I took the picture above at Castle Bolton in the Yorkshire Dales (when we were there last time in 2002, with Sandy From Iowa with us) and it shows the gardener for the semi-ruined ancient castle tending his beautiful gardens there. It also shows some of the lovely stone walls that define the landscape in this beautiful part of the world.

Here's the same view but not using the zoom lens:




Here is an overview of this place. Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned here for a while before she was executed. I can't remember the details but it's a place we always visit when we go to England. There is a great gift shop in the middle part of the castle and I've gotten some really wonderful food items such as jam/preserves/pickle etc from there.




If you are a James Herriot fan and have seen the All Creatures Great and Small television series, you might remember the episode when James proposed to Helen on his day off. They went scouting around Bolton Castle in the series AND in real life, as well, and climbed up into the turrets, like I did for the pictures above, and whilst looking out over the most beautiful landscape of the Yorkshire Dales, he popped the question, and of course she said "yes." And it all started right here. That television series was probably the most influential story of our lives, Paul's and mine.

Just wanted to offer you up some of the things I love the most, and those always have something to do with beautiful Yorkshire.

Cheers,

Bex