We are nowhere as near along with our orchard as we would like at River View Pateley. The paddock at the back of the holiday cottage is as full of ancient bailer as it was at the end of autumn, and still has a couple of stubborn twice burned logs that survived a summer...

The first of our crab apples are standing tall this springtime on the path from River View holiday cottage towards Pateley Bridge. We released the saplings from their plastic wrappers now they have reached their first birthday.  In amongst the honeysuckle, the hawthorn...

​Just a fifteen minute drive Up Dale from River View Pateley, Middlesmoor is a world away. Looking down the valley at Gouthwaite and the rolling hills is breathtakingly beautiful. Turn around and the eyes can drink in the apparent wilderness of the kind of moorland tha...

The leaves are starting to fall and it is time to think about the orchard plans at River View Pateley.

The apple pruning workshop I went to earlier in the year paid dividends on our existing tree. We were rewarded with a bucket load of apples this year. Some of them are...

The wind always blows on the 500m walk up to Coldstones Cut. The carpark is nestled into the hillside, in a place you can still hear the birdsong as various species of bird chase each other through the grazing sheep. 

But as you climb higher, you hear the rush of air ov...

Who would have thought grey skies would be so beautiful? The end of the recent dry spell has meant a small explosion in buttercup numbers in the hay meadow. Which is good news because it means the grass is growing too. 

With a change of wind direction from the arctic no...

If you have ever wondered what 96 meters of unplanted hedgerow looks like, now is your chance to find out. 22 Elders, 10 Honeysuckle, 10 Crabapples and numerous Blackthorn and Hawthorn lined up against the barn this month ready make edible wildlife homes. 

It's all part...

Steve has just put a small herd of Dartmoor on the field in front of River View Pateley. They have a with a job to do: eat off the grass left over from hay m