Heading homeward, we spent two nights and a full day in North Yorkshire. I mostly wanted to visit Yorkshire since I have loved the scenery in All Creatures Great and Small, but the place is huge.

When booking our trip last January, I wondered where to stay in Yorkshire; it was the last unresolved piece, and I had a little prayer about being led to where to stay. Later that day, I was reading a monthly newsletter from a UK artist I follow, and very randomly she mentioned that she just had returned from the most pleasant stay at the Red Lion in Yorkshire- and poof- there was my answer.

We enjoyed it too. The sloping floors, and the warn stone steps, belied its history as an inn continually ever since the 1500’s. It is situated in beautiful country and has good food too. Fortunately we were there a bit in the off season, since the number of unused tables indicates what full capacity looks like.

Below you can see the photos from our hike from the inn (in Burnsall) to Grassington (also a lovely town I’d like to return to) and back. We went on a public path through the sheep fields (and over many and various type to stiles in the meadow walls) to Grassington, and then came back along the river where the trees were particularly magnificent. If you look closely, you can see James going over the river on stepping stone rocks, and we were amazed that by the time we returned, the rain earlier in the day had swollen the river to the extent that it was a foot higher, so he had to cross like I did, by way of the swinging bridge.

We reveled in the views, letting ourselves be completely saturated in the sights and sounds of this place. I loved how the walls make compositional lines across the landscape. The dots of animals and stones in the walls satisfy my pointillistic tendencies, so I reveled in that. And the majestic trees with their textural bark gave me tons of inspiration for my next tree paintings in that series.

And after 21,000 steps in the wind, the inn’s fish pie was very welcome!  It was truly delicious and makes me want to update mine.