A walk on the Chevin

We went to a different part of the Chevin today. The Quarry at Yorkgate on East Chevin. We parked up the Fonz car and climbed over a style fence and discovered alot of muddy paths. It was around about now that Lee wished he had listened to me when I suggested new trainers with grips. We discovered this last week on the sculpture trail on another Chevin walk.

The trick for me is staying up right. My balance is never good, but the mud makes it far more likely that I fall on my backend in my white skirt. Funny? yes....so long as Lee is there to pull me out of the puddle....as once down I can not get up by myself. So I totter along...camera in one hand and chocolate buttons in the other.

we headed around the quarry and down trough the woods towards Otley. there are two paths...the other leading to "surprise view" looking over the whole valley as far as you can see.
We passed walkers coming up from Otley who told us that they had been up since dawn and were on the way over to Menston way. They asked us what the hovering birds were they kept seeing.....well that would be Red kites. introduced here as a conservation idea. there are now loads we see them most days now.

Autumn on the Chevin. The day after Halloween. We only saw the walkers going the other way....a man and two dogs...the dogs went straight for my white skirt and Lee's dog buscuit pockets.....

and then a runner thumping and breathing hard. I could hear him a good amount of time before I saw him!....Then all was quiet except bird song.

we went about half way to Otley.....worked out that the white house was directly below us and then turned back, came back up the wooded slope and headed up above the old quarry this time.

it was still very cloudy, though today there was some colur in the sky with a winter sun ever now and then....

On the way back up I began to discover what looked like lettering on stones and trees. This rock on closer inspection was a series of cracks. To me this looks like a name...I just can not quite make out.

This part of the Chevin is called Wilson's wood by the way. This was Lee's mothers family name.There are a lot of Wilsons in this area of Leeds. .....Anyway...I began to discover lettering and carvings on the trees and rocks. some of it actually was letters carved a long time ago....

some of it looks a bit like signs or directions....

others were kids probably who played here long ago. we also found old rope swings too.....

I suggested that Lee have a swing so I could take a photo...he was not playing.....

This os my tree ok.

There is definately a cross on that rock.......

These carving are very obviously quite modern.....That is if you think of 1957 as quite recent. I am 57 my self so this was not put here in my lifetime....though it does not seem that long ago...the music after all is still played at weddings in Cornwall when I lived there.

I imagine all kinds of heathen shenanigans here.....or witch craft...wizards warlocks and so on doing their thing here. If I could I would!. I left all that behind and relinquished all that. I do not even dabble......dangerous stuff if you don't know what you get into.!!!!!! I found a set of  Tarot cards in a junk shop the other day....I admit that I was tempted. I left them where they were and walked away.

I was just thinking about the carvings a letters on trees when we came to this very obvious "witch tree". It is huge and ancient.......

And i do mean really huge and very very ancient...hundreds of years easily.....

 Here is Lee next to it....He is nearly six feet tall and this tree is easily twenty times that......

I do not know if this is actually a witch tree. It looks like one to me, so I am naming it that ......

so what is a witch tree? well I suppose it can be whatever you like it to be. usually they are twisted trees holding a spirit of some kind. This qualifies for that I think.

Makes me all tempted to find me a crystal ball and break out the tarot....

speaking of breaking out things....I have nearly "broken out" some of my pension money. The papers are all signed. ......and witnessed. Yes! they have to be all signed and witnessed legally....the advice is "don't do it!" But being of sound mind and not being influenced by anyone else I have gone a head anyway. The money should be in my hot sticky hands soon. I do not plan on having it long enough to worry about weather it was the right decision. It is done
It can not now be undone. So bollox.

Getting another rusty van I am.......and the wood burner repaired that caused a chimney fire and very nearly set the whole terrace up in smoke. it is the chimney liner that we need first!.........

Last night I had this blog all written and beautiful ready for me to press the button and release it on the unsuspecting world. Technology and I have a tenuous relationship at best, so when this computer just deleted the whole post...FUT!!! I was beyond furious. This computer was rescued from a wheelie bin by Lee a couple of years ago. I tell you it damn near got back in that bin! Lee tells me that a computer only does what it's mistress asks. So basically if you press the wrong button it deletes all your hard word and spelling corrections.

"put crap in...yer get crap out!" says Lee..

 I leave you with more photos of the Otley Chevin. as always I took far too many.........this is on the way down the path that leads to Otley

 a den....and

swings probably made by kids. Are kids allowed to play out like this in these days of health and safety and computer games!!!??? Lee certainly did. he played up here as a kid. Cycled all the way from Kirkstall too....a lot of bunking off school was done on Otley Chevin. Lee fortunately knew which way to go.
so we headed home for lunch eventually.