Tuesday 25 September 2012

Where is the place?

Where is the place that you think of as home? It isn't necessarily the place where you are living at the moment or the place where you were born. The Germans have a descriptive word, 'Heimat' and in England there is the saying, 'home is where the heart is'.
We have been in Yorkshire for a week or so, with sunshine and showers and some very fine rainbows.
This pathway by the beck is next to our small Yorkshire home.
From our kitchen window we look across the dale to the crag, shadowed in the morning light
or bathed in sunshine in the early evening.
After  a cold night the dale bottom can be shrouded in mist.
I think that it is beautiful whatever the weather.

What I want to Say.

I want to tell you
about the moorland paths
I've walked for half a century and more
always and never alone here
in this upland space
walking with ghosts
of family and friends.
The silvered grit remains, crisp underfoot,
the close-cropped turf,
heather and hills as far as I can see.
The beauty overwhelms me.

How to say it
so that you understand?


Ower Tops.

T' other side o' t' dale's
a veil o' milky 'ue
as you an' I an' t' dog
on peat moor top can view
at dusk
a sky awash wi' pink.
An' everythin' takes on a magic glow
as walkin' ower tops we go.


The discovery of a skeleton found underneath a car park in Leicester has been reported on the news. It is thought to be the remains of 'Crook-back', King Richard the Third. He spent his childhood in a far more imposing place, at Middleham Castle, just down the dale.
The first castle was a Norman motte and bailey, built around 1086. The present castle was begun in the mid twelfth century and in the fifteenth century was a stronghold of the Nevilles, Earls of Warwick and the home of the Kingmaker, Richard of Warwick. Richard the Third, as the then Duke of Gloucester, spent his childhood at the castle and hunted in the dale, which in those days was densely forested.
The castle was dismantled after Richard's death, but the ruins still dominate the small town.

Today Middleham is best known for it's stables
where racehorses are king.




6 comments:

  1. Rosemary, We also use the saying "home is where the heart is". I suppose it means home is where you find those you love. But what if those you love live in many places? Things most certainly to ponder. The poetry and the photographs are beautiful. Someday I hope to find a place where I feel most at home.

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    1. Like you, Bonnie, the people that I love are scattered wide. Relatives no longer live in the dale now that my parents have died, but when I am there I am still Walter and Margaret's daughter and the entire landscape is peopled with memories. The local language, with it's familial 'thee' and the humour used in conversations combine to make me feel that I am home.

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  2. You live in a magical place, surrounded by history that is ancient compared to ours.

    Your pictures are so lovely and as usual, I enjoyed viewing them.

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    1. We came back south a day or two early to avoid the flooding that has been causing such problems this week. We were lucky with the weather in the dales, the rainbows, between the downpours, were wonderful, the best of them when I wasn't carrying my camera! The area is steeped in history, with a number of castles built for defense in strategic locations. I'm glad that you enjoyed our visit.

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  3. I understand, Cher. 'Home' is not always a place where you think you could live out your days.

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    1. I used to say that I would never leave the previous house that we lived in - then they built hundreds of houses around it. Like Sean Connery I've learnt never to say never.

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