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The Howgills - a geography of being English

26/2/2020

The Howgills, looking east from Scout Scar

Fresh snowfall on the Howgills and cloud hugs the fells. Mountains make their own weather.
Up on Scout Scar there's a panoramic view. We are encircled by sunlit, snow-clad fells.
The Howgills are distinctive fells, rounded and grassy- smooth and voluptuous under snow. Stone walls show dark and gullies gleam, packed dense with snow.
To the north and west, the Lake District fells have a different geology, a different configuration..

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Scout Scar- seizing the day

23/2/2020

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Sunlit crag and the hanging wood below Scout Scar escarpment

A crag on the limestone cliff of Scout Scar escarpment illuminates against an indigo sky. I watch the sun striving to break free of clouds, see the amethyst of birch trees in the hanging wood, see a white-washed farmhouse glimmer ghostly out of the darkness. The fells are hidden under dark skies and storm-clouds gathering in the north.
Quickly to The Mushroom Shelter before another pelting squall of hail. When it;s over the sun comes out and we step forth to see the fells gleaming under snow- the grand reveal.

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Elemental on Scout Scar

23/2/2020

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Hail-bearing cloud sweeps south to Morecambe Bay

The elements at play on Scout Scar.
Flood-waters in the Lyth Valley tell of days and days of incessant rain. Hail-bearing cloud sweeps south from the Mushroom Shelter toward Morecambe Bay. blotting out blue sky. Hail stones melt on my camera lens. Sunlight from the south-west refracts fragments of ice in bursts of rainbow colour.

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The RIver Kent in spate

21/2/2020

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River Kent, looking downstream from MIller Bridge. 20 February

Wind and rain relentless today. Yesterday afternoon there was some respite. From the Parish Church, the river flowed fast and silent, an olive brown. No water-birds at all. They must take shelter in vegetation and in eddies upstream. Nothing could swim in this turbulent river.
Stramongate Weir is always dramatic when the river rises. You can hear rocks in the river bed smashing together in the force of the water.

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Leighton Moss February 1986 and 2020

14/2/2020

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Male teal in breeding plumage

'Is this your first visit to Leighton Moss?’ he asked.
I remember a winter sun burnishing the reed beds, ice and biting cold. We were staying in a guest house on the front at Morecambe Bay. ‘Why come to Morecambe?’ a local asked, bemused. The sea froze that winter, chunks of ice clunked on the shore-line. A peregrine killed. Our leader followed its flight and we drove along the front, stopped to watch the raptor pluck its prey. Bristol Ornithological Club in the North West. February 1986 I think it was.

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Scout Scar: to wish to fly

12/2/2020

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Looking north from Scout Scar escarpment

Snow on the horizon, on the distant fells. And flood-waters in the Lyth Valley to the south. The wind howls and it's bitterly cold with squalls of hail-stones. Light and darkness sweep over the landscape so rapidly the photograph you glimpsed is gone before you click the shutter button with a wind-chilled finger. Ash trees confer, radiant against an indigo sky. The light fades and the moment is lost. The drama of weather makes the day.

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Northern Pintail at Leighton Moss

5/2/2020

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Northern pintail in breeding plumage

An early February day at Leighton Moss. For me, the Northern Pintail is the highlight of the season. A focus that came upon us gradually.
Walking the causeway through the reed-beds is always full of interest. Handfuls of bird seed, scattered by the path lured birds into view. Willow tits, a tree creeper and a nuthatch. I could hear redpoll but could not see them.

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The Howgills - a geography of being English

Scout Scar- seizing the day

Elemental on Scout Scar

The RIver Kent in spate

Leighton Moss February 1986 and 2020

Scout Scar: to wish to fly

Northern Pintail at Leighton Moss

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