘team’ has been away from all things Dales Pub for the past year or so – working in St Helena. Our route was altered at the last minute – due to some of the pubs on the original route having closed down.

First stop – well not even a stop really because technically, we hadn’t started – was the Foresters in Grassington or ‘Fozzers’ as it’s colloquially known. Cracking Tim Taylor Landlord. Steak sarney and chips. Brilliant chips. I’ve had a few good times in the Fozzers. It never disappoints. Expect the unexpected.

From there we headed out to the Clarendon in Hebden. Nice pint of Black Sheep, smelt of fish a bit and lacked an atmosphere at that time of day.

From there we headed out to Appletreewick and got stuck into a couple of pubs – the New Inn where we had a walled garden to ourselves with a view across the Dale. Nice ale. After that we went down the village to a stunning bit of pubbery – The Craven Arms. This place had built what was once a very common building – a Cruck Barn – as a function room. They had apparently lovingly re constructed it from old photographs alone and is the only one of it’s type in the world after the last surviving original burned down a few years ago. We bumped into some of my friends old friends and ended up spending an hour or two a this lovely spot. Stories such as their hut was once Bing Crosby’s fishing lodge we’re amongst the discussion topics abound. Had a ‘bad pint’ there but the staff bent over backwards to replace it and make me happy. The replacement pint was a belter.

From there we headed down to Burnsall, the Red Lion to be specific. Good pint, superb stuffed foxes. We heard the rumor that they were setting fire to a boat in the river at 7.30. This we had to stick around for. (Video and Photos over here). From there we headed back t’ fozzers. Sleep got the better of me though after all the days fun and games – luckily, I’d parked the van at the top of the village. I missed an angry umpa lumpa I later heard who came steaming in from a fancy dress party up the road (expect the unexpected, in the fozzers, as I’ve already chimed). A superb day out.

One of the great things about the Yorkshire Dales is it’s pubs. Steeped in history and character, cracking pints and some of the best views in the world, these are some of the finest drinking parlours in the world. The original social network that made up the Inn’s, Hotels, ‘Bars’ and more typically – pubs of rural Britain are in decline – a dying breed thanks to the smoking ban, cut price supermarket prices combined with increased taxes etc.  Some of the survivors are the ones that have adapted to change by making themselves either gastro or family friendly, some are just cracking pubs that through the sheer fact of being brilliant are thriving.