CHILDREN are being invited to ‘rock up’ at Skipton’s High Corn Mill this Easter - for a hunt with a difference!

Rocks painted by pupils at First Steps Nursery on Newmarket Street have been placed around the popular tourist attraction on Chapel Hill for children to find, with five Easter egg prizes up for grabs.

There will be 10 painted rocks to find and five winners will be chosen on Tuesday, April 23 and announced on The Home Company’s Facebook and Twitter pages and High Corn Mill’s website.

Andrew Mear, owner of the mill, tells me: “Following the success of our Santa trails at Christmas, we wanted to do something fun outdoors this spring. And what child doesn’t want an extra chocolate egg at Easter? We hope lots of people joy in the egg hunt and find the lovely decorated rocks created by First Steps Nursery.”

To join in, pick up a form at The Innovation Centre downstairs in the mill and fill in where you have seen the rocks. Once you have found all 10 - or as many as you can find - post your form back at the Innovation Centre or hand it in to The Home Company.

A READER has sent me this interesting old postcard (pictured below) he came across in Glasgow’s Oxfam bookshop. “I found it amusing and a quirky outsider’s perspective of Skipton,” he tells me. Couldn’t agree more.

BOWLAND Fell caravan park at Tosside is taking part in a weekly ‘Doggyaoke’ competition. Bridge Leisure, which owns the holiday park, is running the competition in all of its nine parks across the country in a bid to find the nation’s first ‘Dog Idol’

Anyone staying at the park over the season with a dog, will be able to enter the contest and show off their pet’s talents as they sing, or howl, to their favourite track.

Weekly winners will be invited to take part at the end of season final, due to take place at Sand le Mere Holiday Park, near Hull. Andrew Howe, from Bridge Leisure, tells me: “We put on activities and entertainment at our parks to cater for adults and children, so why should our canine guests miss out? I have seen many singing dogs on social media and Britain’s Got Talent, so we thought why not embrace the madness and have our own ‘Doggyaoke’ contest. We are really keen to get a celebrity judge for the final so have contacted Paul O’Grady’s people to see if he might be available, failing that we can always ask Simon Cowell.

A LIVE link up into farms in Wales and the Cotswolds will be just one of the new features of this year’s Springtime Live at the Great Yorkshire Showground, Harrogate, on Saturday, April 13.

From mini tractor rides to live entertainment, all activities and workshops are free once inside the event.

Not only will there be plenty of farm animals for children to meet in the animal barn, there will also be the chance to see lambing live on a big screen.

For the first time, farmer Tom Martin will take to the main stage to go live via video link into a dairy farm in Wales and a farm in the Cotswolds to see live lambing.

Tom is the founder of FaceTime a Farmer which has seen 5,500 school children regularly link to farms across the UK from their classrooms via Skype or FaceTime. Nearly 150 schools across the UK already subscribe to FaceTime a Farmer to help improve the understanding of links between food and farming.

He said: “This will be my first time at Springtime Live and it will be terrific to take the youngsters live into two farms where they can see lambs being born and cows being milked on the big screen. Any schools can sign up to be part of the Facetime a Farmer project and this will be a taste of what we offer – live on the main stage at Springtime Live!”

Springtime Live will be at the Great Yorkshire Showground, in Harrogate, on Saturday April 13, from 9am to 4:30pm. Tickets cost £10 for adults and £5 for children or a family ticket (2 adults and 3 children) for £27. On sale at: springtimelive.co.uk. For more information about FaceTime a Farmer go to: facetimeafarmer.com

TO celebrate the fifth anniversary of its centre in Skipton, Cancer Support Yorkshire is asking people to collect all their 5ps. The charity’s community engagement officer, Helen Gatiss says they hope all the coins will add up to £500 by the end of the year - all it needs is for people to get one of their jars and start collecting.

“We are overwhelmed at just how much support the challenge has generated,” she says. “When we are out and about in the community people are picking up the mini jars to collect their 5ps in, the jars hold approximately £2’s worth of 5ps so it’s not a big ask from our community and proves that every penny really does count and can make a difference for our charity.”

Once they are filled, people are taking the jars back to the centre in Otley Street. Helen says: “It really is amazing how the money is adding up, the money raised so far in January £56, February £75 and March over £122.00 so we are already half way to reaching our £500 target.” Businesses are also joining in, as well as those who go to the centre for help and advice, and others.

£500 will help to fund a group support session which on average costs more than £2,500 to run over a 12 month period.

Several support sessions are run at the centre, including new for this year, Breast Friends, for anyone affected by breast cancer, Pink ribbon Pilates for post-operative breast cancer patients and a Stoma support group. The charity has plans to celebrate its fifth birthday this year with events such as a fashion show, summer barbecue, and a 5km sponsored Step Out walk in September.

I AM especially delighted to have been given a collection of old maps and walking guides to Pendle. One, delightfully called ‘Rambles Twixt Pendle and Holme’ was published by Joe Bates in the 1940s, and is described as ‘a guide to well known and little known local beauty spots. Mr Bates, in his ‘aids to the art of rambling’ says first of all, ramblers must ‘take good care of your feet. Wear, good, strong boots or shoes, rough nailed.’ Clothing should not be tight or too heavy, and must be roomy and easy. Meanwhile, a walking stick is useful for ordinary walking, but a ‘positive danger’ on rocks and crag edges. Mr Bates advises a ‘light, shower proof coat’ when out walking, although acknowledges that some ramblers prefer an umbrella. I particularly like the advice for when getting lost in fog - keep the mist on one side of your face, don’t hurry, don’t get flustered, be cautious and look for landmarks through broken bits of fog and rain cloud.

In company, the speed of the party must always be that of the slowest walker, and walkers must keep strictly to the paths when crossing fields and meadows. Dogs, if lively, must be kept on a leash, or at heel, when passing poultry, sheep and cattle.

50 years ago, in 1969, it was not dogs, but low flying helicopters that were annoying farmers. A farmer form Carleton told a meeting of the National Farmers Union in Skipton, that the helicopter was worrying his sheep, and if a dog did the same thing, he would have shot it. “If we went and shot at the helicopter, we’d be in lumber,” he told the meeting, adding that the operators had no regard whatsoever for agriculture.