Wrong snow to catch tups in (From Craven Herald)

Wrong snow to catch tups in

6:48pm Thursday 8th December 2011 in From The Farm By Liz Hird

Here we go again, back to the white stuff... it really has been a pretty nasty couple of days. It was quite surprising setting off on Monday morning, we had snow, but as I travelled down the dale it grew steadily worse.

By the time I got to Threshfield snow was falling in huge great feathery flakes and cars driving towards me were covered in snow. For once down dale had more snow than we had which is quite unusual.

This time it’s not “nice snow”. It’s nasty wet stuff and doing anything outside is extremely unpleasant. When I got home the radiators in the kitchen were covered with wet clothes and gloves and the tumble drier was rumbling away in the dairy.

The conditions, as well as unpleasant, are more dangerous as the ground is wet and slippery, so travelling around, either on foot, tractor or bike can be pretty precarious as is trying to catch a tup that doesn’t want to be caught! It’s funny how it’s always funny when you talk about it afterwards, but not very funny at all at the time. In fact it can be infuriating and humiliating, particularly if the tup manages to make a fool of you.

Up to now we have fared better than last year though, because in December 2010 we didn’t get to any farmers’ markets. They were either cancelled or we couldn’t get there.

On Saturday Stuart and I went to Stokesley, a long drive but a good market and well worth the trip.

We go via Northallerton, pick up the A19 for a short time and then head east towards Great Ayton and Guisborough. You know you are nearly there when in the distance you can see the distinctive half-cone shape of Roseberry Topping.

The hill can be seen for miles around and has long been used by sailors and farmers to predict the impending weather conditions and locally there is an old rhyme to confirm this usage.

“When Roseberry Toppin’ wears a cap, let Cleveland then beware of a clap.”

A path leads up to the summit and over the centuries many feet have trampled up to the top to see the wonderful views. The history books say that the famous explorer Captain James Cook, who settled with his family at nearby Airey Holme Farm, spent a great deal of his spare time exploring and climbing the hill when he was a boy and this gave him his first real taste of adventure.

In more recent years songs have also been written about it with Chris Rea’s Chisel Hill and Gordon Giltrap releasing a track called Roseberry Topping.

It is Tuesday night and it has been raining cats and dogs since I got home at 7pm. I am sitting in the office and it has just come an almighty flash of lightning and a great crash of thunder – time I was switching the computer off!