God's Own County

Yorkshire Rarebit and Fishfinger Butties

Posted on October 18, 2012 by Hortoris

Karuna’s Posh Fish Finger Buttie

1) Very lightly spread 2 slices of white bread with butter or spread.
2) Top one slice with 4 grilled Birds Eye Fish Fingers (only the best will do)
3) Add 2 thin slices of Emmenthal cheese
4) Dip in Daddies sauce or Tomato Ketchup

5) For a southern version ‘Drizzle with Tartar sauce, pop on a few sprigs of rocket’, then top with the second slice of bread.

6) Admire your work of art, then scoff with enthusiasm
Enjoy!

Yorkshire Rarebit for two or one big appetite

25 gram of butter
25 gram of plain flour
125ml of milk
125ml of black sheep ale or an ale of your choice
125 gram of mature Wensleydale cheese
1 tsp. English mustard powder
few drops of Yorkshire Relish
1 egg
4 Slices of bread

Melt butter and add flour, make into a roux, add milk and ale
Stir over heat until it becomes a stiff sauce, add the mustard powder and the Relish stir
Then add the cheese, when all melted add the egg and stir.
Toast the bread, top each slice with some of the cheese mixture and brown under the grill serve at the end of a meal.
Eke it out with a couple of bacon rashers on the top.

Posted in Food and Drink & Yorkshire Products, Our Yorkshire | Comments Off

Flash Birds at Hellifield

Posted on October 18, 2012 by Hortoris

As the leaves leave the trees it is easier for the amateur birder to see the birds for the woods. That is not strictly necessary at Hellifield where there are good open views.

Little Grebe

The Hellifield Flash is an area of open floodwater between Hellifield and Long Preston. Flash is Yorkshire dialect for a pond in a field! In this case ‘The Flash’ or more specifically three flashes are important birding sites particularly for migrating species.

Hellifield Flash or Gallaber Pond is the largest then Dunbars with the smallest known as Little Dunbars. The Hellifield Flashes provide habitat for wild fowl and migratory birds as the ground seldom dries out completely. There is little vegetation other than rushes so the birds can see the ponds as they migrate donw the Aire valley.
This important zone provides a sanctuary for many species on the RSPB red list together with breeding species around the edges and in adjacent fields.

Ruddy Shelducks

Visiting Hellifield Flash

Approaching from Skipton on the A59, pass through Hellifield and after the loop layby on the left look for a line of large sycamore trees which straddle the road. Park on the right under the trees and watch the birds with a telescope.
A public footpath runs across fields from Hellefield to Long Preston passing the line of trees and is identified by a stile in the stone wall. It is possible to watch from here without disturbing the birds.
Autumn and winter can be good but the birds are often disturbed by wildfowlers.
The spring and autumn passage March-June and July-Septemeber may allow you to see Dunlin, Ruff, Whimbrel, Sandpipers, or the waders. Swifts, Swallows,Fieldfasre and a variety of Gulls also feed locally.
The birdlife is monitored regularly by the RSPB and features high on the ‘must visit’ list of ornithologists.

Oystercatcher

More Unusual Bird Species Seen at Hellifield Flash

Red Knot, Grey Plover, Little stint, Godwits, Spotted Redshank and Turn Stone.
In winter there may be an occasional Whooper Swan, Tundra Swan, Common Pochard, Greater Scaup and White fronted Goose.

Whooper Swans

Photo credits
Grèbe by bpmm CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Ruddy Shelducks by Sergey Yeliseev CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Oystercatcher by Marko_K CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Whooper Swans by Richard Towell CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Yorkshires top Twelve Birdwatching Sites

York Pictures

Posted on October 15, 2012 by tejvan

York Minster Flowers and a Church

York

York from inside the Friends Meeting House Garden on Friargate.

Continue reading →

Posted in Photos | Comments Off

The Power of We Yorkshire Folk

Posted on October 15, 2012 by Hortoris

15th October 2012 is the day when Bloggers from Yorkshire and all over the world unite in writing about one subject. The subject for this year’s Blog Action Day is “The Power of We” a celebration of people working together to make a positive difference in the world.

The organisers say that Community, Equality, Transparency/Anti-Corruption, Freedom, and People Power will be the sub-themes that Bloggers will write about on 15th October 2012.

Freedom generated by ‘Working together to make a positive difference’ is amply displayed by the team at Kidz in Kampz who raise funds for displaced children who left Burma seeking refuge in Thailand. They were herded into camps and not allowed to leave and Kidz in Kampz is a charity raising funds that directly help the education, health and well being of these children.

Community Hedon whose blog introduced us to the concept of blog action day.

People Power is being harnessed by Yorkshire business A View from the Hill. They aim to bring volunteers into contact with charities and match needs with wants. As a Community Interest Company they run informal and free networking events that help charities engage more effectively with people who want to help them.

Equality is a harder concept to extemporise when every person and community is different. We can’t be equal in every way but should not be differentiated, discriminated or demeaned based on differences.

Transparency/Anti-Corruption our Winges
Now we are getting to the heart of the matter. The examples of corruption and lack of transparency are too many to enumerate and whilst Yorkshire folk are known to be blunt and direct we could all remain transparent and supportive of community interest.
Let us start a campaign against being ‘economical with the truth’. We need to be able to trust the police (Hillsborough), our financial community (Bankers) and statistics which are so often corrupted to make a vested interests point.
We can’t trust ‘nest feathering’ politicians in Europe, Westminster or local councils so we must weed out the bad and support those with integrity, probity and rectitude.
If we get the politicians we deserve, what did we do to deserve our media? Let us have strong investigative journalism that exposes hypocrisy and fraud not a cheque book media obsessed with celebrity and their own corporate power.

To end on a positive note 2012 has seen great sporting triumphs with relatively drug free Olympics and Paralympics. Whilst money played its part in training and funding a good balance seems to have been struck with sponsorship and advertising. Of course we Yorkshire folk did our country proud – more power to the many ‘we’ people involved at all levels.

Posted in Yorkshire Folk | Comments Off

Yorkshire Staycation Hotspots

Posted on October 13, 2012 by Hortoris

So much for our summer 2012 ‘it was grand weather for ducks’ as my grandfather was wont to say. It is still not too late to enjoy a short break in one of our national parks or resorts, even Harrogate or Sheffield may help with some early Christmas shopping.

Birds Enjoying a Staycation at RSPB hotspot Bempton Cliff

To some ‘Staycation’ is a relatively new word combining the words ‘stay’ and ‘vacation’ but a staycation has been common practice in many Yorkshire households for generations. Dales farmers could no more leave their animals than they could convert to Lancastrianism. Industrial workers from Sheffield and Doncaster or miners from the pit villages would be over the moon with a seaside holiday but far more people just didn’t have the brass. There were no sunshine Hotspots on the ‘Costa Whatnot’ for these Yorkshire folk.

All that is changing and Yorkshire offers some great staycation locations and the odd hotspot for visitors and Tykes alike. For southerners and other visitors to the county here is a quick view or review of some seaside towns where you can expect exceptional hospitality.

Yorkshire Seaside Staycation Hotspots

Whitby – ‘Fish, Chips and Goths!’

Bridlington – ‘Up and Coming Back’

Flamborough – ‘Heading in the Right Direction’

Robin Hood’s Bay – ‘Walkers Paradise’

Filey – ‘Who says we don’t do Illuminations?’

Hornsey – ‘Pottery About’

Withernsea -‘Twighlight Zone’

Scarborough – ‘Staycation Hotel’

Photo Credits
Flamborough Head by Stephen & Claire Farnsworth CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Coast to Coast Walk England – 300 km from the Irish to the North Sea by dirk huijssoon CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Filey Seafront by johncooke CC BY 2.0
Hornsea Beach by histman CC BY 2.0
An english summer at the beach by mark lorch CC BY-NC 2.0
Battering by Steve Sawyer CC BY-NC 2.0

Battering is not only what happens to the fish caught to go with your Yorkshire chips but it can be what the weather does to our coastline. Visit Yorkshires hotspot coast before it erodes into the sea.
I wanted to use this photo at Robin Hood’s Bay as it set me in mind to have my own ‘Pubcation’ on the coast in the near future.

Posted in Photos, Yorkshire Trips and Places | Comments Off

Night Out in Halifax

Posted on October 12, 2012 by Hortoris

The Victoria Theater in Halifax usually has some event or show that suits me or the family but not always both. Still a good night out can be arranged irrespective of the programme if it is combined with a meal and drink. The bus is the way to get into town but a taxi or sober chauffeur is needed to get home.
In 1956 Joe Brown formed The Spacemen skiffle group and was on TV over 50 years ago but he will be performing at the Victoria on 16th October 2009. The next evening there will be Paul Jones (the former singer with Manfred Mann) and other members of The Blues Band Dave Kelly Tom McGuiness, Rob Townsend and Gary Fletcher will be on stage from 7.30pm. According to the Theater ‘you will not leave with the blues!’

The following four Saturdays have the Festival of Dance XIII, then the ‘chuckle therapy’ of Barry Cryer, the stage version of Skellig ‘ sophisticated theater with real emotional pull and Oliver by the Halifax Light Opera Society. To save space here why not get on the mailing list for future information or buy tickets by calling 01422 351156.
The Unthanks are at the Parish Church on 24th with a new line up to support the Geordie Folk Rachel & Becky Unthank.
Halifax has a rich and diverse choice of entertainment and a pre-evening Pizza at a local ‘Italian’ makes for a good evening.

If you are still ‘up for it’ after your trip to the theater try some Liquid refreshment and a bit of lively clubbing. ‘Liquid presents an unrivaled clubbing experience with state of the art sound & lighting systems’. Mind you if like me you remember Joe Brown and Paul Jones in their hey days you will probably not be up for a 3.00 am stint at the club.

Posted in Villages, Towns and Cities, Yorkshire Arts & Music | Comments Off

Classic Cars in Thirsk

Posted on October 10, 2012 by Hortoris

It is an expensive and time consuming hobby to restore a vehicle but I, like others, stop and stare at old cars on the road and it is great to see them loved and cared for. Keep up the good work in protecting our engineering heritage. Tois vintage Jowett was built in Bradford and is now a museum exhibity.

Our Yorkshire based badminton club’s annual trip in June took in the Daimler and Classic Car show at Ross on Wye ( Wye oh why did we leave Yorkshire I hear you ask). A similar garden was spotted along with some immaculate cars.

ross-garden

Continue reading →

Posted in Photos, Yorkshire History and Heritage | Comments Off

Drink Ingleton Dry

Posted on October 7, 2012 by Hortoris

Ingleton is a lively place to visit for a weekend or short holiday. We chose the folk festival time when the fields were full of campers and the streets full of crows. There are some very good pubs in the heart of the village, plus the Marton Arms at Thornton in Lonsdale or the Old Hill Inn a couple of miles out on the road towards Ribblehead. From what I remember consuming they all serve good home cooked food and a sparkling selection of beers. All the pubs and a couple of clubs were full to overflowing when the singing started and harmonising is thirsty work.

The view from our guest house bedroom window on Main Street showed the most recognisable of the Three Peaks – Ingleborough. The back garden was at the confluence of the two fast flowing rivers the Twiss and the Doe where they become the river Greta. The rivers had already been inspected at closer quarters as we took the Waterfall Trail through Peca and Swilla Glens to Thornton Force and back via Beezley Falls and the aptly named Snow Falls.

Ingleton has a summer walking weekend at the end of May each year but every weekend should be a walking or caving weekend.
2009’s highlight event was probably Operation Home Guard a 1940’s memorial event with performances from the Ovaltiney’s, Gracie lands, a George Formby impersonator, Dancing with the Starlight swing Orchestra and 40’s disco. They take over the town centre, the street is closed to traffic, and is full of military personnel, civilians, cars, trucks and jeeps, from the war time period. Sunday military parade on 5th July 2009 with the NWW11 association 51st Highland division Black watch pipes and drums. Afternoon tea dance, military road run, military vehicles and classic cars, re-enactors, remote controlled battle tanks, trade stalls and spirited fun.

Posted in Our Yorkshire, Villages, Towns and Cities, Yorkshire Arts & Music | 1 Comment

Google Can’t Talk Tyke

Posted on October 5, 2012 by Hortoris

Google helps direct readers to our Gods Own County website. Several hundred people a day were able to read one of our pages that related to the words or phrase they had searched for using Google’s search engine. We were happy with that although we would always want to contact more readers.
From this week Google have changed and now send less than a quarter of the traffic to our pages. Have they forgotten to speak Yorkshire or Tyke? It isn’t a hard dialect to follow and Google coped for last few years.
The answer is in algorithmically putting our pages much lower in the searches even for clear phrases you may be searching.

We haven’t done anything different to deserve this down grading.
Our content is largely unique and a bit off the wall. Not all pages appeal to all people which is why search is important to us.
Regular readers use the RSS feed which can arrange for our pages to be automatically emailed or streamed to you. If you have n’t tried it sign up from the red button.
We have been old fashioned dinosaurs and avoided new social media like Facebook and twitter but may be we have been twits not to link to them.

Perhaps we will have to resurrect our own Goole Search Engine first launched on a n unsuspecting public in spring 2009.

Posted in Our Yorkshire | Comments Off

King Henry VIII, a York Glazier and a Good Read

Posted on October 4, 2012 by Hortoris

Do you want a good autumn read of over 650 pages? If so then look no further than C N Sansom’s ‘Sovereign’.

The Setting

King Henry VIII has set out on his ‘Progress to the North’ to seek a submission by the rebellious subjects in York. Plotting from Papists, Reformers and avaricious court followers is pulled into some form of shape by Sansom’s regular character Matthew Shardlake.
The streets of 16th Century York provide richly descriptive and evocative language in a fast flowing narrative of intrigue and malice.
On top of all this there is Henry’s fifth Queen, Catherine Howard and her sexual antics with courtiers Dereham and Thomas Culpepper.
The Progress moves on and the cast travel through East Riding villages to Hull for a dangerous boat ride back to London.

Matthew Shardlake

Matthew Shardlake is a hunchbacked City lawyer who features in all C N Sansom’s 16th Century novels.
With his assistant Jack Barak he uses brain power and occasional brawn to defeat or draw level with those in society that seek to further there own ends.
With feelings for the hard done by parts of society Matthew Shardlake is a character well established in a historically accurate and well researched plot.
In addition to legal work processing petitions to the King, Shardlake has reluctantly undertaken a special mission for Archbishop Cranmer that takes him to York Castle.

Ian David Curry’s review includes the comment ‘…. I am not usually a big fan of historical fiction. It is often used as a vehicle by poor writers to give their bland prose a splash of factual colour, a “bodice ripping thriller”, as Blackadder might say. But C J Sansom is very different. A historian by nature, he feels and knows the period well….’ That sums up how Gods Own County feels about Sovereign and other books in the series.
As we said at the outset a good read with a historic and Yorkshire background.

Posted in Books Club & Literary Work | Comments Off