Ribble Valley near Stackhouse

One of my earliest memories is living in a house in the group of buildings largely hidden by the trees in the centre of this photograph. It is a hamlet called Stackhouse, a small collection of houses and a farm. We were recently on the limestone scars above Stackhouse and I took this photograph to remind me of what my infant self considered to be the whole world. The mountain on the horizon is Penyghent, one of Yorkshire's "Three Peaks", and the flat-top on the right is Fountains Fell, named after its one time owners, the monks of Fountains Abbey.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

The dipper

I imagine that everyone who watches wild birds on a regular basis has their favourites. I've always had a liking for the wader known as the greenshank (after its green legs). It's an elegant bird with subtle colouring. I also like the wheatear, a bird that was a harbinger of spring when I lived in the Yorkshire Dales. In recent years I've developed an affection for the swifts that flash about the village in which I live, screeching or hunting for flies. The old name for them in "devil bird", but I can see nothing about swifts that warrants that derogatory name. On a recent visit to the town of my upbringing, Settle, I photographed another favourite - the dumpy dipper, a bird of fast flowing upland streams and rivers.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon P900