Yorkshire recon....

In May I'm teaching a unit of a course at Leeds University for the first time, and today was set-aside for checking out  the fieldwork sites. This meant leaving the house at seven am, and then visiting four separate locations - two east of Leeds, one just north of Wakefield and Middleton Woods north of Ilkley. Getting between the first three was quite easy, but a long trip on the Leeds ring-road was needed to get to Ilkley - no fun at all, even though Pete navigated us through perfectly. 

But Middleton Woods were superb - swathes of bluebells on the drier slopes and sheets of opposite-leaved golden saxifrage and lesser celandines along the stream valleys. We made good time and were able to visit the Cow and Calf rocks, and enjoy seeing red grouse, flowering bilberry and cowberry, before heading to the course organiser's house, where we were staying for the night. He and his wife took us to a very lively Turkish restaurant, and we ended the evening chatting over a nightcap of Drambuie - just what was required after a very hectic day.