Florists can do more than provide the occasional bunch of flowers. They have the power to lift the spirit of the giver and the receiver of a well chosen bouquet.

Gardeners and florists combine to supply the flower arrangers with much of their raw material. Where would all the church flowers be without all these folk working in harmony.
Florists traditionally work with cut flowers, cut foliage, dried flowers and items for arranging a display. Many retailers have added pot plants and even bedding plants or imitation flowers to their seasonal ranges.

Most florists sell a selection of pre-arranged flower bouquets at set prices for people who simply want to walk in and purchase arrangements.
Arrangements may include fresh flowers, dried flowers, ribbons, foliage, other plant material, and other ornamental features.

Value For Money Flowers

• Flowers in season are less expensive in the shops and at the flower markets. Wholesale florists sell bulk flowers and related supplies to professionals in the trade.
• Consider using wild flowers and seeds like conkers, cow parsley and daisies. Beech, bullrushes and lime striped of its leaves can provide outlines and structure. Alder, hazel and willow catkins or rosehips and rowan berries are seasonal favourites.
• Beg rather than borrow from gardeners and allotment holders, they are surprisingly obliging.
• Local flowers have less miles on the clock and should be fresher and cheaper.

Sources
Gardeners Tips on Florists
Wise Geek

Bempton Cliffs are a paradise for sea birds at this time of year, May. Nesting on the chalk cliff face the gulls are building nests and laying their young. The early starters are already hatching the chicks.

The crowds gather in one particular spot in the hope of seeing Puffins, the iconic bird found at Bempton. We saw three on the cliff and several flying shapes that seemed just like a puffin in flight. However I also spent a long time watching a Razorbill only to be told I couldn’t tell my Puffin from my pullover.

I know I need to invest in a camera with a better lens and a telescopic one to boot. Even with the best I can afford I would still be put to shame by some of the cameras on show by the other ornithologists (twitchers to most of us). Still they probably have photographs of birds not just cliffs and sky.

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Can you see this sign or is there a wind farm in the way?
Well not quite a wind farm but yesterday there were a pair of lobbyists in the Pickering car park punting a slogan ‘yes to wind‘.

Members of green peace or not, these ‘consultants’ were pushing a commercial view point and vested interests. The focus was the proposed East Heslerton site with 10 turbines. They were operating on behalf of n-power renewables at .
Well not in my name thank you – I would say no to wind farms with my vote and if we get AV I would say no with all my other votes as well.

Most wind farm protests are local pressure groups. There is a need for a more considered and concerted approach to the issues so the debate can be properly joined. Divide and rule will deliver a hotch potch of turbines and on shore wind farms for the benefit of industry not the wider population.

Anti Wind Power View

• The extra power generated is not worth the investment and disruption to local amenity.
• 30 MW is the planned capacity but at probable levels of functionality the output will average less than 11MW and that is on a windy day.
• I do not live in this backyard and am not worried about noise, birds or the visual environment but have concern for those who do.
• Political dogma and vested interests have been joined at the hip on the issue of wind farms and there is a lack of integrity and clarity. Why else are people standing in car parks trying to convince passers by.
• Other views and reports criticise wind farms as being inefficient, unreliable, unpredictable means of generation requiring expensive stand by capacity.
• Subsidies are made available at a cost to the public purse and this ignores the relatively short life of the equipment.
• Further investment in the grid may also be necessary to cope with wind surges.

Sources

RWE npower renewables has submitted a planning application to Ryedale District Council for a wind farm approximately 12km east of Malton in the District of Ryedale press release

Wind Farm by Igor Motov on flickr 2 out of 9 without blades!

Old Dutch Wind farm

High on the ridge of Addingham Moorside bays a lonely hound. The ‘wickering’ sound can be heard far and wide interspersed by the occasional bone crunching chomping as another walker is fed to the ravenous beast.

I haven’t got close enough to discover the beasts name but then I still have all my limbs.
I don’t fancy becoming dog food just yet chum. With the roman connection Cesar was considered but it didn’t winalot of support. A pal of mine thought it would wolf him down but Iams still nervous of it’s Pedigree. (enough this takes the dogs biscuit ed.)

The second dog I spotted on the moor is photographed (below) in all its splendor. It is a Cairn of course a Yorkshire Cairn. This cairn is at Addingham Moorside just where you can see both dales the wharfe and the other terrier like Aire Dale.

I will leave you with a Paws for thought; is a dog high on the moor be part of the Upper Cruft or is it just a Red Setter in the Sunset?

A poem and song by Les Barker who inspired many a doggy pun.

Ilkley D’Amour

Ilkley D’Amour;
Le ‘ill where les Yorkshiremen go;
Ilkley D’Amour;
Et J’ai been there with no chapeau.

Where hast tha’ been
Since la derniere time je t’ai vu?
J’ai been to court Mary Jane;
Chacun a son gout.

Ilkley D’Amour;
Le ‘ill where les Yorkshiremen go;
Ilkley D’Amour;
Et J’ai been there with no chapeau.

Sacre bleu; vous will catch thy deeath, tha knows;
Vous allez snuff it si vous allez sans chapeau.
Worms’ll ate thee
Les ducks mange les worms for their tea,
So nous will have etten thee

Ilkley D’Amour;
Le ‘ill where les Yorkshiremen go;
Ilkley D’Amour;
Et J’ai been there with no chapeau.

Les links

A white Rose - no surprise there then!

An opium poppy? I don’t think so!

Another white Rose – it could become a habit, no it should become a habit.

Spring brings my crocus in to focus.

Nearly missed the white Rose.

A rose that hasn’t been taken as a county emblem as yet. They would need to fight a war over it first.

A bit of a white lie to call these white roses when the are no’but buds in a vase.

The North York Moors National Park and Yorkshire’s great moorlands are beautiful landscapes. They teem with flowering heather at the height of summer.
Bounded by Saltburn , Middlesbrough, Stokesley, Thirsk, Malton and finally back to the sea at Scarborough, check out the wonders of North York Moors National Park.

Ideal for walking or roaming, the moors have 1400 miles of paths and tracks to explore. Too many waymarks and signs can be intrusive so Park authorities claim to ‘try to use them sparingly, especially on open moorland where posts can spoil the very quality of remoteness and isolation which visitors cherish.’

The Ordnance Survey Explorer maps for North Yorkshire Moor areas are updated every 3 years including new bridleways. path diversions and field boundaries; SHEET OL26 covers the western half of the National Park and SHEET OL27 the eastern half.

Gorse tends to grow in dry scrubby soil and we do not have as many of those conditions in Yorkshire. However there are many spots where you can see this wild shrub in flower during winter.
Gorse often features on the slopping edge of moorland and roadside locations near our many reservoirs.
There is also a cliff top patch at Primrose Valley to scratch and spear the unwary who venture too close to the Gorse.

Heather looks good in garden situations and is a very popular form of ground cover.
This patch was spotted at Golden Acre Park near Leeds. They have a large heather collection and special area on the Bramhope side of the garden.
Other features at Golden Acre include Limestone and Sandstone Rock Gardens, Heather, Bog and Late Season borders but is most famous locally for the large pond and wild fowl that children love to feed.

Download North Yorkshire National Park Brochure pdf
Read more about Gorse

Ribblehead Viaduct by Joe Dunckley, Flickr.

Wensleydale by Alden Chadwick

Haworth Village – Bronte Country

Malham Cove Photos
By: Jim Moran, Flickr CC

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The Yorkshire Dales Society is an independent charity which has been operating to protect, conserve and promote the Dales for 25 years. It provides a voice for people who care about the Dales to be heard at local and national level, enabling them to be represented in local consultations, planning and decision making.

The Yorkshire Society was formed as a non political, not for profit organisation in 1980. It encourages businesses, charities and individual people from or living in all parts of Yorkshire to join together in “promoting the county”. Membership of the Society is open to individuals and businesses alike to enable everybody to work towards and achieve common goals throughout the county.

The Yorkshire Ridings Society ‘ was formed in 1975 at the time when massive changes were being made to local government and the areas which they administered.
This statement was included in the order which created new Administrative areas in the reorganisation of local government in 1974:
“The new county boundaries are administrative areas, and will not alter the traditional boundaries of counties, nor is it intended that the loyalties of people living in them will change despite the different names adopted by the new administrative counties.”
This isn’t a matter of opinion, it’s a fact. Yorkshire’s boundary, from the River Tees to the Humber and beyond to Sheffield and from the Pennines to the North Sea is about 600 miles long, and it is intact.
All those people who were told that they had ‘been moved out of the county’ were misinformed. They may be in an administrative area which is based outside the county; they may have been given a strange postcode and may find many of their services are over the boundary, but, they still live in God’s Own County.
How good is that?’

The Yorkshire Agricultural Society was founded in 1837 with the aim to help to improve and promote agriculture in the region. They organise and hosts the Great Yorkshire Show and Countryside Live.

Yorkshire Building Society is the UK’s second largest mutual building society with a history dating back to Huddersfield in 1864.

The Yorkshire Archaeological Society was founded in 1863 as the Huddersfield Archaeological and Topographical Association to promote interest in the history and archaeology of the Huddersfield area. In 1870 it expanded its interest to cover the whole of Yorkshire.

The Yorkshire Philosophical Society has a long history of association with numerous scientific organizations in the United Kingdom and overseas. They have promoted an understanding of science for over 180 years.

Yorkshire Dialect Society is the world’s oldest surviving dialect society. Formed in 1897 it was set up to collect additional Yorkshire material for the English Dialect Dictionary. The main aim has always been to encourage the study and recording of dialect. Our equal interest is in speech and literature and members like to hear dialect spoken and to see it written in our publications.