Greatfield and Rooks

The empty part of Hull is slowly shrinking. Yesterday we had a longish session in Greatfield. It is an estate on the eastern-most part of Hull. It takes us a while to get there, especially on a Friday afternoon. I don't really get it, but for years now the roads in Hull on Friday afternoons have been clogged. One of the roads ends at the edge of the Eastern Cemetery, which is pretty big. We need to take a wander around it to get its full extent and mark the roads and chapel in it. We might be able to see Greatfield off with one more visit. It borders Preston Road which has a grim reputation in the city.

Today we had a change and set off out into East Yorkshire. The East of the county is a large, flat plain - made, incidently, from boulder clay deposited when the glaciers retreated last time [1]. It is known as Holderness. We took in some of the villages and country roads that mark the northern (ill-defined) border of Holderness with the gently rolling hills of the Yorkshire Wolds. We completed about seven small villages and hamlets.

The weather has been cool and wet so the grain harvest has been delayed, but today we saw lots of evidence of fields in various stages of harvest, including some ploughed, with a flock of rooks foraging for food. Actually I think it's a parliament of rooks ...


[1] Some people would say at the end of the last ice-age, but technically we are in an inter-glacial period of the current ice age. Climate change may change things, but we are in an unusually cold period of our planet's history - very rarely have there been icecaps at the poles, and sea levels are low because of all of the water tied up in ice especially in Antarctica.