ONE DAY LIKE THIS (Part 42)
There’s a Light at the Centre (16 October - 22 October)
Welcome one and all to this, the latest edition of Sheep | Song | Photograph, my regular long form post wherein I regale you with tales from our farm, from the world of Americana music, and share pictures I have made during this week in previous years. It sounds complicated but really isn’t. As you can imagine, fitting all of that in an email is nigh on impossible so, to see the whole post you’ll need to either open it in the browser of your choice or navigate your way to the Substack app.
It seems a little strange to be writing another post so soon after the last but, needs must, I’m trying to catch up, not only with my own writing but also with the posts of the authors I follow on here. Fortunately, here in the UK, the clocks have just switched from British Summer Time to Greenwich Mean Time so it’s now dark by 5pm, giving more reading and writing time in the evenings. I’ll probably waste most of that watching reels on Facebook but it’s the thought that counts. Anyway, despite the passing of only a few days, plenty has happened here on the farm.
At the end of last week we gathered the ewes and, with the help of our friend and neighbour, Chris and his extremely useful cordless shears, we trimmed their tails to assist the tups with their job of impregnation. For the first time in a couple of years, we have two tups of our own, both new to the farm and unfamiliar with our way of doing things. Once we had finished tarting the girls up, we split them into two even sized groups, based on their breeding and our own preferences. Then we attempted to unite each group with their respective tup. First up was our Dutch Spotted lad who I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. He’s been living the life of Riley since he arrived, in a stable normally reserved for one of Pip’s horses, and we hoped he had become used to hearing the sound of his food being shaken in a bucket which he would then follow. Unfortunately, he was way too excited to be out of the stable and he charged off in the wrong direction. Chris ran after him and as he turned him back towards Pip and I we released his group of ladies hoping that would concentrate his mind. It did but, unfortunately, they had never seen a tup of his colour before and, while half of them ran into the field as intended, the other half took off up the road pursued by said tup. Chris jumped into his Ranger ATV and gave chase too, eventually getting past them and forcing them to turn back towards home. Once they were all in the field as originally intended we thought that would be it but no, as the tup tried to approach the ladies to smell which of them were ready to be served, they continued to act as though he was a dog, flocking together and moving away from him. After watching this situation for a while, we stopped laughing long enough to get all of them gathered back into a pen where we left them while we had lunch. In the meantime, we loaded our second tup, a Suffolk and much more what the ladies are used to, into our little trailer and took him to the field where his half of the flock was waiting and he got straight to work without mishap. After lunch we found the Dutch Spotted had served three of his girls and the others seemed to have realised what he was. When we returned them to their field, calmness reigned and everything is now progressing as normal. Sheep farming…..everyday’s a schoolday.
I was just turned 17 when ‘The River’ by Bruce Springsteen was released and I was lucky enough to see him with The E Street Band at a small venue the following year. That album had an incredible energy to it as, of course, did the live performance that followed. So I was eager to hear the follow up when it arrived 2 years later and found it hard to hide my disappointment when it turned out to be just the opposite. In fact it was so low key it was almost not there. I know ‘Nebraska’ is now hailed as a classic but I also remember that even the keenest Bruce fans at the time were, at best, bemused. Had it been instantly hailed the iconic record it has since been made out to be, it would have sold in much higher numbers than it originally did. Even back then, long before the internet with its fan forums and the like, there were rumours of an ‘electric’ Nebraska, the same songs we had heard but recorded by the E Street Band. However, nothing ever surfaced. That itself is telling, Bruce’s organisation at that time leaked like a sieve and had anybody within it thought that fans wanted alternative versions of the Nebraska songs, the chances are they would have made it into the shady world of the bootleggers. Fast forward a quarter of a century or so and, in light of the music I had started listening to, I reappraised Nebraska, along with lots of other people over the years, and am happy to admit I was wrong. It is a classic, the songs are iconic and the way it was presented, as a collection of lo-fi demos, was an essential part of the magic. And now, another two decades on, those mythical band versions of the songs have finally been released into the world as part of ‘Nebraska ’82 - Expanded Edition’. And they were certainly worth waiting for. In fact it was probably Springsteen’s plan all along, to wait 43 years before releasing them and hope they top up his pension. I mean, you wouldn’t put it past him.
With plenty of work on the farm there has been no opportunities for photography this week but I’m hoping to rectify that in the next week as the autumn colours are really starting to come through here in Yorkshire.
16 October 2013
This week’s pot pourri of photographs begins in the Lake District and dawn on Thirlmere. I had done a recce the evening before but was still woefully underprepared and never did find a composition I was happy with. This was the best I could come up with although I do recall the first inklings of enjoying being out in nature at that time of day just for the sake of it, as opposed to, “I must make a masterpiece.” I was learning.
16 October 2014
Quite a few years ago I gave a talk about making photographs in the North York Moors National Park and I told the audience that autumn colour was fleeting at best in Farndale as a storm would blow through as soon as the leaves would start to turn and strip the trees bare. I’m certain that the changing climate means this is no longer the case but I also think I wasn’t very good at seeing the colour and bringing it out in a picture. This is the northern end of Farndale and the colour is coming on nicely.
16 October 2022
Leg 4 of the Cleveland Way was kind of a home leg as it took us from Clay Bank to Kildale via Bloworth Crossing, which is where the moor drops away into Farndale. The first part of this leg was across Urra Moor which is bleak to say the least. There is really nothing much there and, although the sun was shining, there was a strong wind blowing and it was bitterly cold. As we made the turn at Bloworth, both the view and the temperature greatly improved.
16 October 2023
Following on from last week, you’ll recall I was on holiday in Portugal with my mother in law and my iPhone. On this particular morning there was no colour to the dawn but there was light out at sea so I used my Canon M with a zoom lens a went for minimalism.
17 October 2009
Back in the 1980’s, the farmers in Farndale decided to hold their own livestock sales to avoid having to compete with farmers from elsewhere whose animals were grazed on better quality land. The sales became a great success but times changed and the quality of the local stock improved once we were no longer subsidised according to the number of animals we farmed. The last sheep sale was in 2023 with the cattle sale in October having come to an end a few years before that. I always had more time during the cattle sale, having never kept cows ourselves, and would often make pictures of the event. I have a series of close up portraits of them, I think their eyes can tell you so much about their temperament and mood. This image was made on sale day itself of a bull calf waiting in the wooden pens to be sold.
17 October 2013
Back in the Lakes and having now seen David Ward and listened to his inspirational talk to the members of Penrith Camera Club, I decided I needed to stop driving around but rather head out on foot and gain some altitude. So I decided to climb Place Fell which overlooks the village of Glenridding on the shore of Ullswater. I seem to recall I lightened my load and only took a wide angle lens so I was still frustrated. I also think I didn’t intend to climb to the summit (2,155 feet) but I guess there’s a little bit of the mountaineer in all of us and this was the view when I got there so it was certainly worth it. Three images, stitched together in Lightroom , looking pretty much due east.
17 October 2014
A couple of months after returning from the Arctic my friend Anna asked if I would teach her some of the finer points of landscape photography. She had usually only shot wildlife, and she was excellent at that, but had become more interested in landscape following Joe Cornish’s talk on board the ship in the Arctic. Although I was no longer pretending to be a professional photographer by this point, I was happy to take her money and we decided to meet up at Castle Howard which was somewhat less than halfway between our homes from my point of view. I recall a day of rather poor weather but I managed to at least pique Anna’s interest and she subsequently did many landscape tours with both David and Joe.
17 October 2019
An evening of sublime light in our top fields and an undoubtedly staged photograph because this is the gate between the horses field and the sheep field so, as such, is permanently closed. I’ve opened it so as to enable the viewer’s eye to move more freely through the image. A closed gate or a solid wall that stretches the width of a photograph can be a block to the eye’s progress and whilst I am certainly an advocate of ‘there are no rules in photography’, the gate being open definitely helps in this instance.
17 October 2020
Autumn colour 2020 style, the woodland adjacent to our farm.
17 October 2023
The same rocky beach in Portugal but this time for sunset. I hadn’t been expecting much, just hoping for some softer light when, quite suddenly, the clouds on the horizon lit up.
17 October 2024
While I was away in the Picos de Europa last year, the task of purchasing a new tup [ram] fell to Pip. In my defence, I had done a deal with a fellow from a neighbouring dale and he agreed to wait until I was back from holiday. Then, a few days into my trip, he decided he needed to move him on immediately. So, upon my return, one of my first jobs was to introduce myself to the new daddy. This I did accompanied by Pip’s two dales ponies.
18 October 2016
An iPhone panorama of our hay field, starring Belle. Looks like it was a wet year when the autumn colour arrives later.
18 October 2018
There’s much more in the way of autumn colour two years later, this is the intakes on an evening dog walk. Many of the trees up there have that characteristic bend that suggests a traumatic weather event a few years back.
18 October 2023
The final sunrise from Portugal, this time using the zoom lens on my Canon M (micro four thirds) camera. I vowed there and then I would return as soon as possible with my full set of camera gear but it’s difficult to find the time and now I find another year has slipped away.
19 October 2009
An early attempt at capturing autumn colour on the track at the northern end of Farndale. Once upon a time this was the ‘major’ thoroughfare leading up onto the moor and onward to Westerdale, Stokesley and Teesside and their associated markets. With the advent of the motor car and, eventually the tarmacking of the roads, the emphasis shifted to the towns and villages to the south and the last two farms in the dale fell into disuse about a century ago. The track with its built up edges and decent width is the only reminder of busier times.
19 October 2013
Another of my photos from the cattle sale. As well as the sale itself, there were tea and cakes for the buyers and sellers, laid out on a large table in my neighbour’s cowshed which was cleaned out especially for the occasion. Over the years, word got around of the amazing spread the sellers’ wives would put on and, in the last few years, folks who had no intention of buying cattle would come just for the tea and cakes. I’m very surprised to have caught these three without a plate of cake between them. Left to right, Stan (whose shed it was), Ken (whose bull calf was in the earlier image) and Brian. Sadly, of the three, only Ken is still alive.
19 October 2022
Another autumn colour picture from the intakes with our farmhouse being the lower of the two in the centre of the image. iPhones seem particularly good at rendering the colours at this time of year.
20 October 2010
It’s funny to look at this image and think it was 15 years ago. I remember the morning so clearly. I was with my good friend, Steve, and we were hopeful for a spectacular dawn as we arrived at Sandsend, just north of Whitby. However, the cloud cover was thicker than expected and we only got a thin sliver of light way off at the horizon. On top of that, an onshore gale was blowing and a couple of minutes after I made this picture, I had to grab my tripod and run, as a huge wave came roaring up the beach.
20 October 2020
Another few hours of photography that will live long in the memory. After more than 6 months of not going anywhere or seeing anyone, I agreed, after discussion with Pip, to head out to the top end of the dale with my friend Ferd, who lives up that way. We were unlikely to meet anyone else and Ferd was happy to keep his distance at all times, totally appreciating that keeping Pip safe was the number one priority. But, oh, the joy of being out with my camera, somewhere other than on the farm, was unbeatable. Even though it was only a couple of miles up the road and for just a couple of hours.
20 October 2023
I arrived home from Portugal at 9pm on a Wednesday evening and Pip took me to York station to begin my trip to Montana at 9am on the Thursday morning! That’s the kind of love that money can’t buy. This picture was made during the internal flight from Seattle, Washington to Missoula, Montana.
21 October 2015
Autumn photography is always a toss-up between when the colour is best against when there remains plenty of foliage on the trees. This picture is a perfect example, certainly there is a bit of autumn colour there but also plenty of green amid the lush canopy. But from this point on leaves will be dropping, taking away from the canopy as it continues to colour up. I think there will be similar views to this one later in the year that reinforce the point.
21 October 2017
Just for a couple of years, the nearby town of Pickering became an important stop for the landscape photography community. The reason was a landscape and wildlife photography conference, held in both 2015 and 2017, to raise money for the Scarborough and Ryedale Mountain Rescue Team. I spoke at the first one, as did David Ward, and I was given the task of introducing the keynote speaker in 2017, Joe Cornish. To accompany the conference there was an exhibition, at the Joe Cornish Gallery in 2015 and two years later at the Moors Centre at Danby. Neither David or I submitted work in 2015, I think it might have been because of the rate of commission required by the gallery but I might be mistaken. However, there were no such qualms two years later and several of the images shown sold during the exhibition. In fact, I outsold Joe which I still find hard to believe.
21 October 2018
Gathering the sheep, I would imagine it’s to have their tails trimmed. As mentioned in this week’s introduction, we do this in October every year in order to help the tups with their work. All it involves is removing wool from their tails and it probably isn’t necessary as ewes who come into season and decide to jump into the tups field before being trimmed usually end up pregnant. But we’ve always done it and would look pretty foolish if we didn’t and some of our ewes missed out.
21 October 2023
After an unremarkable overnight stay in Missoula we headed south towards Jackson Hot Springs, a one horse town that was to be our home for a couple of days before we moved on to Yellowstone National Park. En route to Jackson we came across this beautiful gateway that seemed to encapsulate the ranching country we were now entering.
21 October 2024
Not only another picture of early autumn in Farndale but a wildlife image too. Spot the red kite high above the hayfield.
22 October 2011
The cattle sale again and another portrait of a bull calf waiting to be sold.
22 October 2022
Roandale Spartan, Pip’s youngster who has lived with us since he was six months old in December 2019. I seem to have caught him here looking particularly majestic. He was still a stallion at this point so perhaps that has something to do with it.
22 October 2023
The major reason for staying in Jackson Hot Springs is its close proximity to Bannock, a preserved gold rush town from before Montana was a US state. And preserved is all it is, it has not been enhanced or turned into a theme park. The volunteers just carry out the minimum of work to maintain the buildings. As such, it has appeared in many films and TV shows, including one of the Yellowstone offshoots. When I discovered there was a Hotel Meade, I had to make a picture of that!
22 October 2024
One final autumnal picture and it’s from last year which is certainly one of the best we’ve seen. We had a very wet winter in 2023/24, followed by the wettest Spring anyone could remember and a wetter than average summer before it swung back the other way with Autumn being much drier and warmer than usual.
Musical Interlude
I’m certainly stretching the definition of Americana this week, John Smith is a dyed in the wool folk singer from the West Country. But he has become an excellent songwriter over the years and his most recent album of new songs, ‘The Living Kind’ is right up there with the best of 2024. His new album, a reimagining of songs from his first three albums (originally recorded between 2005 and 2015) was released just a couple of weeks ago. Enjoy.
Once again, another week flies by as we hurtle towards the years end and all that it entails. This has seemed like a bit of a transition week, mainly featuring photos from home and next week is similar although we will be getting right into the heart of my incredible trip to Montana and Wyoming too. Once we move into November and December, there are more American tours, lots of Lake District trips and winter weather will start to put in an appearance.
Thanks, as always, for sticking with me, for your lovely comments on previous posts, and for continuing to make this all worthwhile. Until next time,
Much love,
Dave
Omg Dave! The tale of the gigolo ram mistaken for a strange dog made me laugh out loud. I had never thought of sheep farming as entertainment, so there you go….
Spectacular view from Place Fell. If I ever get serious about photography, the idea of “stitching photos together” sounds fascinating. Like John Snow, “I just nothing…”
I like the op[en gate photo. That’s the kind of thoughtful composition I see in so much of your work, Dave. There are certainly times when I have wanted to move a river or raise a mountain higher - but that’s a bit harder….
You did a great job turning the sun onto those Portuguese clouds on 17/10/23 though, mate. Wonderful illumination. Fortunate you don’t have to pay that power bill.
Hang on Dave - that “Tup” on 17/10/24 - are you sure he’s not a dog????? He sure looks ready to bark loudly and then hump your leg.
I know you say you are no good with portraits and people pics, but that photo of your 3 farmer mates is truly wonderful. Colour would spoil it. In 1978, hitch hiking and walking around Yorkshire Dales aged 18, I got picked up by a farmer on a back road somewhere near Hawes. He was driving a tray back ute (no idea what you call ‘em in the UK) and he had a passenger already - so he put me in the tray next to a cage with a large pig in it. We weren’t going far - which was good because the pig didn’t like me - but it was a memorable trip! Anyway… he looked a lot like your sheep farmer mates….. Seeing that photo brought the memory back to me.
It was a mean pig….
The gate in Montana made me feel like I was back there myself. Meg and I drove from LA to Yellowstone a few years back. Well - Wyoming more than Montana - because we went ni further North than Yellowstone. I have heard of Bannack though - one of those places I would like to visit.
On the music side of things, I will make some time to go listen to Nebraska. A lot easier (and safer) than going there…. Although there are parts of the USA I would like to go back to and see again - and others I have never seen that I’d like to see - it’s firmly on my “no go” list till they get regime change. Americana music will have to do, and conversations with a few USA friends in the Poetry community.
Best wishes Dave
Other Dave
:)
Always love your posts Dave. 😀😀