DURING the few days prior to compiling this weekly budget, our garden has been graced by a pair of chiff-chaffs. I cannot recall seeing chiff-chaffs there on a previous occasion, but they were clearly interested in one of our pyramids of sweet peas. The birds were searching among the leaves and blossom because the plants were heavy with greenfly.

Knowing how blue tits love to help keep our gardens free of those little pests, we took no steps to eradicate the greenfly, preferring to leave them to the attentions of the blue tits and so it was something of a surprise to see chiff-chaffs instead. They came on regular occasions and even a few minutes before settling down to my word processor to write this piece, they were hunting among the shrubs and flowers along our borders, but always popping into the pyramid of sweet peas.

They will not be here for much longer, however. Like their cousins, the willow warblers, chiff-chaffs are summer visitors and some can depart for Africa during September, although most may linger until October.

In spite of their small size, these are tough little birds and some may even spend the winter in southern England or parts of Europe. Willow warblers, on the other hand, tend to leave our shores earlier than the chiff-chaffs, and return later. Both species head for Africa, which is a long journey of some 2,500 miles, a massive undertaking for such tiny creatures.

When apart, it is most difficult to distinguish a willow warbler from a chiff-chaff; they are almost the same size, each with a light stripe above the eye and both with plumage which is greenish above and lighter below. When they are together, however, the chiff-chaff appears to be rather more grey and it has darker legs; it is also a fraction smaller.

The main distinguishing feature, of course, is that a chiff-chaff sings its own name whereas the song of the willow warbler is rather like a sixpence being spun on a plate and being allowed to come to rest.

It is interesting to record that one of Northallerton's former vicars is a saint of the Roman Catholic church. The man in question was Dr John Fisher, DD who later became bishop of Rochester and later a cardinal.

He was executed in 1535 for denying that King Henry VIII was head of the Catholic church in England.

Saint John Fisher, as he is now known, was born in 1469 at Beverley in the East Riding of Yorkshire and attended Cambridge University where he obtained a degree in arts.

He later obtained various posts at the university but eventually became ordained as a priest. I have few details of his early days in the priesthood, although it is known he served at All Saints', Northallerton, between 1491 and 1494, and he was also the priest at Lythe near Whitby for about five years during the latter years of the fifteenth century and into the first years of the sixteenth.

It then seems he returned to Cambridge where his reputation for piety and learning brought him to the notice of Margaret Beaufort, the mother of Henry VI.

She made him her confessor and chaplain and later, when he was chancellor of the university, he was able to assist her in the foundation of St John's College and Christ College, and to endow certain scholarships.

In 1503, he was the first Margaret Professor at Cambridge, albeit still a Catholic priest and the following year he became Bishop of Rochester.

John Fisher was described as a simple man who criticised other clergymen for their greed and love of luxury; he accepted the need for church reform albeit without destroying the faith itself, and it was his stance against King Henry VIII's claim for ecclesiastical supremacy which led to his execution.

He upheld the validity of Henry's marriage to Katherine of Aragon and then disputed the king's claim to be head of the Catholic church in England. When the Act of Supremacy was passed in 1534, John Fisher made it plain he would never accept the King's role as head of the church, arguing that it was a repudiation of the Pope, so he was deprived of his see in Rochester and imprisoned in the Tower of London.

Various attempts were made to persuade him to change his mind and his stance won him the admiration of Christians around the world, but Pope Paul III, unaware of the increasing danger to John Fisher, created him a cardinal on May, 20, 1535. This infuriated Henry, who said that if the Pope had sent a cardinal's hat for Fisher, there would be no head to place it upon.

Cardinal Fisher was brought to trial on June 17, 1535, on a charge of treason in that he "did openly declare in English that the king, our sovereign lord, is not supreme head on earth of the church in England." He was found guilty.

He was beheaded on Tower Hill, London, on June 22, 1535. Pope Pius XI created him a saint in 1935 when he became known as St John of Rochester and his feast day is July 9.

He should not be confused with St John of Beverley, who was bishop of York from AD 705 to AD 717, nor with that other East Riding saint, St John of Bridlington, who died in 1379.

People who love Yorkshire along with its landscape and legends will welcome an exhibition of watercolours and fabric collages currently on display in the Dales Countryside Museum at Hawes. The exhibition features the work of the Dales artist, Janet Rawlins. It opened on August 30 and continues until Wednesday, with free admission from 10am until 5pm.

Janet Rawlins has been inspired by age-old stories from the Dales, and for each of the tales she has selected, she has produced her highly individual artistic impression of the location. She has taken the trouble to explain the difference between legends and myths, folklore and tradition. Some of the tales are very well known while others might cause the visitor to ponder a little!

Her collage which features the lost city of Semerwater, along with Sir William Watson's poem of the tale, provides a reminder of one of the best known legends of the region with its story of a beggar being denied food and rest in the village, along with subsequent events which flooded the village, but what is the story behind the Mermaid Stones which grace Semerwater's shore line?

She ponders the story of the Giant's Cradle, which is a dry valley above Askrigg, but with her artist's eyes has noticed what appear to be faces in the rocky outcrop on the eastern side and wonders if these were ruffians who were turned into stone. An intriguing thought. There is the tale that Sir Walter Raleigh introduced fresh water crayfish into the River Ure and Janet's version of the wonderful travels of the renowned Lady Anne Clifford.

She has recorded items of folklore too, such as the value of planting elder trees close to one's house and shippon to keep away witches and evil spirits, and the use of rowan wood to make domestic implements which would be lucky in use. She has also incorporated a display of lucky stones!

And what about that tale of the unicorn in the dales?

Our use of dialect is always intriguing and I was interested a few days ago to hear a man of the moors refer to smout-holes or, as he spoke the word - smoot-hooales.

These are small openings in dry stone walls or even solid fences, and their purpose is to permit small animals like rabbits or hares to pass from field to field.

Larger smout-holes will permit access by pigs, sheep or goats but will frustrate the passage of larger creatures like horses, cattle or donkeys.

When incorporated into a dry stone wall, smout-holes are well-built, usually with a strong lintel and a firm base and they will serve their purpose for many years. Sometimes, a smout-hole has to be closed against sheep, in which case a door-like smout-steean is used