A mountain rescue vehicle has just gone up the road to Cow Green reservoir and Cauldron Snout waterfall, blue lights and sirens on.

I hope its simply an exercise and no one is injured or ill up there. #Teesdale

My first paying job since moving to Teesdale! A neighbour had a pile of stones that he used to burn garden rubbish in and that did look awful.

This is round, lined with steel to protect the stone from direct heat. People are getting to know me, so I may be quite busy in my retirement here! #Teesdale

Go home grouse, you're drunk. And take your pals with you. #Teesdale

Finally seen male black grouse. They're in the field over the road, three of them.

Not strictly a lek as they're not displaying and it's the wrong time of year. Maybe next year! #birds #Teesdale

It's black and white here, the buildings are whitewashed with black around windows and doors. Cattle are black and white, Lapwing in the field with the cattle look black and white in flight.

There's just a handful of golden plover in with the Lapwing to spoil the look. #Teesdale

It's blowing a hoolie here, with horizontal drizzle. It's an ill wind as they say because there are up to 100 Lapwing feeding on the harvested silage field in front of the house. They're making the most of the wet ground and the short grass. They're the little dark shapes dotted all over the field.

There are also 7 or 8 meadow pipit in the garden, taking shelter in the few shrubs and the stone walls. One did manage to grab an insect from among the stones of the wall. #Teesdale #birds

Uh oh. Looks like Upper Teesdale ran out of ink again.

#Teesdale

I went out to see what the kestrel had left behind at 6am before the rain washed it off the gate post. Something from both ends.

Some poo and pieces of pellet. The pellet is mainly dark grey fur, possibly mouse, with some small bones showing.

I'm now thinking that it wasn't a juvenile waiting to be fed but a young bird that could hunt very well. It was just sitting on the gate post digesting it's latest catch. #birds #kestrel #Teesdale

Finally got reasonable broadband with this antenna. It's bolted into a concrete block and I'm hoping it doesn't blow off the garage roof.

Took a lot of tweaking. It normally points slightly upward. However, at 1400ft asl, I realised that any transmitter is below us, so it's angled slightly downhill. #Teesdale

Baling Haylage across the valley.

If he gets the angle wrong when dropping those big round bales, there will be a job for me when they roll through the wall at the bottom of the hill! #Farming #Teesdale

It's going to take a while to adjust to being gawped at by tourists in a landscape like this.

The ones that slow down or stop outside the house are the worst. #Teesdale #Landscape

The cottage here has an air source heat pump. How exciting and eco friendly you say. It has to heat five radiators and provide hot water, like an immersion heater.

The hot water part is fine but the rads are never hot. Eve describes them as 'uncold' at best. I think it's seriously undersized for the house. The previous tenant couldn't get it to heat the rads either.

It's August and we have the log burner on in the living room. #Teesdale #climate

I have a grouse.

There are no 'normal' garden birds here. Blackbird? Robin? Chaffinch? A little Sparrow? Nada. #BirdLife #Teesdale

I was standing by the window to send that last toot (yes mobile signal and broadband are terrible) and a short eared owl went past, right outside. It was huge. I'm loving this place. #Teesdale

Good morning from Upper Teesdale. It's a lovely day, cooler than it should be in August, even up here. Yesterday, the resident kestrels had an aerial battle with a female sparrowhawk.

They came closer to the house, tumbling and sparring all the way and the sparrowhawk landed on the electricity pole for some respite. The kestrels didn't give up and chased it off out of their territory. #Teesdale #BirdLife

@FaithfullJohn thanks John, so excited to be here. It's in a geopark, the Whin Sill is a major feature just down the road. First, I'll be going out to find out what sugar limestone is!

Also, The estate letting agent has already spoken to another manager about getting me some dry stone wall work up here at the top of the dale. I was hoping for a couple of weeks off!! #Teesdale

How it started....

#Northumberland to #Teesdale

I'm arranging mobile broadband for the new house because we're so far out. Not bothering with a landline, we'd be going from fast broadband back to the stone age.

There's a local company based in Alston that works with the estate to provide high speed connectivity and they may get around to us in the near future. #Teesdale #Remote

It looks like our house sale is finally happening, contracts should be exchanged tomorrow. I can work tomorrow and Friday then I'll be needed for packing.

I might get another couple of metres finished at the end of this piece, which will be enough to support the bank against the road. I'm going to miss working here but there may be other jobs in Teesdale, when I get there. #Northumberland #Teesdale

Following my little Twitter poll, as requested I have added a new walk to my website in #CountyDurham, from Mickleton to Romaldkirk. Details at tinyurl.com/57xyvfhr

#benchlove #walking #countryside #Teesdale