2nd October I respond to the closing down of the days, the bearing down of the clouds, by breaking out of the territory I have circled for the past six months. Pre-lockdown, by the use of local bus services, the region of the upper Calder Valley watershed within which I would walk covers roughly forty-five … Continue reading October: Autumn Awakening →

1st September I balance unsteadily on a mound of Molinia grass that forms an island in the ditch, reach back across and haul my son over to the other side. I let him go ahead to have first shot at finding the geocache which, having given him a free choice, was his preferred mission for … Continue reading September: A Hush at Summer’s End →

1st August We labour up the narrow path between the nearly-spent foxgloves, each with the last of their purple flames at their very tips, like phosphoric candles that have burnt their wicks in reverse. We are meeting one of my son's classmates and her parents, who are camping at Old Chamber, for a walk around … Continue reading August: Hay Time →

2nd July Beside the railway line on the way to school this morning I was alarmed to see segmenting fruits taking shape on the bramble. It made me want to put a halt to the year's progress. April and May were a stasis in which everything could be savoured, but now not only the economy … Continue reading July: Our Local Acre →

This post was originally published in October 2019 in issue #2 of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England's West Yorkshire branch Ways of Seeing magazine. In the decade that I have lived here, I have become increasingly immersed in the story of the upper reaches of West Yorkshire’s Calder Valley. The narrative of … Continue reading Weaving Through the Calder Valley →

1st June We have an auspicious first visitor into the garden on the morning the lockdown rules are relaxed; Steve has come to ring the blue tit chicks in the nest box that he made for us last month. He stuffs a duster into the entrance hole so that the parents do not come in … Continue reading June: The Greening Aftermath →

1st May It seems like a different era, but it was only a few weeks ago that we stood in a cold February dusk, watching hundreds of jackdaws return to their winter roost in the beech plantation of Common Bank Wood. It is now mottled with splashes of green, blooming and bleeding into its dark … Continue reading May: The Brief Banishing of Shadows →

27th March As March ages and lockdown begins, the land hardens; the fields are finally drying after the wettest February since records began in 1862. Now that the tractors can venture out without damaging the grass crop they come to fertilise, the greening pastures turn temporarily brown as the farms of Edge End, Horsehold and … Continue reading April: Spring Solace →

My six-year-old son and I step outside into the last of the chill twilight. With the road and railway silenced in recent days, the rush of the clough streams breathes into the aural space of the valley they tumble into, and the dusk chorus of blackbirds, robins and a male tawny owl from Callis Wood … Continue reading Spring Nature Diary →

I was reminded recently by a friend who shares my interest in the history of farming in the Calder Valley that I have yet to explore the area of long-abandoned farmsteads in Withens Clough. Using the National Library of Scotland's extraordinary online map resources, I carry out some research. The earliest Ordnance Survey map, from … Continue reading Pasture Top →