August...... the month of gadding...... part three

after returning from France and having our day messing about on the water,
 we set off again to visit the north east of England and to celebrate
Brian's parents' golden wedding anniversary.....

we met up with Brian's sister and her family at a rather unusual spot called

The Forbidden Corner - which describes itself as the 'strangest place in the world'.......

 that would actually seem quite an apt description to be honest......

 it is a place full of surprises, puzzles, jokes, statues, tunnels, 

gardens, towers, secret paths and so much more

 and provides a beautiful and fun place to spend an afternoon.......

our final stop on our visit to the Forbidden Corner was this fountain 

which plays a tune every quarter hour......

 however, it's not as innocent as it looks......

after a weekend of catching up with other members of the family

and generally enjoying jaunts out and about, the four of us wended

 our merry way to the Yorkshire Dales......

this is an area I have never visited before and I have to say that

I completely fell in love with everything about it........

the dry stone walling, the laith barns, the tiny hamlets of houses, the light,

the stunning views, the waterfalls which seemed to be around every corner.....

just everything...... it was somewhere that our two days could not do justice to

and I am determined that one day we will return and spend a couple of weeks

exploring it much more fully.......

until that time however, here are a few of the highlights........

the walling and laith barns covered much of the Dales landscape.....

I loved how it all looked and took loads of photos of just such scenes.....

we met quite a few of the locals......

just wandering around on the roads as we drove around......

we made sure we had supplies on hand for yummy outdoor lunches......

a sausage sizzle in Aysgarth at the edge of one of the waterfalls was a particular favourite.....

the draw of water, particularly for Evie, usually results in lots of

wet clothing...... and these few days were no exception......

on this occasion the jeans stayed fairly dry but the wellies

were full to the top of water by the time she had finished her paddle......

I still, invariably, forget to take along dry clothing for her to

change into...... I don't think I will ever learn that lesson.....

we had a short stop in Skipton and managed a little jaunt along the canal

before we headed off to our overnight stop.......

our second day in the Dales included a visit to the beautiful Bolton Abbey

where the children hammered pennies into an old fallen tree trunk

along with many hundreds of others......

and Evie got to climb, and absail down, one of the large trees in the forest.....

the Abbey itself was a lovely backdrop to our wandering.....

and there was even a unique way of crossing the river to get there

{if you didn't want to do it the conventional way and cross the footbridge.....}

after a lunch of bacon butties, cooked again on our trusty little gas stove

in the park at Bolton Abbey, we headed off to Gordale Scar where Evie

did a little more 'rock hopping'......

before we made our way up to the falls, which were just stunning......

there was lots of scrabbling and climbing and exploring to be done

before the sun started to get low in the sky and we headed off

to find somewhere to have dinner that evening......

I would have to say after this little jaunt, that the Dales have become one of 

my very favouritest places in England and I really am looking forward

to spending another holiday here......

I know that Brian and the children would love to do the coast-to-coast

walk one day so that will give us another great reason to spend a

good bit of time in this lovely part of the world.......