I run a Gardeners Tips web site which uses as ‘root of my tips’ plants and gardens in Yorkshire.
The Gloxinia photo is a double blind trial I am conducting on my web sites.
Obviously I recommend you visit the site, click on the green header for more posts and sign up for the RSS feed if you are so inclined.

Spring Flowers

From the ‘root of my tips I branch out’ to Harlow Carr gardens and if you visit the RHS garden this month you will see and smell many of the Witch Hazels that are in copious flower.

Under the shelter of the walls at York you will find several clumps of Helebores or relatives of the Christmas Rose and Lenten Rose. The example was in the area behind the Quilt Museum.

With these two blogs I can indulge 3 of my passions, Gardening, Yorkshire and Internet publishing.

In summer 2011 Bramham horse trials had some good weather for a change and record crowds of over 50,000 attended to see a German winner Kai Rueder. The only solace is that he is trained by a Yorkshireman Chris Bartle from Markington

In the European championships Yorkshire folk came home with a couple of bronze medals. Nicola Wilson and John Whitaker will now be looking forward to the Olympic selection and competitions

The Hull show in East Park organised by the British Showjumping area committee was an unqualified success in August when over 20,000 visitors attended the show. Yorkshire riders did particularly well with Karl Fuller of Otley winning twice in the grand ring. He was riding his own horse Wet Wet Wet.

The Great Yorkshire Show introduced a new Mini Major class to add to the existing highly acclaimed show jumping competitions. Sponsored by Yorkshire Dales Ice Cream it is open to junior riders aged 12 and under. It gives an opportunity for the winning pony riders from three Yorkshire qualifying shows to partner up with some of the (major) top riders in the country.

A first for Yorkshire when Eldwick Riding Club won the quadrille of the year title at the British Riding Clubs event with their Riverdance routine. Read more background and see an international Quadrille below.

Steven Beane from North Allerton captured his third consecutive global title at the Calgary Stampede’s 32nd annual World Championship Blacksmiths’ Competition during 2011. Steven has joined the elite as a competitor who has won back-to-back-to-back world crowns at Calgary. He picked up the winner’s cheque for $10,000, as well as a gold-and-silver Stampede championship buckle.

Due to a lack of sponsorship and poor ticket sales the international showjumping event planned for April 2011 at Sheffield arena had to be cancelled.

For details of forthcoming events check out the Riding Diary
Port Royal EEC, claims to be the premier northern equestrian center at Holme on Spalding moor with two main arenas. For events see

Credits
Safe by Katy Wrathall CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Quadrille by Princes Milady CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Show Jumping at Olympia by Jessicamulley CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Jill Armstrong at Yorkshire Post for inspiration

Harold Dennis (Dickie) Bird, was born at Church Lane Barnsley 19 April 1933. (Simon Hughes in the photo wasn’t born in Barnsley)
In the 2012 New Years Honours list Dickie has been awarded the OBE.
The award could so easily have been the OBU or Old Blind Umpire but well done Dickie. Other sporting awards for Yorkshire folk go to Jamie Peacock from Leeds Rhinos and Taekwondo champion Sarah Stevenson from Doncaster

Pre Umpiring

• Dickie has a damaged knee and couldn’t play his first choice sport of football.
  He started cricket in the nets at Barnsley Cricket Club.
  Two team mates at that time were Michael Parkinson and Geoff Boycott.
  In his autobiography Dickie tells of the time when Boycott refused to open the batting with Dickie preferring to bat no3. Dickie and Eddie Legard then proceeded to score 182 to win the game before a frustrated Boycott  could get in to bat.
  Barnsley also fostered other great cricketers including Martyn Moxon, Darren Gough and Arnie Sidebottom.
  Dickie played for Yorkshire County Cricket Club 1958-64 in the same side as Fred Trueman, Bob Appleyard and Johnny Wardle.
  After retiring from county cricket he coached and played league cricket before becoming an umpire.

Umpiring Era

• Dickies first county game was in 1970 and his first Test match was  England v New Zealand at Headingley in 1973.
  One negative memory of his umpiring days was Dickie’s reputation for stopping play for weather.
  After a pitch invasion when the West Indies won the world cup Dickie lost his white hat. A year later as passenger on a London bus he noticed the conductor was wearing a hat similar to the one he lost and asked the conductor where he obtained it from.
  “Man, haven’t you heard of Mr Dickie Bird,” he replied. “This is one of his hats. I took it off his head at the World Cup final… we all ran onto the field and I won the race.” Apocryphal or not it is one of Dickie’s favourite after dinner stories.
  Affectionately remembered for his sense of humour and on field idiosyncrasies Dickie retired from umpiring in 1996 at the age of 63.

Since Umpiring

• Dickie wrote his humerous autobiography simply titled My Autobiography that has sold more than a million copies.(and many of these several times over via charity book shops)
  The Dickie Bird Foundation was set up with “The vision of the Foundation is to assist young people under 18 years of age to participate, to the best of their ability, in the sport of their choice irrespective of their social circumstances, culture or ethnicity and to ensure that, in doing so, they improve their chances both inside and outside sport”
  Dickie has more honorary degrees from Yorkshire Universities than he has A levels.
  Harold Dennis (Dickie) Bird MBE 1986.

Umpiring Career 1970-1998 from Dickie’s own web site

1970 Stood in his first county game

1973 Stood in his first Test Match. England V New Zealand July 5-10 at Headingley

1973 Stood in his first ODI England V New Zealand July 20th Manchester

1995 Stood in his last ODI England V West Indies May 26th The Oval

1996 Stood in his last Test Match England V India May 26th Lords

1998 Stood in his last County Match Yorkshire V Warwichshire

2007 Dickie came out of retirement in January 2007 to umpire the XXXX Gold Beach Cricket Tri-Nations series involving cricket legends from England, the West Indies, and Australia, which took place at Scarborough beach in Perth, Australia .

Related

The Best of Dickie Bird on audio CD from Amazon

Wisden on Yorkshire
Photo on creative commons license by Badger Swan on flickr
Fiery Fred Trueman Fantastic Raconteur

The celebrations for 75 years the Embroiderers Guild of Yorkshire was led by an exhibition at the University of Leeds Textile Archive. This is located at St Wilfred’s Chapel Moorlands Road Leeds and is open University times.

Yorkshire is the longest serving branch of the Embroiderers Guild in the country. Yorkshire was fortunate to have as first president, Louisa Pesel who’s notes designs and collection from all around the world features in the exhibition.

Under the title ‘Natural Fibers are the Fabric of Society’ there are silk shawls from the Qing dynasty, Javanese cottons, Mediterranean embroideries and exhibits from Malaysia, China, New Zealand and Yorkshire.

There are branches of the Embroiderers guild around Yorkshire including Ackworth, City of York, Grassington & District, Halifax, Hallam, Harrogate, Huddersfield, Hull and East Riding, Lower Airedale, Nidderdale, Penistone, Ryedale, Leeds, Selby & District, Sheffield & District and Skipton. They run competitions and for 2010 they will be judged at Regional Day at Riccall, Selby, on 12th June 2010 the themes include DeDenne Competition for Young Embroiderers – “Imaginary Animals” , Challenge Cup – “My Backyard” and Coats Anchor Award – “Animals”. See more on their web site

Pontefract Museum, Salter Row, Pontefract, event Going for Gold Textile Art Group Until 28 January 2012.

York Quilt Museum Embroidered and Embellished Collections to view click here

1. The Don Valley trail covers part of the Trans-Pennine Trail and this route is a 20 mile ride from Dunford Bridge on the old Manchester to Sheffield railway line. (OS Explorer OL1 Dark Peak).

From the bottom of the car park at Dunsford Bridge bear right and drop to the railway track. Go through Hazelhead past the old railway buildings and on to former Bullhead colliery. Bridges and cuttings lead to the overgrown Penistone station. Keep straight ahead at Oxspring across a farm track and over a bridge crossing the river Don. Stopping in Thurgoland you can try one of the pubs or the Waggon and Horses at Oxspring. (The horses may have left you various presents on the route which you can retrace to the start or follow the alternative way markings).

2. Old railway tracks make good cycle paths particularly if you have good tyres and a comfy saddle. For this second ride Ravenscar to Robin Hood’s Bay is on 11 miles of well surfaced tracks. Start left past the National Trust centre descending and swinging left onto the old trackbed.(OS Explorer OL27 N.Yorkshire Moors Eastern)

There are good views of the bay on a fine day until the surface changes to tarmac on the outskirts of Robin Hood’s Bay. You can go down to the village or follow on to Mount Pleasant and Ness Bay a National Trust picnic spot. The track continues to Hawkser and Whitby or you may want to return to Ravenscar and the Alum quarries.

3. Compacted gravel railway tracks feature on the shorter 8 mile Harland Way from Wetherby to Spofforth (OS Explorer 289 Leeds). From the A661 turn west on Sicklinghall road for 300 yards for a cycleway sign and car park with a finger post ‘Harland Way’. Take the left fork at Wetherby Triangle towards Spofforth until you see the church. Go down Park road and beyond the houses it becomes a stny bridleway until you go left at Fox Head Farm coming out at Sicklinghall where you turn left down winding roads to return to Wetherby.

4. Along the East coast Whitby to Scarborough is a popular route with cyclists, all year around. One of the most spectacular trails in the north, it runs alongside the North Yorkshire Heritage Coast. Following a disused railway line, the route has a number of climbs, descents and is rough going in places, just to keep things interesting. With a mixture of good cinder tracks and some rockier sections, it’s ideal for the more adventurous families. The route is 18 miles (29km) one way. More from Welcome to Yorkshire.

5. Cycle routes now stretch across our cities, towns and countryside – the most recent Sustrans route The Way of the Roses will be a 170 mile coast to coast ride between Morecambe and Bridlington through the Yorkshire Dales and Wolds. The scenery is varied and beautiful with the Lune Valley, Forest of Bowland, Yorkshire Dales National Park, Vale of York and Yorkshire Wolds – all enjoyed from cycle paths, country lanes and quieter roads. The route is largely waymarked with the familiar blue Sustrans’ signs.

Dales Bike Rides

From this distance Almscliff Crag looks easy and inviting – well at least the later. Situated 3 miles outside Pool-In-Wharfedale towards Harrogate follow the signs for North Rigton. This is a fantastic bouldering venue, powerful and tough with some of the best gritstone to be found anywhere. YorkshireGrit.com is  a climbers web site for those who love ‘Bouldering’. Of Almscliff they say ‘Almscliff is a superb bouldering venue. Like the routes, the bouldering tends to be steep and powerful and classic roof problems abound – Demon Roof, The Keel, Matt’s Roof and Stu’s Roof are all fantastic with an average angle approaching the horizontal. There are also plenty of easier classic problems. The crag is frequently very busy (by Yorkshire standards), although the bouldering is sufficiently spread out that this shouldn’t be a problem’.

What is Bouldering
Bouldering is a style of climbing emphasizing power, strength, and dynamics focusing on individual moves unlike traditional climbing which generally demand more endurance.
Bouldering is rock climbing undertaken without a rope and normally limited to very short climbs of 10-15 feet so that a fall should not result in serious injury.

Bouldering is typically practiced on artificial boulders or crops of boulders but can be done on public buildings and larger rock faces.
Boulder routes are referred to as problems with grading schemes Font, British and with V grades
There is a British Bouldering team and this is now a competitive sport growing in popularity with the advent of more access to climbing walls.

Other Classic Yorkshire Bouldering Sites

Ash Head
Baildon Bank
Barden Fell
Great Wolf Stones
Beamsley Beacon
Cat Crags
Clattering Stones
Brunthwaite
Buckstones
Heptonstall
West Chevin
Bridestones
Brimham
Swastika Stones
Panorama Crag
Shipley Glen
Deer Gallows
Earls Crag with overhangs and lips.
At Scugdale the most popular spot is Scot Crag with climbs at every grade but best for the easier grades. Barkers Crags is quieter but has the best selection of quality climbs at every grade. Stoney Wicks is the smallest outcrop with climbs rarely above 3m high but is in a pleasant east facing situation and makes for a great warm up area. Snotterdale is the least popular, hidden away in the woods, it does however have a number of climbs that are worth seeking out especially on a windy day. A recently published venue at the head of Scugdale is White Stone
Crookrise is a good old-fashioned gritstone escarpment, located north of Skipton
For Indoor Climbing walls read

Photo of Almscliff by Danny Coltrop

Eddie Waring had ‘the uncanny ability of saying exactly what the man on the terraces is thinking’. Michael Parkinson.
Born amongst the mundo and shoddy of Dewsbury Eddie managed the Dewsbury rugby team from the late 1930′s through the post war years. In 1943, under Eddie’s managership Dewsbury won the Challenge Cup!

Even as far back as 1931 Eddie at age 21 offered his services to the BBC as a radio commentator on Rugby League (a game the southern BBC knew nowt about). Needless to say it was some years before they came to their senses.
‘Outward popularity and inner self-motivation’ plus a stubborn streak were to prove useful in Eddies main career of media and Journalism.Tony Hannan

After starting a job with Sunday Pictorial Eddie started a to evangelise about Rugby League spreading the word in his enthusiastic style. He started a series of lecturing tours and road shows and I bet the Southern venues wondered what had hit them.

Eddie Waring The Voice in Quotes and Sayings

Eddies brother Harry was in charge of the amateur Shaw Cross Boys Club near Crown Flatt and Eddies own home. The club helped young players like Garry Schofield, Roy Powell, Mick Sullivan, Mike Stevenson and David Ward.

Voice of Eddie Warring In Books

Being Eddie Waring The Life and Times of a Sporting Icon by Tony Hannan Amazon
Eddie Waring on Rugby League 1966 & 1981

Mosaicing is the decorative art of creating a pattern or picture from small pieces of stone, glass pottery or other material. The small pieces are called tesserae and the result is a mosaic. For the practical or artistically inclined a hobby project could be to create a personal mosaic for your home or garden.

Finding a mosaic on a police wall (not a cell) got me started on mosaics. “Uniting The Community” is a mosaic in Scarborough that was created as a community project by the artist Gabrielle Naptali and many helpers. It contains over 45,000 pieces of glass and is explained in more detail on The Joy of Shards website

Halifax Town Hall contain some lovely Victorian floor tiles including this White Rose of Yorkshire in coloured stone. If you do not wish to make your own mosaics as a hobby you can still enjoy finding good examples. They are often found in and around public buildings.
The use of modern materials has brought mosaics upto date and some digitally produced images are quite facinating. David Hockney used a mosaic of photographs to capture some innovative art work.

Mosaic welcome plaque gets the message across in a permanent manner at Sunnybank Nature Reserve, Sheffield.

The History of Mosaics

• The earliest known mosaics were made about 2800 B.C. to decorate buildings.
• Mosaics were used in the jewelry of the Pharoah Tutankhamun.
• Examples from the Byzantine Empire in Egypt are considered the best of their kind.
• Some of the best mosaics date from ancient Rome.
• Hull and York museums and Aldborough are local places to see Roman mosaics.
• Micromosaic jewelry became popular during the 17th & 18th centuries for those on the Grand Tour in Italy the foremost manufacturer of the jewelry.

‘Excavations of a Roman villa site near Rudston in East Yorkshire led to the discovery of several finely-preserved 4th century mosaics. These include the Venus Mosaic – which takes its name from the charming but naively portrayed goddess dominating its central panel – and the Charioteer Mosaic. The charioteer is portrayed facing the viewer in a quadriga or four-horse racing chariot. In his hands he holds the symbols of victory – a palm branch and wreath. Fragments of other mosaics from the same villa are on display in the museum. These include parts of a pavement decorated with images of fish and other marine life.’

Related Items

Top mosaic blogs
LouAnnWeeks
Mosaic art source
Sara Baldwin UK
Geminimoon mosaics

Big Thanks
I have used images from Flickr under a creative commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0) license:-
Mosaic Scroll by AEJHarrison,
Yorkshire Rose by nualabugeye,
Mosaic welcome plaque, Sunnybank Nature Reserve, Sheffield by Joey’s Dream Garden
and Rudston Mosaics by Hull City Council

Yorkshire lad Duncan Hamilton has produced a tour-de-force for Wisden and a compilation about all that is great about Yorkshire Cricket.
2011 is shaping up to be great year too so expect another edition soon but buy a first edition from Amazon £13.01 (don’t ask me why the penny it hasn’t dropped yet).

• The blurb on the book undersells the county a bit……’Yorkshire County Cricket Club is by far the most successful county cricket club in history.’

• The facts are made to speak for themselves……’Since the County Championship was constituted in 1890, Yorkshire has in addition to one shared Championship, won it outright on 30 occasions and Yorkshire cricket supporters take great pride in the county’s cricketing history’.

• The characters get a reasonable billing……….’As well as the club’s successes, there have been 42 Yorkshire players chosen as Wisden Cricketers of the Year. Many have been world-class cricketers such as Wilfred Rhodes, Len Hutton, Fred Trueman and Geoffrey Boycott, with distinguished England careers.’

• Yorkshire cricket seems to have helped to keep Wisden in business…………..’Many thousands of Wisden pages have been filled with Yorkshire cricket, Yorkshire cricketers and Tests in Yorkshire.’

What is the book about? ‘Wisden on Yorkshire is a fascinating journey mixing great matches, personalities, feats, controversies and unusual occurrences. Presenting the best Yorkshire information from the Almanack archives,

• Focus on the iconic Yorkshire players, such as Truman and Boycott
• Cricketers of the Year and Obituaries.
• The County’s history, highlighting significant years and extracts from reviews of those years.
• Fascinating stories of both the highs and lows in the club’s history.
• Colour plate section containing superb classic images.
• Detailed records, match reports and scorecards.

Pedal power was never so powerful and entertaining.

Features

• Trade exhibitions and shows in marquees.
• Grass track arena for racing.
• Vintage Bikes and cycle auctions.
• Stunts and displays.
• Free security marking for york residents – watch out for yourself if you don’t come from York
• Inflatables and children’s entertainment.
• Extensive catering,bars, camping and caravan pitches will be available.

Read lots more about cycling as a hobby on Cyclinginfo

2010 York Cycle Show Video