Harrogate, Hull and London, 2021

Last month I finally managed to get to the UK after 1 year and 8 months (who's counting?). Even though I have lived abroad for almost 27 years, I have still managed to see my parents, and then just my dad, at least two or even three times a year. Corona put a stop to that. Then my niece was getting married and entry to the UK was permitted once again, so it was time to be brave, fill in a lot of forms, pay for several corona tests and get on that plane! I am so glad I did it.  

Our first port of call was Rudding Park on the outskirts of Harrogate in North Yorkshire, where the wedding was due to take place. We were lucky enough to be staying at the Rudding Park Hotel for a few days. This rather luxurious hotel occupies a Georgian manor on 300 acres of parkland. It was a joy to walk around the surrounding parkland and golf course on the morning of the wedding. The wedding itself was beautiful!

The following day we took a trip to Mother Shipton's Cave and Petrifying Well in Knaresborough. The petrifying well, also known as a dropping well, is the oldest tourist attraction to charge a fee in England and has been in operation since 1630! The water of the well is so rich in sulphate and carbonate that artefacts are put in the well to be "petrified". The place is also associated with the legendary soothsayer Mother Shipton. According to legend, she was born in the cave and grew up around Knaresborough. As she grew older, her prophecies became known throughout England. She foretold the defeat of the Spanish Armada and the Great Fire of London.

The town of Knaresborough is perched high on a cliff above the River Nidd. Our visit to the ruins of Knaresborough Castle offered us an amazing view of the river and railway viaduct, above. The castle was first built by a Norman baron around 1100 and was controlled by various people until it was taken by Parliamentarian troops in 1644 during the Civil War and largely destroyed in 1648. Some of the surviving areas of the castle keep wall bear impact scars left by musket balls fired during the Civil War siege.

Then it was time to move on to Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire, the place where I grew up and where my dad still lives. I thought I pretty much knew the area but when dad suggested a walk in Paull, a sleepy village south east of Hull, on the north bank of the Humber Estuary, I discovered a place I have never been to before. We enjoyed the coastal wetland and the surrounding grassland and farmland and spotted a few birds as we strolled.

Another gorgeous new find was Tophill Low Nature Reserve, which is located on the site of an active water treatment works, operated by Yorkshire Water. The reserve consists of two artificial reservoirs and features 12 hides spread across a 300 acre site that flanks the River Hull. It comprises a variety of habitats with grassland, marshes, ponds and woods supporting over 160 bird species across the year. It was a delightful place to visit!

There was time for one more outing before leaving for London. We took a walk through the tiny village of Brantingham. The village has significant historic houses, including Brantingham Hall and Brantingham House, which overlook the duck pond in the centre of the village. A cast iron water pump raised up on a brick platform can still be seen on Spout Hill and a sheep wash, or washdyke, which was used regularly until the 1950s to wash sheep prior to shearing, is situated just beyond the church. The church itself is 12th century in origin and restored by the Victorians in the late 19th century. Unusually, it is not situated in the centre of the village but a little way up a wooded dale, affording it one of the most picturesque settings of any church in the Yorkshire Wolds.

As we left Brantingham I stopped to take a look at the war memorial, above, which was erected in 1922 in memory of 14 local men who gave their lives during World War I. The memorial and surrounding wall were constructed from materials reclaimed following the demolition of Hull's Victorian Town Hall. It has been described as "one of the most lovably awful things in the East Riding". I am not sure I disagree.

Then it was on to London to see our family there, though I always make time for a little sightseeing as well. We joined a Beatles "In My Life" tour run by London Walks and led by Richard Porter, holder of the "Beatles Brain of Britain" title. We saw the film locations for "A Hard Day's Night" and "Help!", the registry office where two of the Fab Four got married and the house where Paul lived with his glamorous girlfriend, actress Jane Asher. It was in that house that John and Paul wrote "I Want to Hold Your Hand". We ended the tour at the legendary Abbey Road studios and crossing, above.

There was time for just one more thing! We booked a slot at The Museum of Brands in Notting Hill. The museum examines the history of consumer culture from Victorian times to the present day. It features over 12,000 original items including household goods, bottles and cans, packaging, sweets, posters, toys and games, all set out in chronological order in the form of a "Time Tunnel". I thoroughly enjoyed looking at brands from bygone years and seeing names that are still recognisable today. It was great fun to see the toys I used to play with in the 70s and the records I listened to in the 80s. Altogether, a wonderful trip down memory lane!

* This post has been shared on Little Things Thursday, Floral Passions,  Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday), Our World Tuesday, Tuesday's Treasures, Pictorial Tuesday and My Corner of the World.

The Hula Nature Reserve and Rosh Pina

We made a return visit to the Hula Nature Reserve back in May. We were last there in 2015 and the site was just as beautiful as I remembered it to be. The reserve is a site of world-wide importance for water birds and is an important wet habitat in the Middle East. From March to mid-April hundreds of millions of exhausted birds land in Israel, after several days of crossing the Sahara Desert and the Sinai Peninsula. Though May was perhaps a little late for the spring migration, we spotted quite a few birds and some other local wildlife too.

The Hula Nature Reserve was declared in 1964. It was the first nature reserve established in Israel and is the last remnant of the Hula lake and marshes. It was drained in the 1950s because the lake and the marshland surrounding it were a breeding ground for mosquitoes carrying malaria. The land was converted into cultivated fields. A small section of the valley was later re-flooded in an attempt to revive a nearly extinct ecosystem. Today the reserve is home to a broad range of waterfowl and other animals, some of them endemic to the reserve (in particular the Hula painted frog, which was thought to have become extinct, but was rediscovered in 2011 and is now considered to be one of the rarest animals in the entire world).

We started the kilometre-and-a-half long trail through the reserve at the Hula Valley lookout point. There we enjoyed a wonderful view of the reserve and its immediate vicinity - the Hula Valley, Ramot Naftali and the slopes of the Golan and Mount Hermon. Continuing on we passed a marsh area where papyrus and common reed were growing in profusion, before reaching the floating bridge, a 600 metre long covered platform which acts as a concealed hide over the lake.

The Hula Nature Reserve is identified especially with both migratory and wintering birds, the most prominent among them being pelicans and cranes, who spend the winter months in Israel. The nests of other water birds have been found within the boundaries of the reserve, including nesting colonies of five species of egrets and herons, and other bird species. Some of these are endangered species, both in Israel and all over the world, while other species in the reserve are regular nesters.
Besides the water fowl, an assortment of mammals live in the reserve, including the wild boar, otters, the swamp lynx and the invasive rodent nutria, also known as the coypu, which threaten the local inhabitants. There is also a variety of insect-eating bats in the reserve and water buffalo graze in certain areas to preserve the open meadows.

After quite some time, we left the floating bridge and continued our walk towards the observation tower, a three-storey tower which gave us a terrific view of the marsh and the lake. We were able to sit and observe the birds, including a beautiful bright blue Kingfisher which flew to and fro across the water. 

Though only a very limited part of the reserve has been made accessible for visitors, we still thoroughly enjoyed our visit but soon it was time to move on. I wanted to show the friends we were with the nearby town of Rosh Pina. Mister Handmade in Israel and I stayed there back in 2015 and I made a more recent return visit in 2019, but it is one of those places that is always lovely to go back to again and again.
Rosh Pina, which means "cornerstone" (from Psalms 118:22), is one of the earliest Jewish agricultural settlements. It was first founded in 1878, when 18 religious Jews from Safed walked 90 minutes to this area, hoping to start farming with the help of three natural springs, and live off the land as farmers rather than off handouts from European Jewish communities. They knew little about farming, however, and the experiment, which was called Gei Oni ("Valley of My Strength"), failed.

A second, more successful effort to develop a settlement began in 1882, with the arrival of a group of mostly new immigrants from Romania and Russia. The newcomers purchased land from local Arabs  and, although they too had to overcome massive hardship and depend for some time on the financial support of the Rothschilds, they eventually became independent and created the town that exists today.

Our first stop in Rosh Pina was at Nimrod Lookout, a gorgeous observation point which is part of the memorial site to Nimrod Segev, who was born in Rosh Pina in 1977 and fell in 2006 in the Second Lebanon War while on reserve duty. The beautiful views seen from the high Nimrod Lookout are the sights Nimrod viewed throughout his life: the Hula Valley, the Golan Heights and Israel's tallest peak, Mount Hermon. 

Next, we strolled into the centre of the old town, stopping to check out the various ceramic studios and art galleries. We looked through the windows of the small synagogue, Rosh Pina's first public building, and then at the various historical houses, including the home of Gideon Mer, an Israeli scientist whose work was mostly concerned with the eradication of malaria around the swampy Hula Valley. Thanks to his research, the malaria epidemic among settlers in the region and beyond was contained.
We walked back to the car through the Baron's Park, a small wooded area with stone steps reportedly modelled on the grand gardens at Versailles, though it is a little hard to imagine! Our next stop was Safed, one of Israel's holiest cities and also the highest city in Israel. I will tell you all about it in another post.

* This post has been shared on Creative Mondays Link Up, The Good. The Random. The Fun., Nature Notes, Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday), Our World Tuesday and My Corner of the World.