0 A Gorgeous Day for a Moseying Drive

 Today was absolutely beautiful, so I jumped on an opportunity to leave work early, and since Paul had the day off, we headed to Brimham Rocks with the dogs.  We had a grand time, and then I ventured a request to take a drive.  A meandering, just decide where you turn when you get there kind of drive. Surprisingly, Paul agreed- it was that nice of a day.

At Brimham:

 Paul and Max trying to take a picture together.  Some of the other shots are HILARIOUS.  Or at least the captions I make up for them crack me up!

Exploring in the heather.

From the drive:

Most of these pictures are a broader view followed by a close-up.  I hope you enjoy.

 This church (top right, or see below) is in a village called Middlesmoor.  We also happened to stumble across a converted 1890s chapel for let and now I'm having an inner tantrum that we can't rent it- it's not only within our price range and the floor plan online looks like it would work for us, but it is covered in stained glass windows and has some of the best views of Nidderdale either of us has ever seen!!  Downside?  It's 15 miles (a lot longer here than in the States- believe me) of narrow, curvy, hill-y roads from Paul's work, and sits on a road with a 25% incline.  No problem in bright and sunny spring/summer, but come winter snow and ice??  That's a death trap!  sad.

 While we were in Middlesmoor we pulled into a small car park and right as we parked a C-130 flew through the valley!  Paul was so excited, and I tried to quickly get out of the car to take a picture, but I was slow... hopefully you can see it, just right of center.

 This is the view from just to the side of the driveway of the converted chapel.  Seriously.  It's hard to see in this image, but dead center in the very back are the windmills that are only a couple of miles from our house- you can see them from our front garden.

 Just another view, including one of the two sheep looking at me like I was crazy.

Gouthwaite Reservoir, near Ramsgill.  We came around a curve and suddenly there was a bright blue body of water, with the road hugging it's curves.  It reminded me a lot of the lochs in Southern Scotland.  

 This bridge is great!  I think you can walk across it, but I'm not sure.  There are some walks around the area.  Someday when we don't have already tired pooches we'll head over and try them out!