Malham Cove

The two weeks of my parents' visit were filled with rain and flooding here in the north of England, the most rain we've seen since moving here.  England is known for being rainy, but most of the time it is not the kind of rain we are familiar with in the southern United States.  It is light and misty and short-lived.  It's so light that I actually look forward to a good thunderstorm next time we are home!  But over the Christmas holidays there were lots of downpours, so on a day KJ had free to take us out into the countryside, he studied the radar and on a recommendation from a friend, we drove toward the one spot that didn't have rain forecasted for the afternoon.

There was an unexpected detour that had us driving by these fields, which we didn't mind.  I do think our constant desire to stop and take a picture made us arrive at our destination later than KJ planned.
One thing about KJ in planning mode is that we never have a shortage of destinations and things to see.

But poor man has to be patient while we stop to take pictures of lovely light hitting old church buildings.

He also has to be patient when we see signs for medieval church buildings and insist on stopping. This church was built in the 1400s BEFORE COLUMBUS DISCOVERED AMERICA.  It's good having our American minds blown with things like this.

There was a little book stall with paperbacks for 50 pence.  I may have bought this for the cover and the fact that it was, indeed, just before we were about to stop and eat our packed lunch.

Malham Cove has a river running under these special limestone cliffs, and hundreds of years ago there was a waterfall as well.  Water hasn't been seen there in a long time, but this past December with all the rainfall water ran down again for a short time.  We were hoping to see it, but it was very short-lived.  The fact that there hasn't been a waterfall in so long clues you in to how much rain we've had!

We were always on the lookout for old barns to take pictures of for my mom.  She loves them, and around here, you never have to look very far.

I loved this stone bridge and the fact that James brought his light saber along.  It's been Star Wars mania, hasn't it?  I'm okay with it.

The sheep are pretty camouflaged near the cliff face.

It was a steep and slippery walk up to the top, but the rest of our family was already there, so we went for it.  We stopped to let the sheep cross along the way, as well as the shepherd and his dog.

Keep climbing!

We had a brief moment of seeing clear skies while we were at the top.

It was a slippery minefield, and Dad was the only one to brave it.  He's a warrior.

It was so nice just driving through the Dales that it made me wonder why we don't do it more often. Of course, I was reminded that it takes a good hour or more to make the drive on the small and winding roads, so I think that's part of the reason, but it sure is beautiful, and we feel really fortunate to get to live near so much beauty.

It was getting dark and hard to see, but we all got great enjoyment out of watching these sheep chase after their shepherd on his 4-wheeler, helped along by his dog.

P.S.  How crazily English I sound saying that it took a good hour or more to drive to the Dales?  It is so funny how quickly we've partially adopted their view of distances.