Earthquake!

This night, at 0:56, an earthquake could be felt in England. Turns out this was a 5.2 earthquake with some damage, and it could be very well felt here in Leeds. First there was a little shaking, then it became stronger, lasting for about 10 seconds, then again fading away into just slight vibration.

Interesting - this is now the strongest earthquake I ever felt. While living in California, I only once felt a comparatively strong quake: in 1997 there was a 5.0 quake - it felt stronger, but I was also closer to the epicentre (10 miles). The epicentre of the quake now in the UK was approx. 50 miles away from Leeds, in Market Rasen.

Event by "Yorkshire Forward"

On Tuesday evening, I attended an event organised by Yorkshire Forward: Going Global: Innovation in the Global Market Place, held at the Met Hotel Leeds. At this event there were two guest speakers: Sir Richard Needham, one of the part-time directors at the vacuum cleaner manufaturer Dyson. He spoke about innovation and how a company like Dyson was so successful. His talk was followed by Charles Leadbeater, a government advisor who talked about innovation in the global economy. These two speakers did not differ very much in their message, despite their difference in political affiliation.

It should also be noted that the salmon at the buffet was excellent!

A few days off - Excursions in East Yorkshire

The weather back in Leeds is nice. Finally summer seems to be here, after 3 months of rainfall. But in Yorkshire, the temperature is always about 5 deg C colder than in the south of England. London almost seems tropical, seen from here in the North. I take a few days off, to do a few trips in the countryside and to the East Coast. Walking along the cliffs near Bridlington, going with the bicycle through York and towards Selby. A nice cherry tree near the bikeway (apparently without any owners) provides excellent refreshment fruit!


There are a few farms where you can pick your own fruit, for example the Balloon Tree Farm.



Excellent black and red currants grow there!




The coast north of Bridlington appears to bne very remote. Not many tourists, just quiet countryside, abruptly ending at the white chalk cliffs.

... and it is raining again!

Headingley Campus


Near the City Campus


Along the Leeds-Liverpool Canal

Torrential Rain

The weather forecast looked bleak - more rain coming. And it came today. Lots of flooding in East Yorkshire. 900 people trapped at their work places in Sheffield.
A man dies due to the flood.

Here in Leeds, some parts of the areas near the docks in the vicinity of the city centre (south of the train station) are flooded. Fortunately, our cottage is at the side of a hill, where the water can flow down... but there is some water seeping through the old walls.

This June had the most rainfall since they kept metreorological records.

Lots of rain lately...

View from my office on Caedmon Hall.

The month of April has been extrodinarily warm and sunny. But May and now June have been much wetter, with many days of rainfall and generally cool temperatures. Last week was basically constant rain, and on the night from Thursday to Friday there was such a downpour that the whole Yorkshire region suffered a lot of flooding. Many houses had their cellars under water, and people said that they had not seen such rain in the last 30 years, or even since the 1950s. This means there was some rain like this already at that time in the past...

Only on Sunday there was some sun which we used for a short hike in Ilkley Moor. Yesterday night was some thunder and flashes of lightning, something that is relatively rare here up north - at least during the last year I had not seen many thunderstorms here in Leeds.

In the Yorkshire Dales

Again, the summer-like temperatures made us contribute a bit more to global warming - and to drive with our Chelsea Tractor (well, the small Suzuki Vitara actually is not really in that behemoth category...) up to the Yorkshire Dales. We decided to go to Grassington, where every 4 weeks on Sunday there is one of those Farmer's Markets, with local food and produce.

Grassington is in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, north of Skipton (here are my pictures of it). From Bolton Abbey, a very narrow road leads to it, often only one lane wide. But I do not mind those narrow back roads, as they provide very nice sights, and they adapt very well to the hilly landscape. If one would prefer a more convenient wider road, one would access Grassington from Skipton.

We drove to the small village of Thorpe and hiked from there up into the Embsay Moor. As on top of the incline there did not seem to be anything very interesting, we walked down again and continued towards the village of Burnsall. Lots of sheep on the way, with young lambs. The walkway crosses many walls, with steps and gates that need to be closed to keep the animals in their areas. A set of pictures from that hike is here in this Flickr set.

In the Yorkshire Dales.

Steam train goes through the North York Moor.

Ruins of Rievaulx Abbey.

Ruins of Fountain Abbey near Ripon. 

Sutton Bank, the steep incline on the west side of the North York Moors area. On the plateau on the left, there is an aiport located. 

Robin Hood Bay. 

Landscape in the North York Moors National Park. 

Entrance to the beach at Withernsea.