Tuesday 28th October
Today we drove across to Liverpool to celebrate our 32nd wedding anniversary.
We visited The Liverpool World Museum to see and hear 'The Beat Goes On', a celebration of 58 years of music in this city.
http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/wml/exhibitions/thebeatgoeson/

We also visited The Walker Art Gallery and explored the city centre which has a great deal of building work going on.
http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker/

Wednesday 29th October
We walked up from our hotel next to Albert Dock to the Liverpool Metropolitan RC Cathedral.


It is a very impressive building and much bigger inside than we expected.


Not far away is the Liverpool Anglican Cathedral.

This had a very different feel to the Metropolitan Cathedral and is a much more traditional design, but was only completed 30 years ago. We took the lift up to a gallery to see some beautiful clerical embroidery.

We left Liverpool via the Birkenhead Tunnel to visit Port Sunlight. This purpose built village was much more extensive than we expected. At The Lady Lever Art Gallery here we saw this painting of Bubbles, of which Rachael now has a print that originally belonged to her great grandma.

http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ladyLever/

Friday 17th October
This week's walk was by the River Wharfe from Bolton Abbey to Barden Tower and back.

It was perfect walking weather and the trees were just taking on their Autumnal colours.

We left the riverside to take a short detour so that we could have a closer look at Barden Tower. It was rebuilt by Lady Anne Clifford in 1658 and looks sturdy, though roofless, today

The Strid was flowing well and the mossy rocks were like green velvet.

We stopped at the bird hide downstream and were rewarded with a close up view of a kingfisher.

Wednesday 8th October
We decided to have a change and explore the area north of York. We set off from Sheriff Hutton on a path just by the remains of a fourteenth century castle.

The walk was mainly across fields with lots of sheep and cattle in them. We passed several ponds and this was the largest.

Later we passed through two fields with the outlines of where there had once been a village. We also walked through a racing stable yard and alongside the gallops before joining the Ebor Way to return to Sheriff Hutton.

Thursday 2nd October
This is the view over Kirkby Malham at the start of today's walk. The weather was much cooler than of late.

After we passed through Ayrton we returned by walking upstream by the side of the River Aire.

Friday 26th September
Today we started our dales walk in Burnsall. It began with a fairly steep ascent to the fell overlooking the village and the River Wharfe.

Abour half way round we stopped for lunch beside Hebden Suspension Bridge, built on this day in 1885. The water was very clear and we saw a huge crayfish walking among the rocks on the riverbed.

We followed the path by the river to Loup Scar and Wilfrid Scar where we came across someone swimming and two people rock climbing.

Further along we stopped at a seat and saw several good sized trout leaping well out of the water.

We walked back to Burnsall alongside the river.

On our way home we called in at Grassington for a short walk around the village.

Wednesday 17th September
We did the second of our Yorkshire Dales Walks; from Reeth to Marrick Priory and return.


The last part of the walk was in beautiful sunshine by the side of the River Swale.


Saturday 13th September
Having no time to complete the walk around the lakes at Studley Royal with Christine and her mother, we returned during the special open day.


On the way back to the abbey we followed the path on the other side of the stream.

We sat in the sunshine in the abbey grounds and were entertained by Tudor dancers in authentic costumes.

Wednesday 10th September

As we had some good weather for the first time for a long time we took the first of our planned walks in the Yorkshire Dales - Malham.

We walked up the steps by the side of the cove and crossed the limestone pavement.

The first part of the walk led us to Goredale Scar where the waterfall was in full flow.

The second part of the walk, back to Malham, took us to Janet's Foss.

Further on we walked through some beautiful woodland by the side of the stream.

Just by the side of the path we discovered some tree trunks studded with coins. We added to the collection - with a 1p coin.

Thursday 21st August
Christine and her mum, Eunice, came to stay with us for two days. After picking them up in Sheffield we went to Betty's in Harrogate for lunch and then spent the afternoon at Fountains Abbey.

http://www.fountainsabbey.org.uk/

On Friday we spent the whole day in York, exploring the Minster, going on a boat trip on the river, visiting Jorvik and finally a quick tour of Castle Museum.

http://www.yorkminster.org/

http://www.jorvik-viking-centre.co.uk/

On Saturday after a lazy day relaxing in the garden we drove back to Sheffield and all had dinner with Russell at Thyme Cafe.