Wednesday 12 July 2017

Courtyard Dairy Cheese Shop Settle


The Courtyard Dairy has moved a few miles along the A65 to Half way between Settle and Austwick - It is just beyond the northern junction with the bypass, at what was the Falconry Centre,  with beautiful views west. It is 3.4 miles from the centre of Settle
It now has a cafe upstairs and a big display area about the history of cheese downstairs. I paid it a visit on its second day of opening at the end of June.

The Shop
The shop still has the big range of cheese - see my earlier article - and I bought some more Dalehead cheese made at Botton Village.



Here is the display area:








Upstairs is the cafe

I had a delicious ham and cheese toasted sandwich with salad.
The menu is based on a whole range of cheese dishes.


As I leave I see more customers sampling the cheese in the shop.


Learning to draw with Margaret Uttley at Meadow Connections, Lower Winskill

Margaret Uttley has produced some lovely big charcoal pictures of our area including one of this view down to Langcliffe and Settle from Lower Winskill.

You can see some in her pictures of Malham Tarn Fen at her current exhibition at Gavagan Gallery underneath the Town Hall, Settle 15 July -18 Aug 2017

So I felt really privileged to be able to attend her class this afternoon of 8th July 2017.


Here is a video of her early instructions to us.




and another






Jane concentrating

After 20 minutes we walked through the wood pasture to the next site, and sat down to draw again



This is me


Side-tracked by an interesting grass


This on my knee is my drawing .. of Doris drawing


Doris later shows her pictures
 Next stop is a field where I have recently been recording plants for Tom



Finally we end up at the Scythe Field.. planning to draw people in action.







What a wonderful way to spend an afternoon.. We all produced different styles of pictures

A picture by Doris

A big thank you to Margaret.

Tuesday 11 July 2017

Northern Scythe Championships 2017 - Lower Winskill 2017

Judith drawing

This on my knee is my
drawing .. of Doris drawing


The Meadow Connections Weekend 7-9 July had workshops and a Ceilidh on Sat 8 July and the Northern Scythe Championships on 9 July.  I took part in the drawing workshop.. and visited some of the others- enamelled jewellery, keeping bees, scythe sharpening.


This video includes the overall winner plus winners of some of the special classes. The first three photos below show the great reach of the winner of the Open Competition Simon Damant















Another competitor who had been learning to
scythe on the course at the weekend.


The scythes ready sharpened, ready for use.




The previous day there had been courses - here people are learning to sharpen the scythe
























(For links to workshops I attended at Meadow Connections the previous day, click here)