By the fluorescent lights of the predawn station, one can see, at the end of the outdoor platform, a conductor and engineer moving in their morning ritual between the doors of a three-carriage train. Along this platform we walk, stopping to wait in the heavy thrum of the idling diesel engines, as if the noise […]
It’s late Saturday afternoon in Kirkgate Market. We’re parked out with our backs against an empty storefront in the 1875 Butcher’s Row: just down from the glass-and-painted-ironwork of the grand hall, a bright covered lane that’s paved in blond Yorkshire flagstone, with a dozen butchers on either side. It’s closing time, and the crowds are […]
Bright red, two-doors. Perfect. Onto the pavement of an Inverness parking lot, we spill the contents of two blue plastic barrels, our river gear of the past five days. Coming off the River Spey, Kelly and I are headed towards the northern coastline of the Scotland. But we are going to spend the first half-hour […]
We’re living in the city. Our second-story window looks down onto the roofs of the double-decker buses rumbling down Harper’s Lane. When Leeds United win at Elland Road, we hear roving bands sing it in the streets. And our city-center flat shares a small triangular block with a dozen ground-floor businesses: a betting bookie, a […]
Here’s the view from the clock tower at Leeds town hall, looking west, up the course of the River Aire. The Aire begins near the limestone bluffs of Gordale Scar in the Yorkshire Dales, runs amid dormant mills in a dozen small post-industrial towns, passes under the Leeds train station and onward just two blocks […]
Parking garages are everywhere. They offer a strange sort of public space: planted right in the middle of town, open to all callers, but with a narrow intended function. Well, urban areas are meant to be repurposed, and I’m not the first person to do something other than park in these big halls of reinforced […]
Long before we ever made it to the British Isles, Kelly and I made a plan to paddle the River Spey in the Scottish Highlands. From the Cairngorm Mountains, this free-flowing river descends a broad valley of barley fields and whisky distilleries before spilling into the North Sea. From Leeds, we struck north by train, […]
When you cook up a batch of my grandmother Ruth’s Mexican cranberry sauce, the first task is chopping the cranberries. Those spherical little suckers are notorious for rolling off the cutting board and disappearing across the kitchen. Kelly’s no-nonsense approach involved busting out our big Moroccan cleaver and using a cutting board with a capture […]
The 150th anniversary of the opening of the spectacular, domed Leeds Corn Exchange building was celebrated this weekend with a series of events highlighting the structure’s Victorian heritage. An art installation featured contemporary works related to Leeds’ industrial history. In a quirky re-purposed storefront, Victorian-era taxidermy from the city’s art collection was on display. Musicians […]
As part of his UK visit, our buddy George caught a train up North for a weekend in Yorkshire. We rented a car and explored some terrain along the coastline and in the moor. My strongest impression from the trip was the bounty of flowers, berries, vegetables and wild animals we encountered.From behind the (right-hand […]
Returning from a trip to Madrid, Chris stopped through northern England for a couple of days. We met in Eskdale, a rocky valley that reaches from the tidal flats of the coastline into the craggy formations of the Lake District. To reach the meeting point, Kelly and I had caught a series of trains to […]
Bleak. Grim. Weary. Even those hardened Yorkshire hill-walkers who profess a love for the high country of northern England are sparing in their praise of the moor. Wet and windswept, the ridges and plateaus here are blanketed by a unique biome of indomitable low-growing vegetation and broken by rocky outcrops. Though it may be agreeable on a […]
On my final weekend before returning to Boulder, Kelly and I set out by train for a few days exploring the treeless glacial valleys, ancient standing stones, and small farms and settlements of the Isle of Arran in Scotland. We’d taken day trips from Leeds, but this was my first overnight outing, and it was great to […]
The city of York, to the northeast of Leeds, has some great old medieval buildings. Stone walls were built in the 12th -14th century to protect the city and have been kept in full readiness. In most places, the fortifications are in such great condition you can still imagine gathering rocks, arrows and oil and […]
On the third Sunday of the month, a lone bus runs from the Leeds Bus Station near our house to the small village of Malham in the Yorkshire Dales. As we found our seats in the bus, the gaiter-clad feet sticking into the aisle and the outerwear draped over seats identified the passengers as fellow […]
Over Christmas break, Kelly and I walked up the isolated cloud-whipped rock wedge of Ingleborough (shown above) in the Yorkshire Dales. We really earned our pints on this ascent. Though the valley was warm and green, clouds skidded low over the adjacent ridgelines. The low country of neatly sheep-trimmed pastures and stone walls gave way […]
After spending a few great months with Kelly in Leeds, I caught a flight back to Boulder. I’ll be here for a couple months, then hope to return to England for more quality adventures and urban living with Kelly and an academic collaboration at the University of Leeds. The flight path back the United States […]
The Settle-Carlisle Railway is a feat of Victorian engineering. One-hundred and thirty-five years ago, at tremendous cost and with great loss of life, this strip of rail was laid through some of England’s roughest terrain. During construction, the thousands of laborers needed to build the line lived in disease-ridden shantytowns along the route. The railway’s […]
Over the weekend, Kelly and I took a nice hike between two stops on the railway that runs up the Calder River. On the lower valley slopes, sheep graze over close-cropped hillsides of deep green grass bordered in dry-laid stone walls. But on the high ridges where no grazing occurs, the strange, low flora of […]
Our flat is in a remodeled Victorian warehouse: the Dewhirst, as the ancient lettering running up the side proudly announces. It’s a four-story brick building, with retail on the ground floor, apartments arrayed around a spiral staircase in the center, and a little patio on the roof. Besides the wooden patio, the building is roofed […]
Traveling west from Leeds, a rail line crosses the Pennine Range in a region of broad, low hills. I got off the train at the great old station that serves the town of Hebden Bridge, and hiked up through a patchwork of deciduous and conifer forest, stone-walled sheep pastures, and the open, uncultivated high country […]
This will be a short post for a long day. Kelly and I drove about 500 km and collected samples in some strong winds and sleet. There have been some real gusts coming through. Kelly is repackaging samples in the hotel bathtub while I send out these notes. Between the field laboratory in the bathroom […]
This morning we got back on ice-packed Highway 1 and continued east. Our goal was to collect dust samples below a series of outlet glaciers that drain the Vatnajökull ice cap. As we drove, the falling snow gave way to fine sleet, and after an hour it let up. The visual impact of long, cloud-free […]
Election night in Iceland! We’ve got our American flag (5-inches wide) proudly flying in the hotel and our ballots in the mail. I imagine you wearing your ‘I Voted’ stickers and listening to the election results come in over the radio tonight. Kelly and I will be eager to read the news tomorrow morning. The […]
Amid the fierce gales of the Atlantic, the nation of Iceland clings to the mid-Atlantic Ridge like lichen on a warm rock. This is an island of extreme contrasts: high peaks drop sharply to sea level, glaciers grow on the slopes of active volcanoes, and coastal deserts run out to the ocean.These contrasts have resulted […]
With the bulk of my gear locked in a AAA Storage shipping container and my truck parked nearby in their dirt lot of disused RVs and ‘project cars’, James and I drove up to Table Mesa Park ‘n’ Ride and my cross-planetary journey began. I rode the AB bus out onto the Great Plains and […]
