Fed up of lockdown? Dreaming of the wide open spaces out there in the glorious Yorkshire countryside?

Well, you can't go out there just yet. But at least you can visit in your imagination - with a little help from a few photographs.

Nikki Bowling is a professional wedding and portrait photographer.

But while in her work she doesn't specialise in landscape photography, what she loves doing above all is roaming Yorkshire's open spaces - sometimes with her partner Russ in tow, more often with 11-year-old daughter Mia.

The 44-year-old former Joseph Rowntree School girl from from Clifton Moor hasn't been able to do that since lockdown, of course - instead she and her family have to content themselves with a daily local walk near where they live.

But at least lockdown has given her a chance to go through her many photographs captured while out and about.

No, they aren't professional landscape shots, she admits - they are just snaps taken of some of her favourite places. But they remind us of the beauty that's out there - and that we can look forward to exploring again once lockdown is over.

A visit to Helmsley, followed by a jaunt up to Hutton-le-Hole and then deeper into the Moors to Blakey Ridge, has always been one of her favourite days out, Nikki admits - ever since she and her family used to holiday there when she was a child.

"Hutton-le-Hole is a lovely village. You can play in the stream, visit a tea-shop, and there's the Ryedale Folk Museum. But then you go up onto the Moors to Blakey Ridge and the views over Rosedale and Farndale are so wonderful. Its just the fresh air, the middle of nowhere, the quiet. It's so beautiful up there, and you feel so free." Thanks for reminding us, Nikki...

Stephen Lewis

See more of Nikki's photos at nikkibowling.com