Tag: adel

Adel in the snow and Redwing highlight.

(To get the best out of these photos you need to look on a laptop or desktop and click to enlarge them or at least an i pad).

After a day of snow, resulting in 6 inches here and gridlock in Leeds, we had a beautiful sunny day, perfect for a walk. A little wary with my recovering ankle, that’s still very tender in certain positions, I went carefully but with snow underfoot it made it soft, so as long as I didn’t slip, I would be fine. AND I did manage to stay on my feet. A great pair of walking boots really helps. https://www.meindl.co.uk/products/womens/womens-boots/

This is the lane behind our house looking very pretty.

Digital photography is brilliant you can snap away and get rid as you wish. Gone are the days when you had to get the right roll of film in your camera, either 12x, 24,or 36x photos, then send them off by post, for development and wait with excitement, to have them returned and find that half of them are over exposed or with a thumb in the way or someones head chopped off!

And guess where I ended up again? Yes St johns Adel. It is just so picturesque.

And I found a few more interesting graves.

The first gravestone shows John Walker who died in 1822 only aged 39, his son died the year after at the age 15 and then his daughter died the same year aged just 3. Wish I’d moved the snow to see when his wife died – the poor woman.

Next Mark Shaw of Horsforth died in1 1839 aged 26. A number of the graves give information of where the occupant lived too.

Richard Atkinson of Cookridge died in 1782 aged 59. This is an older grave that I don’t think Ive found before. His son died in 1799 at only 25 years.

The last one is another old one. Fanny died in 1757 at the tender age of 13. Then her sister in 1766 at an even more tender age of 11. The brother only reached the age of 26, dying in 1775. Their mother reached the ripe old age of 72, dying in 1789 and their father reached 70 years dying in 1797.

I just find the history here fascinating and very sad and am going to delve deeper and try to find out more about these lives.

The old school house in Adel and some cottages.

I walked on down to Bedquilts Recreation Ground and got a few nice photos. Its a strange name and I haven’t found out why it is so called. Its a large area with football pitches, grass and nice mature trees. A lot of people exercise their dogs there. The snow was deep and gave my ankle and legs a work out.

Just on the last leg of my walk not far from home I was surprised to see a single Redwing bird on a hedgerow. Ive not managed to get a really good photo of a redwing and it let me get really close to it. It was the highlight of my walk.

They are beautiful thrush like bird with the red colour under the wings giving them their name. The come from Scandinavia in winter.

HAREWOOD CIRCULAR

Nice local 19 mile ride. starting the directions from Adel church ride north past the church on your right and take a right past Headingley Golf Club and past York Gate Garden then left down Staircase Lane. A nice downhill until over the bridge theres quite an ascent past Adel Woods, great for mountain biking and dog walks. At the T junction with King Lane turn left and first right onto Alwoodley Lane. Gawp at all the weird and wonderful mansions all the way along this road until you meet traffic lights at the crossroads, where you carry straight on onto Wigton Lane otherwise known as millionaires row. At the T-junction at Shadwell turn left downhill and uphill turn first right.

This is a lovely quiet country road where I saw Red Kites and a Kestral. Carry straight on across the next two junctions through Scarcroft until you meet the A58 Wetherby road and turn left, ride along here for a short while and turn left at East Rigton, or you can turn sooner and go through Bardsey, making your way to Rigton Grange. At the T-junction turn right towards East Keswick. Nice pub at Bardsey incidentally, another “oldest pub in England!” The Bingley Arms. Oh and another in East Keswick too, The Duke of Wellington. After passing this pub at a right bend turn left up a quiet country lane. This eventually joins up with the A659 from Collingham to Harewood. This is the least pleasant bit of this ride as it can be a busy and fast road. However, once you reach Harewood, you will be riding off road through the Harewood estate. So at the traffic lights, straight ahead will be the gates of the Harewood estate, but don’t go through here, turn right and then second left, Church Lane, straight on through the village and straight into the estate. Muddy Boots cafe is well worth a stop.

This ride was done on my Volt Kensington pictured above. Below that is one of the stags that roam the area. follow the road until you meet a cross roads and carry straight on, over the cattle grid bear right and follow this until you reach the gate. Here, at the village of Weardly, turn left uphill. At the top follow the road round the left bend. The next uphill is a killer. I had to stop halfway and nearly fainted when I reached the top. Some fab views – see below.

This is Red Kite country. Click on the link to find out about the reintroduction of this bird, which had been driven to extinction in this country. They have spread all over the country but are most prevalent here. They are beautiful, majestic birds and I never tire of watching them soar over the county.

From here continue on the road past the New Inn , another that’s worth a stop, and keep on going straight until you arrive back where you started.