Big Toys...

The weather seems to be improving a bit - although my cold is getting worse again!

It was fairly warm out on our walk - and there were some lapwings flapping around above one of the recently ploughed fields.

I popped to Tadcaster in the evening and on the way stopped off to take some shots of this machinery. They are at a site known as Smaws Quarry near Toulston. It is no longer active as a quarry but has been used for 'inert landfill' for the last few years - it appears to be mainly rubble and soil from excavations that has been dropped there. It used to be a very big hole in the ground and now looks pretty well full. The aim is to return the land to agriculture when it is finished.

The stone from the quarry is a match to that used in the construction of the Norman Minster in York - built from 1075 - on the same site of the current York Minster. Bits of the old Minster were incorporated into the new one - which took 250 years to build from 1220.