4 December 2019

Sunshine

North Lees Hall (1594)
November was a dreadful month up here in the north of England. Grey rain drummed down from charcoal coloured skies as brown rivers overflowed. We were trapped inside like November's prisoners though we were innocent of any crime.

In contrast, the first four days of December have been gaudy and bright. We have been  drawn out of our houses by sharp sunshine and a whole box of colours. As I look out of my window right now, the sky is the colour of blue sapphires, reaching up above the houses with not a cloud in sight.
Stanage Edge and a wall... See how the bracken has turned brown
Yesterday, I walked again. Not far away. West of Stanage Edge. A very familiar walk. I was mostly doing it for the exercise and simply just to be outside in the light. You never know - as December progresses the gloom may well return. No matter what the weather, it will be particularly gloomy on the twelfth if  Conniving, Lying, Ugly, Brow-Beating, Dodging, Twisting, Insulting, Narcissistic Johnson wins the election with his motley crew of like-minded twerps and sycophants.
Overstones Farm
Who could vote for that over-privileged mob? It makes my blood boil. I would rather have L.B.Johnson than B.S.Johnson and the first one is long dead I know.

Calm down Yorkshire Pudding! Calm Down Lad! You'll have a seizure if you are not careful.
Another view of North Lees Hall
And so let me illustrate this blogpost with soothing images of yesterday when "all my troubles seemed so far away". I took several pictures of North Lees Hall which Charlotte Bronte visited with another clergyman's daughter in the 1840's. It is said that it then became the model for Thornfield Hall in her most famous novel - "Jane Eyre".

By the way, that was not Charlotte Bronte on the horse.
Horsey Lady on Sheepwash Lane

38 comments:

  1. Many...very many...throughout this country would love to be trapped inside because of rain...me included.

    Rain is something I never complain about.

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    1. That is understandable given the trials and tribulations that Australia has been facing with regard to weather.

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  2. Calm down YP. Haven't you worked out that all politicians lie? They do that to get into office and once there, they either revert to type again or realise it's the civil servants who run the country. One of the biggest liars was Blair. I'm not too keen on Comrade Corbyn either. I've just visited a Communist museum in Prague and he has all the bad characteristics of the doctrine. It's going to be an interesting result. But let's enjoy blue skies while we can.

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    1. Blue skies? I would prefer red ones.

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  3. Is that tinsel around the horse's bridle? Looks like they were posing especially for you. This sunshine and blue sky is wonderful.

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    1. It was tinsel! Well spotted Sue. They had both been to a Christmas Fayre at the weekend. The rider went dressed as a Christms elf.

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  4. Supporters of the left never seems to learn. When you attack the supporters of your political adversary you just rile them up more and it has the opposite effect at the ballot box ass you intended. Hillary Clinton learned this after she called half the country a basket of deplorables. Keep to the issues. Stay away from the name-calling. Yes, calm down, YP!

    Your photographs are wonderful. I too am a lover of blue skies.

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    1. Hillary Clinton has been over in Britain very recently. What a warm-hearted and astute woman! Some things just cannot be faked.

      P.S. See me in my study after school to discuss "seems" and "ass"...and I do not mean Hillary Clinton's "ass"!

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  5. Replies
    1. Oh! Now I see you spotted one of your unforced errors. Good lad Bobby! Have a grape.

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  6. We have a hateful premier here right now in my province. Makes me sick to my stomach. Of course he lied about what he was going to do which seems par for the course these day.

    The photos are lovely, the sky is so blue and the shadows are so long. What do your shoot with?

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    1. It's just a Sony bridge camera. Cost me about 500 Canadian dollars. Very easy to operate.

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  7. There's name-calling and then there's description.
    I think you described BJ perfectly.
    It's just as beautiful here in Florida today as it is in your pictures.
    Be well, my friend.

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    1. I could justify every one of the terms I used to describe the odious B.S.Johnson. If I was going to call him a name I might say "Pig" or "Posh Boy" or "Lothario".

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  8. Crisp, sunny winter days are just lovely.

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    1. Much nicer that when you got back from Down Under.

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  9. Great pictures, as always. I am loving these blue skies! We're having them in London too. North Lees Hall is interesting -- it does look very Bronte-esque.

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    1. It can be rented...I think from the National Trust. It isn't normally open to the public.

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  10. She looks like she's about to whip you with her riding crop.

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  11. Your words in the first two paragraphs are as lovely and descriptive as your photographs.

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    1. Once again you reveal your kind and supportive nature Bonnie.

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  12. You need another "s" in "narcissistic", Mr. P - I don't think you will mind me pointing it out as you are a grammar stalwart.

    We've had mostly gloomy, windy, sleety, foggy, miserable weather the last few weeks also. But as Lee says above, some parts of the world are parched, and that makes me count my blessings.

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    1. Well spotted Jenny! As I am not narcissistic I have no issue with you pointing out my mis-spelling of "narcissistic". Thank you.

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  13. Down here at the South Coast of England (Hampshire) the weather currently is what one might call "bracing". Sunny, yet frosty. Which is better than tepid, windy and rain. I sometimes wonder whether we are conditioned to tolerate that weather best which we experienced in earliest childhood - in my case, in winter, snow as high as a six foot man, cold yet sunny, sunny, sunny. One winter my grandfather built me a hut igloo style, fashioned from bricks made of snow. It was lovely. Just as our snowmen were. Huge. And facing the house so in the evening I could wave them goodnight from my window. Oh, the heartbreak, come spring, of seeing them shrink by way of melting. Till there were only two pieces of coal (eyes), a twig (mouth) and a carrot (nose) left. Still, by way of compensation, there were Easter bunnies and daffodils to look forward to. Followed by the mellow meadows of summer.

    U

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Oh yes those mellow meadows of summer where you could romp with Julian the vicar's son or Nobby the cowherd...Sorry, I am being silly.

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  14. Soothing images, indeed! Those bracken-filled vistas are glorious ... although I'd feel rather like a victim in a gothic horror to be sitting in lonely North Lees Hall on a dark and gloomy night.

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    1. You wouldn't be lonely Pip. Ghouls would join you from the cellar.

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  15. Beautiful photos. Beautiful stacked stone wall.
    I must tell you, that string of near expletives could have come from a Dickensian novel or character. At least your agony will be over soon. Or not.

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    1. I fear the Chapter Two of "Nightmare on Downing Street" will be even scarier Joanne.

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  16. Very colorful scene looking over the countryside.

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  17. Like you, we've had uninterrupted sunshine and sapphire skies all week. It is very cold, though; -4C as we speak. Usually by the time I leave the office, it is pitch black already, but yesterday, I decided to leave early; at 4:00 pm the sun was already setting but there was still enough daylight for me to walk home from Kornwestheim across the fields. The sunset was spectacular!
    Lees Hall looks intriguing. None of the pictures in this post would look out of place in another edition of my famous Yorkshire Calendars.

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    1. As you know I will be honoured if you use any of them - though all these pictures were taken just over the border in Derbyshire.

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  18. So that's where our blue skies have got to! We've just had three days of grey skies and torrential rain, and no sight of the sun. It obviously packed it's bags and decided on a little holiday to cheer up those in Northern climes. Let's face it, you do need cheering up!
    Beautiful photos, as always YP. It's about time you decided on some more subjects for your lovely paintings.

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    1. I just bought a canvas CG and I am planning a landscape in oil featuring Stanage Edge. I will try my best with it. How about you? What are you painting?

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  19. Just the fancy ironwork on the windows!

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