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Who am I?
My name's Dan and I live near Huddersfield in the North of England. I’m a 34 years old part time stay at home dad. For three days a week I'm also a community mental health nurse but you won’t find me blogging about that here. I’m married to Kerry and we have two children - Amy (6) and Evan (3). I keep chickens, grow veg, and take the occasional long walk. If you want to know how other's describe me then take a look here.Where else to find me
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Our first kite-flying expedition was kind of a dud… The kids were unimpressed because the kite spent more time on the ground (and in the trees) than anywhere else. We’ll try it again in the spring.
Lovely photos, we can see you had a great time, sorry we missed it.
Kites can be tricky. My brother has one that is able to lift me off the ground it’s so powerful (and I’m a big, big chap). Your kids are old enough for a stunt kite aren’t they Phil? That might be a bit more fun. Or you could get them a box kite or other unusual shaped one. Autumn’s propper kite flying season if you ask me.
The landscape around where you live just looks beautiful, Dan. Even the photo you have on display of the view from your backyard looks incredible.
When we fly kites, we go to the park across the street, which works out nicely because there are mature trees only along one side. Our subdivision, despite having a few years on it, is pretty sparse for large trees. We have one big tree in our backyard and we feel pretty lucky.
Everywhere else, it’s just grass. No stone towers, just grass.
Of course the landscape is beautiful, we live in Yorkshire – Gods own country.
But seriously, we are very lucky in where we live. We are right on the edge of a national park (the Peak District).
The tower in the kite photos is on Castle Hill. It is a pretty historic site, with various fortifications and castles being there since the Iron Age. Unfortunately there’s not much to see now. Just a few trenches that were dug in the middle ages. The tower that you see on the pictures was built in 1899 as a memorial to Queen Victoria.
I remember when I was a kid I went to an event up there that was part of the 400 year anniversary of the Spanish Armada. During the period Castle Hill was part of an elaborate signalling system using bonfires to alert the country if we were being invaded, much like on Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.
As part of the celebrations bonfires were lit in a chain all over the country, and Castle hill, being the most prominent point in Huddersfield, was the site of our bonfire.
Just out of curiosity was anyone else at that event? It was in 1988 I think.