One Wet Day

Tuesday, August 4

Another late start after continuous morning rain. A leisurely moth trap opening first, with yet more - handsome - Antler Moths, Rosy Rustic, Smoky Wainscot, Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing, Ear Moth, Green Carpet, Dark Arches, Lesser Yellow Underwing and Common Footman.

We identified this worn Muslin Footman later.

Being animal lovers, we have read all of the Yorkshire Shepherdess, Amanda Owen's books.

Shepherdess, hill farmer, writer, photographer, public speaker and mother of 9 – Amanda lives with her husband Clive and their family at Ravenseat in Swaledale, one of the highest, remotest hill farms in England. 

After being featured in the popular ITV Series The Dales, Amanda began documenting the story of her farming life, before publishing three bestselling books The Yorkshire Shepherdess in 2014, A Year in the Life of The Yorkshire Shepherdess in 2016, and The Adventures of the Yorkshire Shepherdess in 2019. 

Amanda and her family also currently feature in Channel 5's documentary series Our Yorkshire Farm (series 3 launched in July 2020), we watched the last episode last week.

I put the postcode into the SatNav and off we went. We passed through Cumbria and Lancashire via a very circuitous route to Ravenseat. The last ten miles or so was through high moorland, often with steep drops on one side of the single track, climbing, twisting, road. And it was raining.

We may have glimpsed a female Merlin.....the only other birds seen were Corvids and a glimpse of a brown backed Chat which could have been either Whin or Stone.

The Dales sign is lovely. This one is the first we have seen which is not partially hidden. It is wonky though, the plinth has sunk on one side.

We arrived at the farm entrance to find this, not unexpected, sign.

Two rather wet and foot weary walkers kept us waiting whilst they came down the Pennine Way path and entered the gates. No cream tea in the barn for them to-day.

The familiar farmhouse is nestled into the hillside below, its many outbuildings clustered around. Being a wuss in my old age, I didn't want to get wet  - that never used to bother me - so I took this photo through the front screen.

We enjoyed the experience but not the conditions.