My recent travels have taken me from the flat plains of Morecambe Bay to the upland scenery of the Pennines, principally the Yorkshire Dales, where I discovered a fascinating area in one of the more intimate valley's of Dentdale, which features only one main village called Dent - a timeless place of cobbled streets and historical cottages elevated high enough from the nearby river so as to never become flooded during torrential rain. I arrived here at the beginning of March, following the wettest February since records began. Heavy rain persisted for the first half of March before it finally turned dry and warm.

The Yorkshire Dales is a magical land of waterfalls and caves, distinguishable with its many beautiful field barns and dry stone walls covering most of its steep sided valleys. On my arrival to Dent I wasted no time in exploring the area with my paints and pencils.

Situated directly above Dent village to the south is a steep rocky trail leading to the hilltops. From these great heights streamlets merge to form gills such as Flintergill, where rain water cascades through a woodland upon reaching the village and finally the river Dee. There are many such gills or becks allowing rain water to quickly run off into the flood rivers. Flintergill culminates in a series of small waterfalls spilling across a natural limestone area known as Dancing Flags. On my initial discovery I was able to walk along one side of these flags to get a closer view of the tumbling water and paint whilst seeing Flintergill at its full capacity after heavy rain. Wild garlic leaves were growing on both sides beneath tall pines and other species of tree including oak. Within a week of the rain stopping the waterfalls became trickles and the flags below began to dry.

It gets its name Dancing Flags from the time when the terrible knitters of Dent (terrible meaning they were terribly good at what they did) used these naturally-formed flags to perfect a technique in their craft known as dancing. There is a wealth of information on the history of life in Dentdale in the heritage centre at one end of the village. These days the only dancing here is that of the light and water across the surface in view of the first few cottages below.