I took a stroll round one of my favourite villages on Sunday afternoon when the sun finally decided to make an appearance. As often is the case when I’m on one of these unplanned trips my attention was drawn by the local churchyard… I purposely say churchyard and not the church itself. For although I’m a fan of church architecture and history, it’s in the grounds, with their higgledy gravestones, hidden corners and enchanting wildlife, where I spend most of my visits. This particular churchyard in Clapham, north-west Yorkshire, is small in relation to its large church but nevertheless attractive. It’s tucked in beneath a fault line in the local limestone, and a waterfall, which was in full spate when I visited (pictured), drums away incessantly beside the graveyard. The view is of tall trees and small cottages, rocks overgrown with ivy and shrubs, while crumbling gravestones pronounce the good lives of the village’s departed. In one tiny corner beside the compost heap about a dozen snowdrops were just starting to poke their heads up like some advance party before the great army arrives. You certainly don’t have to go inside a country church to have your spirits lifted.

I was eating my lunch, looking out of the window. Sitting on the garden wall was a lone thrush (song variety, I think – I’m no expert), seemingly staring back at me, making me feel guilty about eating when it was obviously hungry.  I made a mental note to buy some bird food next time I went shopping. After washing up the dishes I came back to the window and it was still hanging around. I know thrushes like berries so I wondered if grapes – about the nearest item I had in the house – also tickled their fancy.  The bird flew off as I placed several cut-up pieces of grapes along the wall. Sure enough, it returned a few minutes later and began first pecking and inspecting, then eating the fruit. As it did this a blackbird dropped onto the wall and also started eating the grapes. The thrush hardly flinched, then to my amazement a starling also joined the party and the three, probably no more than two feet apart, feasted as though oblivious to the others. Okay, it didn’t last too long as something disturbed them but it was a great grape-gorging gathering I’d not witnessed before. Has anyone else?

This week the local newspaper carried a notice from the National Park asking for landowners to release land for house building. The purpose, it stated, was to help reduce the local shortfall of affordable housing.  My village lies just inside the National Park and has already seen quite a lot of new building over the past few years and I imagine it will be in the sights of developers once again. I strolled around the village at the weekend and counted fifteen for sale signs and three to let signs. I know of at least two other householders who want to move but have not bothered putting their houses up for sale because of the current financial climate. On top of this there are many cottages which are holiday properties or second homes. Lots of the houses would be classed as ‘affordable’, not only that, they are traditional houses sitting well in the village and surrounding countryside. Generally, people moving out are doing so because of work, so surely the National Park should be thinking more about creating employment and making sure properties are sold to the right people rather than building even more housing? I suspect the real reason is to meet some illogical government target.

Close to where I live in Ribblesdale, red squirrels have started to establish themselves in a conifer forest having made their way down from the Lake District. So I was doubly delighted to discover this week that a new red squirrel reserve is to be established at Greenfield Forest several miles away in Langstrothdale.  At over 1,000 hectares, Greenfield will become the largest area of potentially suitable red squirrel habitat in the Yorkshire Dales. Volunteers from the National Park have already confirmed the presence of reds at Greenfield which coincides with the maturing of the site’s coniferous trees, now seeding and providing a vital food source for the species. Let’s hope these delightful creatures take hold once again throughout the country.