Eleven go to Wharfedale - Sun, Leeks, Cake and even more Cake

Starring: from MNTV Ally, Jenny, John W, Mick S, Neil, Pip and from MNTEV Jacky, John H, Jonty, Mick and Morag

Guest Starring: Newly Qualified Ranger Shelly 

Act 1

Manchester and Merseyside NTV joined forces for our Wonderful Wharfedale weekend.  It was, as in previous years, our annual spring weekend and with a change in weekend venues we headed to the beautiful Yorkshire Dales and so on Friday 5 April eleven volunteers arrived at Townhead Barn in Buckden.  Jenny, Neil and Ally headed to the newly opened Buck Inn with Jonty and Morag for a pre-dinner drink and John W joined shortly afterwards.  Drinks finished, Jonty and Morag headed back to the barn and the other four tucked in to dinner at the pub.  Having nearly finished their dinners they were approached by a gentleman asking if we were from MNTV.  We confirmed that yes we were and so John H from MNTEV sat down with us and had his meal.  Meals completed we returned to the basecamp to find that Mick and Pip had arrived, as had Mick and Jacky who along with Jonty and Morag were tucking into Haggis Wellington.  Wellington eaten we all swapped stories and went off to bed.

Act 2

Saturday dawned bright and sunny.  Breakfast was eaten and the smoke alarm went off due to the toaster being on a too high setting for hot cross buns!  Windows opened we finished breakfast and made our packed lunches.  At 9:15 we were to be met by Ranger Shelly at base and were to follow her up the valley to Yockenthwaite.  It was at this point we discovered that Mick S had slept very poorly that night so he would not be joining us.  Our task for the next 1.5 days was to remove tree guards from trees planted about 12 years ago.  They were located on a steep slope so we spread out across the side of the hill - some went right to the top and others stayed down near the bottom.  We had to tear the tree guards - easier said than done as the perforation didn’t start at the very top so we had to use secateurs to cut the top section then we were able to rip the plastic off.  Some trees had already burst through the guards and some were easier to get off as they weren’t quite so tightly attached.  It was commented on that it was strange how some trees had grown well and others had not.  Upon taking the guards off we found the trees underneath were quite often wet due to rain getting in.  Some weren’t just wet, they had woodlice and one even had slime underneath the guard!

Three different cakes were available at lunch - Jenny’s Chocolate Chilli Brownies and Lemon Drizzle Cake, and Ally’s Marble Cake.  All were delicious.  After lunch, Jonty left us to travel to Hartlepool to teach a Safety in Water training course and we carried on with our work.  The tree guards were made of green plastic and we had to bundle them up and put them in heavy duty farmers' sheep feed bags.  Bundling them together made them look like leeks so they became known as the leeks.

The leeks!

After lunch, Pip, Ally and Shelly collected up the sacks of “leeks” and took them down to Shelly’s truck.  The others carried on with taking the tree guards off and bundling them into the sacks.  We worked so hard that we got the whole task done in one day!  At 4pm Ally called a close to the day.  We were all a little bit red from the sun and in need of a shower.  Shelly thanked us for all our help and making her first job without the supervision of another Ranger so easy – any time Shelly.  We walked back to the cars via the bridge; some did look at going across the river but decided sensibly not to, even though Morag and John W had managed earlier.  We travelled back to the barn where we relaxed and had showers.  Mick S appeared back from his walk.

This is where the weekend changed from normal.  No evening meal had to be prepared because we were eating at the Buck Inn.  At about 6:30 we walked 300 yards to the pub, got ourselves drinks and sat down for our pre-ordered dinner.  John H wasn’t sure he had ordered anything but Ally said he had and as there was Wi-Fi she was able to prove he had by producing his email on her phone.  The Steak and Ale pie was a popular choice with four people having that including John H.  Other choices were Scampi, Fish and Chips, Hunter's Chicken, Burger, Butternut Squash and Chickpea Curry, and Leek, Potato and Cheese Pie.  Although service was slow due to another big group overall everyone enjoyed their meal.  Afterwards John H left to head back to Liverpool because he was flying to Vienna on the Sunday for a conference and the others headed back to the barn to partake in some of the carrot cake that Jacky had picked up in Costco.  It was enormous and had too many nuts in for Ally’s liking.

Act 3

Sunday dawned bright but not quite as sunny as Saturday and as we had finished our task for the weekend yesterday we had a lie in.  Breakfast was a casual affair with a choice of bacon, beans and eggs as well as cereal, toast and of course the aforementioned hot cross buns.  We also made our packed lunches as we weren’t sure what we were doing.  John W suggested a walk along the valley and then back over the shoulder of the hill to Buckden.  Five people took this route whilst three of the Merseysiders went for a shorter walk in the direction of Redmire Wood, last year's weekend worksite.  Neil decided to stay behind and read the newspaper - he said his poor knees wouldn't cope with the planned route.

The five that went for a walk down the valley went along the river to Starbotton and sat at the side of the road eating leftover cake, even offering it to a passing cyclist – he almost stopped!  The route was then steeply uphill and we took a break part way up the hill and of course ate more cake and offered it to passing walkers.  This time, apart from one man, they stopped and ate it!  Returning at about 2pm, the three that had gone in the direction of Redmire Wood were back and Neil had finished reading the paper.  We packed up our food and our luggage and divided up the food that wouldn’t last until our next weekend in July, Summer in Snowdonia, and headed for home.

I’m not sure if we will be returning to Wharfedale in 2020 as I’ve promised High Wray, as we are not travelling there this year, we would be returning in 2020.  What I will say is that the sun shone all weekend and the company wasn’t bad either.  I would like to thank Jenny and Neil for their help with the weekend, Merseyside for joining us and to those of you who came from MNTV you are the best.  To everyone else, where were you?

Wonderful Wharfedale 2019 – Done!

Here's to next time MNTV!

The tinsel is out, the bakes are baked and Santa is coming too. Yuletide in Yorkshire 2017

Starring:- Matt, Lisa, Geraldine, Madeleine, Tim, Ally, Neil, Pip, Mick and Peter the Ranger

My journey from Edinburgh started with a train trip to Skipton via the very scenic Carlisle to Settle railway travelling through Garsdale station which I am familiar with. There was some snow at Garsdale. I then passed through Dent station which is "The Highest Main Line Station in England".  It is situated 1150 feet above sea level.  It was then all downhill to Skipton, of course, crossing the famous Ribblehead Viaduct and passing Yorkshire's 3 peaks - Whernside, Ingleborough and Pen-y-Ghent.

Pen-y-Ghent, the lowest of Yorkshire's 3 peaks

Once at Skipton I was met by Neil. We headed towards the basecamp in Upper Wharfedale but not before checking out the onesies on the market as we drove past.  Once out of Skipton and heading up the dale we stopped in Kettlewell to scout out where we were going to eat dinner later, as the Buck Inn at Buckden is currently closed for refurbishment as it has recently been taken over by new management.  We made our way to Townhead Barn, our base for the next two nights, and made ourselves at home.  (Note to self for next time: take a teabag or two so we can enjoy a hot drink before the stores box arrives later in the evening).  We headed back down the valley to Kettlewell for dinner and crossed paths with Tim on the way so we went back to fetch him and the 3 of us headed to The Bluebell Inn which was quite busy, which didn't surprise us as the Buck Inn was closed as was the Fox and Hounds in Starbotton (next village along).  Once dinner was finished we headed back to base, Tim found himself a bed and we sat and swapped stories whilst we waited for the others to arrive.

Saturday dawned cool and the cloud was hanging low over the valley.  Ranger Peter met us at base and told us that our worksite was across the valley so there was no need for us to drive.  We were to be working in Redmire Wood clearing cherry laurel.  We set off for the short walk to the worksite. Redmire Wood was created for Buckden House (now an outdoor adventure centre) which was the residence of Sir John Charles Ramsden and his wife during 1831-1879.  It was then lived in and cared for by the Stansfield Family until 1938.  The woods themselves were used as a pleasure park and so had lots of interesting and occasionally rare trees.  There are many carriage tracks going up the side of the hill for the residents and guests of the house to enjoy views of the valley.  The laurel had been left and is out of control, so we are carrying on the task of getting rid of it, a task we have been doing for our past visits to Buckden.  There is a lot of laurel to get rid of.

We spent our time lopping, dragging, chopping and burning the cherry laurel.  Neil put in sterling work as the fire master and before long we had a superb fire.  At break time we enjoyed my chocolate brownies and Lisa's son's ginger loaf.  Both were a big hit.  After first break, Matt and Lisa headed back to the base camp to start cooking our evening meal.  More on that later.  The rest of us carried on working, clearing a considerable amount which was actually only a small area compared to the vast amount on the hillside.  This is our third year doing this task and those of us who had been on other weekends here can certainly see a difference.  After lunch, which included rolls made by Lisa's son Ben, who is a keen baker and cake maker - he is looking to get a job in that field - Madeline and Geraldine took over looking after the fire.  We finished work at 3pm so whilst Peter took some of the group to see four very tall Giant Redwood trees higher up in the forest, three of us stayed behind as we had seen them before, and tended the fire and tidied up.  Once the 7 of us were reunited at the worksite we grabbed our things and made our way back to base.

Upon arrival back at base Matt and Lisa were busy in the kitchen - they had all the timings of what should be in the oven when, planned to perfection.  We showered and changed into nice clean clothes, some people put their onesies on and others put their pyjamas on.  Dinner was served about 7pm and the table groaned with pain as it was laden with food.  There were 2 types of potatoes, 4 types of vegetables, of course turkey, pigs in blankets, gravy and stuffing!  Thank you and well done to Lisa and Matt for cooking it for us all.  After our first course we then all felt stuffed and decided it was probably sensible to not have pudding quite yet so we did some washing up and then opened our Secret Santa presents all of which were gratefully received.  Pudding time came and it was sticky toffee pudding - we all felt even more stuffed than we had after the first course.

We took a closer look at some of the Secret Santa gifts (Pip was particularly happy with hers) and stack the chairs without knocking them over.  We had had quite a long day so some people headed to bed sooner than others, some played Cards against Humanity (hilarious) and others chatted before we all went to bed.

Sunday was bright but cloudy and it was decided we would go for a short walk.  We breakfasted and Tim headed off home while the rest of us headed for a walk in the direction of Hubberholme and back.  Once back at base we made some lunch, some headed off for a picnic and others ate at base and then departed for home.

To sum up the weekend I will leave you with these words: lots of work done, too much food eaten and not enough sleep had!  I ache all over!  See you next time, MNTV

Have a very Merry Christmas and I will see you in 2018

Ally

Wharfedale Weekend - burning laurel in the Yorkshire Dales: 26-28th August 2016 (Bank Holiday weekend)

A fire, a storm and a Lentil Stew - 6 travel to Wonderful Wharfedale

Participants: Sue B, Tim O, Louise L, Neil B, John W and Ally H. Rangers were Peter and Roisin.

Staying at the Town Head Barn in Buckden.

It started on Friday night with a meal in the Buck Inn, 4 of us sat down to a very tasty meal and just after we had ordered John appeared so we added his order to ours and set about swapping stories. At a just before 8 pm Neil, Sue and Ally headed back to base as Louise was due to arrive at that time. Tim and John W stayed at the Buck Inn and tried the Cider and Beer.
Saturday dawned bright but cloudy and the task was lopping and burning laurel in Redmire Wood.

Redmire Wood was a short walk along the river from the basecamp and was created for Buckden House which was the residence of Sir John Charles Ramsden and his wife during 1831-1879.  The wood was cared for by the Stansfield Family until 1938.  The woods were used as a pleasure park and so had lots of interesting trees from all over the world.  There are carriage tracks going up the side of the hill for people of yester year to enjoy views of the valley.  It was this we were trying to get back.  It will never be as it was as there are some very large trees, some of which are quite rare.

The laurel had been left for quite some years and was out of control and so we were getting rid of it.  We did this by lopping and sawing our way through the big and small bushes and burning it. We spent the morning chopping, sawing, dragging and burning the laurel. 

We ate our lunch by the fire on a flat area of ground and swapped stories, during the afternoon we carried on lopping, sawing and burning. We put the larger branches in piles to form wildlife habitats or insect hotels. The thinner longer branches were piled up and cut up  with loppers and then put on the fire.

At about 2.30pm we decided to stop cutting so we could burn all the laurel that we had lopped and cut. Some of us headed back to the base camp shortly afterwards Neil and John stayed to tend the fire until it had burnt down enough to be left and wouldn’t set the rest of the forest on fire. Once we were all back at the basecamp we decided a trip the pub was deserved so the 6 of us headed for a swift pint. Ally, Sue and Neil headed back to base early to make the dinner and were joined just as dinner was ready. We dined that evening on Lentil Stew and Pasta with Salad, desert was Meringue with Strawberries and Cream.

Ally "chillin' "

That night there was a thunder storm which woke some people up but others didn’t hear and didn’t believe had happened.

Sunday dawned cloudy with moisture in the air it didn’t stay like this long though.  We breakfasted on cereal and toast with bacon and eggs available too. Our Ranger today was Roisin, she met us at 9.20 at the barn with two other Volunteers Simon and John.  We spent the morning carrying on with the work we had started the day before, but because there had been rain during the night and the ground was slippery we split onto two levels. John W and Neil got the fire going and we started lopping, sawing and dragging. The fire didn’t really get going with all the prodding and poking so we had a coffee break during which Roisin produced some of her cakes she had entered into the competition at Malham Show where she had been the day before with a stall for the National Trust. Unfortunately she didn’t win any prizes for her cakes we of course gave her first prize, during our break the Fire finally got going so we carried on burning. At about 12.30 Roisin took Sue, Louise, Ally, Simon and John to see five very tall Giant Redwood trees and den area.

We finished working at 1pm ate our lunch and then headed back at the basecamp. Cleared up and Tim, Louise and Sue headed for home.  That left Neil, John W and I as we were staying Sunday night we ended our weekend with a trip to the pub for our evening meal.

Many thanks to all who came and the Rangers for not cancelling the weekend due to small numbers. I look forward to seeing more of you next year.

Text by Ally.

Wonderful Wharfedale Weekend, 29-31 August 2015

Twelve of us had enjoyed a superb weekend in April in Snowdonia with glorious weather, outrageously gorgeous scenery and a healthy slice of entertaining banter.  Our next weekend in Upper Wharfedale promised to be just as good!  At the end of the weekend in Snowdonia I may have kindly or stupidly said that if nobody else was willing to lead our next weekend away then I would. Kind or stupid?  You decide.

My weekend started with a train trip to Skipton.  Upon my arrival in Skipton I was met by Neil who had kindly offered to help me with the shopping, of which our bargain buy was marmalade for 27p.  After doing the shopping we headed to the beautiful Yorkshire Dales to a place called Buckden in Upper Wharfedale.  We were early to meet the ranger Roisin so we headed for the local pub.  30 minutes later we met up with Roisin.  She showed us round the bunkhouse which is lovely.  One of the rooms is even ensuite as is the leaders’ room!  That evening Neil and myself dined on pizza & salad with the others arriving throughout the evening, these being Tim, Louise, Jo, John, Nita, Sam and Sam’s very good friend Carbe.  That evening we took part in a little libation and swapped stories.

Saturday dawned cool and cloudy with some low cloud still lingering on the hilltops.  We were up early but Richard must have been up earlier than any of us as he had left Stockport at 6.30 that morning and arrived with us just after 8am.  Breakfast consisted of cereal and toast and we broke with tradition with bacon and eggs on offer too.  We were ready to go at 9.30 when ranger Peter and new ranger Patrick arrived.  They told us that we were the first group to use the basecamp and that the day’s task would not be rhody bashing as expected but laurel bashing.  Peter drove the pickup and Patrick walked with us to show us where the worksite was.  We didn't use the cars at all for the time we were there which was a change.  Having walked along the river and up into Redmire Wood we reached our worksite for the day.  It was on quite a slope but we weren't going to let that get in the way of our work.

The wood was created for Buckden House which was the residence of Sir John Charles Ramsden and his wife during 1831-1879.  It was then lived in and cared for by the Stansfield Family until 1938.  The woods themselves were used as a pleasure park and so had lots of interesting trees and built features.  There were many carriage tracks going up the side of the hill for folk of years gone by to enjoy views of the valley.  It was this we were trying to get back.  It will never be as it was as there are some very large trees, some of which are quite rare.

The laurel had been left and was out of control and so we were getting rid of it.  We did this by dividing into three groups and cutting and dragging cut laurel into large piles.  We worked hard and at break and lunchtime enjoyed cake and biscuits.  Richard had made some very tasty shortbread.  Maybe this is why he couldn't join us until Saturday morning?  Roisin had been baking cakes for the Malham show which was taking place on the Saturday.  She had left one that hadn't gone quite right at the basecamp for us the night before so we enjoyed that.  We gave it first prize!  We ate our lunch in a clearing and saw dark clouds lurking and just as we were finishing up the R word happened and it was torrential for a while so we all dived for cover under the trees.  Once it had eased off we got back to work in our waterproofs.  We finished work at 3pm and Peter and Patrick took us to see four very tall Giant Redwood trees and we had a game of how many MNTVers can we it round the trunk?  Answer: 4.  After this we headed back to the pickup via a viewpoint, onto the basecamp and straight to the Buck Inn.  We spent a while there and that evening dined on pasta bolognese, garlic bread, salad and for pudding meringues with strawberries and cream. My thanks to Louise for her help in the kitchen.

Sunday dawned bright but cloudy.  Sam and Carbe left after breakfast and today our ranger was Roisin.  We spent the morning carrying on with the work we had started the day before, but because there were less of us we only split into two groups.  During our break Roisin produced some of her prize winning cakes - the flapjack was particularly nice.  We finished working at 1pm and upon arrival back at the basecamp we again headed to the pub.  I should point out here we are not alcoholics just enjoy each other’s company!  After a drink we went back to the basecamp and had lunch which was leftovers.  It was after this that people started departing.  As Neil and I were staying until Monday we said we would clean.  John went for a walk. The last to depart was Richard - he left at about 5.30 which left Neil, John and I.  We ended the weekend with a trip to the pub for our evening meal.

My thanks must go to Neil for all his help and the lifts and to the committee for their belief in me organising the weekend!

Ally