An Evening on Sutton Bank

I've been slowly sorting through pictures from 2017 for a family yearbook I'm making, and I loved these from a beautiful August night last year.

Summer days are long in North Yorkshire, and sun shining always feels special, so one night after dinner we decided to seize the golden hour and drive up to the top of Sutton Bank for the view James Herriot called, "the finest in England."

You can see for miles and miles from this vantage point.  I love the late-summer fields ready for harvest and all the wildflowers and heather.

The path wends its way along the top of the bank above the Kilburn White Horse.  It's a landmark hard to find when first pointed out to you from a distance but impossible not to see once you know what you're looking for.

I love having my family for scale in this picture.  It helps capture the vastness of all the open space around you.  But you can't help but notice the small things, too.

My boys tried to pinch a little heather for me to take home, but that proved harder than expected.

It came up roots and all, which feels like it's probably a violation of national park rules.

I took the most up-close picture I ever got of the white horse as we drove down the bank toward home, but I loved this last one best with the sign and the little house with the white horse in the distance.

Sutton Bank

I know it's the day after Easter, and it's officially springtime, but I fell behind on editing pictures of our outings and wanted to put them on the blog for memory's sake.  So...rewind to February 15 and a drive up to Sutton Bank.

This is our second winter in Boroughbridge, and what we've experienced so far is that being in a bit of a valley means that places all around us will get snow while we may only see a few flurries.  A friend showed us how to look at the traffic camera pictures of the county that update every 10 seconds online.  We saw where there was snow and mapped out a route from there.  It's actually a pretty sweet deal.  We can drive up into the hills and enjoy the snow then come safely back down to our snow-free town.

We were able to borrow a sledge from another friend, which made it a magical experience for the kids.

It was such a beautiful, beautiful day.

The snow was just right for snowballs, and everything was so still and quiet.  We arrived before the masses came with their dogs and sleds.

And "The Finest View in England"

You can see for several miles on a clear day.

And it was a really good thing we stopped for a snowball fight because a couple came up behind us carrying KJ's phone that must have fallen out of his pocket while he was bent over pushing the sledge.  That could have had a much sadder ending.  James had to get out and push after that.

We had two more stops on our journey that day, but this will do for now.  I'm taking baby steps.