How to be proper Yorkshire!

The Tour de Yorkshire cycling race is once again afoot (apeddling?) in the region, so I thought I’d re-share this post from last year, so that you can learn how to seamlessly mingle with the locals, should you be coming along for the ‘ride’!

As a proper born and bred Yorkshire lass, I thought I’d share some facts, lingo and general awesomeness about the UK’s largest county, to help you all become honorary Yorkshire folk and be astounded by its splendour!

Biased? Never…

So grab yer flat cap and whippet, stick kettle on fer brew and prepare to be educated ah kid!

Wednesday Lensday: Medieval Meanderings

A couple of weekends ago, we decided to visit the Royal Armouries in Leeds. Not only is it a fabulous, free museum packed full of weaponry and armour dating back from Anglo-Saxon times to modern day, but it is situated down by the river, which allows for some nice photography.

They’re going on a WERE hunt…

They’re going to catch a big one…

Maybe. Or perhaps it’ll catch them!

Anyone who follows me on Twitter may have seen earlier this year that I shared an article from a national (albeit, tabloid) newspaper alerting the public to a werewolf being loose in my neighbourhood!

So I thought it was an appropriate re-post for archive day, what with Halloween on the horizon. It will bring you up to speed with Old Stinker but if you’d like to speak to him personally, you can tweet him @oldstinker (He’s a very tech savvy monster and a lovely chap who has put me on his ‘Do not eat’ list – phew!)

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Now, being a lover of all things paranormal (and believing in it for the most part) I was naturally intrigued by this newspaper article! It seemed there were several sightings by local people of a large, upright, dog-like creature near a water source, that leaped over high fences and seen to be devouring the wildlife.

And it’s not just wild animals that’s on the werewolf’s menu – one witness reportedly saw it gnawing on a German Shepherd – isn’t that kind of cannibalism?!

“Of course, it had to be a big dog didn’t it? I bet it was a chihuahua really…”

That was my mum’s take on the story – not thinking to question the likelihood of a supernatural creature lurking in the woodland, but totally disbelieving the accuracy of witness reports!

Questions, not candles

As in ‘sixteen’. Derived from this little, leather-bound, battered book, found whilst clearing my granddad’s house. 

The post’s title may be making reference to a rite of passage film from the 80s but my first confession would be that I’ve never seen it. But then I only saw Breakfast Club for the first time two years ago. Shush, don’t judge! 

Anyway, I’m tangent-ing again…

So the book. It belonged to my Nana and I’d totally forgotten we had it, let alone that I had filled in more than one page myself. 

The original entries date back to the 1940s – many contributors I have no knowledge of, other than they were people my Nana was in the ATS with during WW2. 

Family members have made more than one contribution, decades apart and it’s interesting to see how their likes have changed as they aged (I don’t even remember Janna Jungle…but my favourite character in public life was Knight Rider. I was 8…)

Wednesday Lensday: Windmills of my Mind

‘Round like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel,
Never ending or beginning on an ever spinning reel…’

These lyrics will be forever etched in my brain, thanks to PE lessons. As a child, we had to prance around the school hall, flapping ribbons in our wake, in a lame attempt to recreate some interpretive dance routine or with aspirations of being the next Olympic gymnast champion. But graceful we were not!