Up to the meadows

 Hebden Bridge is at it's most luscious and green right now. The leaves are fresh and young, the bluebells are blooming and the meadows have their first dusting of buttercups. 

This is the time we conveniently forget about the long harsh winter we just had and remember what we love the most about living here. 

This morning I had a 'before work' walk up to the fields above Nutclough woods to see how the meadows were doing. There are many ways to get to these woods but this time I took the snicket called Bankside to the left of Stubbings School (you can see the school above St George's Square in the centre of town).

Bankside is steep and cobbled and it is a quick way of getting up to Birchcliffe Road. 

I love it because it cuts up between a terrace of Hebden houses and their gardens and these gardens are particularly beautiful. I didn't take photo's but I loved having an appreciative peep. Hebden Bridge hasn't got many gardens as there are so many houses stacked on top of each other so it's lovely to see the lucky ones take good care of them.

 The path brings you out at the post box on Birchcliffe road. Turn right and walk a little way up the steep road and take the first left up Sandy Gate.

 Sandy Gate was lined with Welsh Poppies.

These ones gifted me their poppy seed heads. I featured these in my Tiny Treasure's book so they are close to my heart.

I was very excited to see some of my window film on my friends beautiful yellow door. It's lovely  to find it here because this is the way to the meadows that inspired the design! 

 Sandy Gate is also good for allotment inspiration.

They are looking full of promise. 

You can get into Nutclough woods by following a little path just at the end of the beautiful terrace after the allotments. It will take you into the woods and over a bridge. The clough is so beautiful with it's deep gorge and flowing stream. It looks here like its covered in Autumn leaves but it is actually lots of sticky brown beech blossom!

We stopped to listen to the sound of the waterfall and the birds singing heartily.

Just after the bridge on the right hand side look out for a yellow arrow marker post near the graffiti'd shed. This is the path that will take you up to to the meadows. It's hot work getting up this steep path on a summers day but it's worth it for the views!

At the top of the path is a stile over to the meadows. Hooray! We made it!

They were looking good today with a mixture of grasses, bistort, plantain, pignuts, sorrel, clover, dandelion clocks and LOTS of buttercups.

They are going to get much taller in the coming weeks.

This cow still managed to hide in the grass.

We followed the path to the left of the stile and then walked through three fields with Old Town Mill up on the right and then took the first footpath on the left, down past the lovely garage with a grass roof and onto Hurst Road.

We turned right down this road for a little bit and then took the little path on the left which goes down the side of the terrace with the red roofs and drops into the woods.  

This is a steep path down and can be a bit slippy but its really nice in these little woods.

I loved the mix of yellow poppy and the blue of the bluebells.

Follow the path back down to Keighley road and then you can wander back down the hill into town.

 This is the beauty of living around here. The centre of town is so close an abundance of nature. It doesn't matter that we haven't all got garden of our own because we have all of this on our doorstep 

Finding inspiration on the walks around Hebden Bridge

One of the things I love most about living in the middle of Hebden Bridge is that I can head out in any direction from my house and within ten minutes be walking in nature. We are surrounded by an abundance of deciduous woodland and the forests are criss-crossed with paths so we can explore them easily.  

Beyond the trees are fields and dry stone walls and beyond the fields are the open moors. You've got to get up some steep hills to get to them but the spectacular views are always worth the climb. 

There really is so much landscape to explore here and it's a wonderful playground for bikers and hikers.

Now I wouldn't call myself a hiker however. I rarely set out for a day with a map and a packed lunch and I rarely go that far. My walks are fairly short. They're the kind you can fit in before work or after tea on a summer evening. They are usually about an hour long and I always take my camera.

 These wanderings are where I find my inspiration for my lamps and wallpaper designs. I can still remember the very spot where some designs were born - the hill where I looked so closely at a dandelion clock and figured out how to translate it into a paper cutting. 

I remember the edge of the meadow where I held the grass up to the light to study its silhouette. I remember the beech tree canopy that I sheltered under from the rain one morning which is now featured on a wallpaper and window film.

Me and my daughter often say 'going for a walk is always the right thing to do'. It can lighten a bad mood, quieten a busy mind and make you feel soothed and connected to something bigger than yourself. 

And then of course there are the treasures! I can always find something to inspire me.

So I thought I would write a series of posts that introduce you to some of these short* circular walks. They will all start from the centre of town and they will take in some of my favourite routes. Together we'll visit some beautiful spots and see what treasures each season brings. 

Perhaps these walks will inspire my next designs and I'll share that process with you.  I'll probably not be posting maps but I will share some directions and photo's of landmarks and things to look out for so you can get to know these walks too.

I've been walking in Hebden Bridge for nineteen years now and I am still discovering new paths. I'm sure there are still many more left to be trodden.

* 'Short' walks can often become long ones if you are prone like me to lying on the forest floor taking photos or marveling at the tiny petals on a cow parsley flower for half an hour. I hope you will find as much inspiration as I do.

Foggy finds

After being indoors at the exhibition for four days I hadn't had much light or fresh air so yesterday we HAD to have a walk.

There was plenty of air but not a lot of light. A fog had come down and we climbed the hill into it.

But it made the silhouettes crisper

and the depth of field deeper

and because we couldn't see far was saw closer. 

LOOK what we found.

A perfect birds nest made from moss, sheep wool, tiny twigs and blue thread. It was exquisite and made my day.

And as we climbed back down the hill dusk was falling. Our little town was ablaze with lights twinkling behind the trees. 

It was magic.

Hebden Bridge was aglow. 

Dean was reminded of a little film he'd heard about called The Hedgehog In The Fog and we watched it when we got home. If you've never seen it before you must because it's the sweetest thing. Ten minutes of foggy gorgeousness.

Yoga at Les Passeroses

Me and my friend and fellow adventurer Natalie have just been on a most lovely yoga holiday at Les Passeroses retreat centre near a village called Nonac in south west France.

It was such a beautiful setting. Think traditional old farm buildings

 in a beautiful luscious garden

set among rolling hills 

and vineyards. 

Our room had honeysuckle outside the window

and it overlooked the gorgeous turquoise swimming pool.

This yoga workshop with Suzanne Lahusen and Graham Burns was called 'Sequencing For The Deeper Dimensions' and was one of the Yogacampus intensives. All of the participants were yoga teachers or trainee teachers. Except me. I'm just in love with yoga and want to learn and learn and learn...

Of course the setting helps but really its the people that make the retreat and this bunch were particularly lovely.

We had plenty of time to get to know each other....

in class,

around the table

whilst enjoying the incredible food

and out walking all the local country lanes.

We shared our stories while we passed vineyards,

cornfields,

woods,

and made our way through old crumbly farmsteads.

There was time to smell the roses

and the geraniums.

There was time to take in the sun sets,

 take lots of  photos

and breathe in the country air. 

 We met some grumpy mules, 

we said 'bonjour' to the sleepy farm cats,

and tried to rescue Francois the frog from the swimming pool but he wasn't having any of it!

You may think by my photographs that it was sunny all week but in fact it mostly rained...torrentially. There were dark billowing clouds and thunder but it didn't dampen our spirits. When the sun made an appearance we were out like a shot getting our shoes wet in the soggy ground.

There was a big pond down the lane full of noisy frogs and toads and one night me and Nat thought we thought we saw an otter

so we all went down one evening for a closer look.

It turns out they were coypu. I didn't take this photo (thanks whoever did) of this south american water rodent initially introduced for the fur trade that has wilded itself in France. What a guy! I'd never heard of them before although my Dad tells me there were loads in Suffolk when he was a lad,

In the middle of the week we had an excursion to the nearest city Angouleme 

and we enjoyed exploring the back streets

sitting in cosy cafes

and looking in pretty shops. C'est tres jolie.

We discovered a trend for strangely beautiful and little bit freaky door knockers!

Angouleme is the 'home of the cartoon' and has a cartoon museum and huge murals on many of buildings around town.

It was nice to get out but lovely to come back to Les Passeroses again.

Rufus the cat was waiting for us

stalking the sweetcorn field in the sunset.

The yoga teaching was extraordinary. I have learned soooo much this week and I've had revelations about my personal practice. Being in the company of all the teacher training students has really inspired me. Even though yoga is a huge passion of mine and I have seen it transform my life, my creativity and my business - well my life really, I have always been afraid of the idea of teaching because it is so vast! I am often asked 'why don't you teach' or told 'you should teach' but I have never felt like it is my path. But something changed this week. All those students were scared but they were doing it anyway, bravely and beautifully. One day Elizabeth gave me an idea. She planted a little seed and it kept me awake all night while it started taking root. I could teach yoga and creativity. I could marry my two passions together.

This little idea has given me a new sense of purpose and passion and I have come home renewed with a new mission! It feels absolutely right and the work begins now....

Such big thanks to my yoga friends. How can after just one week they feel like family.  That just speaks volumes about the power of this beautiful practice that I am grateful for every day.

On our last day Rocio wrote this beautiful little poem for us.

'As a flower, as a bird...everyone of us has our own unique beauty. 

Own yours, completely, radically!

Then shine it out, and spread it into the world.'