And the Bride arrived on horseback but fashionably late!

Had this weird white cloud, just the one and very striking. Had a lovely light on the Dales as the sun was setting.

 

 Midnight and it was still light! Yep we actually watched three episodes of Star Trek Enterprise, starting from 9 pm waiting for the skies to get dark. Of course the longest day is but 16 days away so stands to reason the daylight hours will be longer. And not a single cloud covered the sky so would have been perfect to view the Milky Way, but we were too knackered to stay up any longer. This does mean that Northumberland dark sky area will probably be off the agenda, not sure if either of us are up to staying awake until after 1 am.

Another day of clear skies and wonderful tranquillity. I cannot tell you how incredibly lucky we feel to be able to do the things we do and spend time in places like this.

 

Looking at things to do at Ripon, I came across a place to visit that intrigued me. It was called the Druids Temple but was not, in fact, a real temple, but a nineteenth century folly.  To read about why it was built click HERE . 

The Temple was at a place called Ilton, down some extremely narrow roads with warnings about soft verges.  We did meet another vehicle, right by the only stretch of verge to have solid ground, gosh that was lucky, and then not 100 yds further came across this ford!

 

A sigh of relief by both of us when our destination was reached...but...Oh eck we have the same journey to do in reverse, gulp!

 Parking was better than we had hoped for because this place (Swinton Estates) caters for weddings,  The walk to the stones took about 10 minutes, not far at all, in fact quite tame considering the miles we walked yesterday, but very pleasant nevertheless.

Talking of weddings, there seemed to be something going on by the stones. An open sided gazebo with hay bales as seating and lovely wild flowers adorning the entrance, it stood to reason that a wedding was to take place.

 

And we were not wrong. By 12.30 pm the photographer turned up as did the Groom and best man, so we assumed the ceremony would happen shortly. Waited for ages but apart from guests arriving, nothing much happened so decided to walk back to MB. Got back to the car park and there, in a field with two handlers, was a black horse, fully bridled, saddled and waiting for a rider. The rider was to be the Bride. So we decided to wait and boy what a wait! The wedding was due to start at 13.00, the horse was beginning to get restless, and what time did she finally appear? Nearly an hour later! Is this what is known as being fashionably late!

 

That journey back down the lane, I was in a height of worrying anticipation in case another vehicle approached but not one turned up, phew!  Once on the main road I breathed a sigh of relief, very short-lived because Ian decided he knew of a rural lay-by back on the Dales. Well I was all for that because a third night spent in solitude would have been wonderful, I didn't reckon on more of those single track roads and this time with hardly any passing places. 

 For six miles the road went on and on and not a single turning onto the Dales. Eventually we arrived at Grassington. With no hope of getting to a rural location (time was getting on) Ian found a pub stop at The Graven Heifer near Skipton, not quite what we had in mind but at least the Dales could be seen.

And wildlife,

??

Speckled Wood

Curlew from this morning.