Cumbria Naturally
  • Home
  • Blog
  • My Books
    • Cumbrian Contrasts
    • A Lakeland Experience >
      • Introduction
      • Derwent
      • Langdale
      • Ullswater
      • Kentdale
    • About Scout Scar
    • Atlantic Odyssey
  • Other Writing
    • What Larks!
    • Further - Explore Shetland
    • Autumn Migration
    • Rydal and Nab Scar
    • Perspectives
    • The River Kent
    • Wings
  • Gallery
  • Contact

Lake District National Park extended

31/7/2016

0 Comments

 
PictureHaylage making north of Kendal Race Course 31 July 2016
Tomorrow, 1 August 2016, sees the Lake District National Park extended to include the whole of Scout Scar and Helsington Barrows. It’s something to celebrate.   It’s an opportunity to raise awareness about endangered species and to do all we can to we protect them.  I want to know what practical benefits being in the Lake District National Park will bring for wildlife.  Scout Scar is a Site of Special Scientific Interest but how will visitors know that?  On 1 August I’d like to know what you see and enjoy.  What makes the day memorable for you?



Read More
0 Comments

From Esk to Duddon

29/7/2016

0 Comments

 
PictureFairies' bonnets, Trooping crumble cap 27 July
Eskdale on a fine summer’s day.  The end of the line for Little Ratty and everyone disembarks at Dalegarth Station.  Pub gardens are lively at lunchtime  and a infant in a cradle waves his feet and stuffs them into his mouth.  A young cocker spaniel is on its first outing.  Sunlit cloud rides the fells.  The campsite is quiet at mid-day and within the small plantation it is quieter still.  Above the River Esk tall conifers reach for the light. Fallen trees,  boulders and mossy rocks strewn over a thick layer of pine needles.  A magic of shadows and sunlight. 



Read More
0 Comments

What's Your Favourite Honey?

24/7/2016

0 Comments

 
PictureRed-tailed bumblebee nectaring on ragwort 23 July
 Last summer I was in the Outer Hebrides, walking beside the Atlantic Ocean through the machair- a shell sand dense with white clover.  In the afternoon the sun broke through the clouds, the ocean lit all shades of aquamarine  and as the temperature rose the flowers of the machair released their nectar and a heady fragrance filled the air.  Sensational.  I long for white clover honey to taste the day once more. 
So, what’s your favourite honey: clover,  heather, manuka?  I doubt anyone would opt for ragwort honey but wild bees are eagerly nectaring on its flowers.  Don’t they know it’s toxic?



Read More
0 Comments

Swiftness of Summer

24/7/2016

0 Comments

 
PictureFlower and seed head of hawkbit 23 July
-Summer races away and change comes so swiftly.  There’s a yellow motif to the Scout Scar flora with lady’s bedstraw  and  hawkbit, hawkweed and cat’s-ear – a glory of flowers on the limestone escarpment. Seed-heads are beautiful too.  Down below, at Bradleyfield Farm,  the flock is making a din as lambs and ewes are parted from each other.  The farmhouse is surrounded with a cacophony of sound.  Blackthorn is thick with green sloes which should bode well for the damson crop in the Lyth Valley.  On hot July mornings the swifts screech about the house, volleys of them.  Soon they will be gone.  With flowers the same, their time is brief. 



Read More
0 Comments

Piel Island

16/7/2016

0 Comments

 
PictureYellow Horned Poppy 13 July
 A summer ferry takes passengers from Roa Island out to Piel island, then across Piel Harbour to see the grey seals basking on shoals.  A day of wonderful cloudscapes, a day to bask in the sun- fortunate because we have an enforced lingering.  Our field-trip was well organised but the ferry service was not. There should have been two ferries, two crew in each.  A single crewman plied a single ferry. So waiting about and queuing was the order of the day.  Luckily the sun shone and there were wildlife attractions.



Read More
0 Comments

Haweswater and Swindale: reminiscence

14/7/2016

1 Comment

 
PictureRinglet beside Swindale Beck, 14 July 2016
She gathered   seed-heads of  cotton grass to make  shirts for her  seven brothers,  seven shirts to free her swan- brothers from enchantment, silken shirts to break the spell. *
 Plumes of hare’s-tail cotton grass  catch the light over  Hare Shaw where the moors are rich in flowers of cross-leaved heath, bell heather and  green-budding ling.  To the west, the lost village of Mardale is a ghostly presence,  resurrected from Haweswater in a summer of drought.   The Old Corpse Road rises over  Mardale Common where once the villagers grazed their flocks.  The dead were borne over the moor  to  Swindale Head and on to Shap to be buried.  



Read More
1 Comment

Highlights of the season

8/7/2016

0 Comments

 
PictureMarsh Helleborine at Waitby Greenriggs 5 July
A week of exploration in different locations across Cumbria. There are seasonal highlights I hope to find afresh each year: flowers galore and birds too.  And sensations:  the fragrance of flowers in species-rich grassland at Waitby Greenriggs and Smardale and on Scout Scar. Rain is never far off during this week: rushing water resounds in a Lake District landscape and there are ribbons of cascades coming off the fells. 


Read More
0 Comments

Tarn Hows and Scout Scar: contrasting habitat

4/7/2016

0 Comments

 
PictureEnglish Stone Crop, near Tarn Hows 30 July
One winter’s day, I remember seeing a stand of bog myrtle- dark twigs rising above the ice surrounding Tarn Hows. Today, the shrubs are leafy green and fragrant, amongst fragrant water mint. Cotton grass and orchids too, and bog asphodel.  On outcropping rock there’s a different flora: English stonecrop and bilberry whose bluish fruits begin to ripen.  Marsh valerian- ‘ it smells of horses, ’ says a friend.  We hear a loud barking and scan the trees until we find a deer in full cry.



Read More
0 Comments
    Picture

    Author

    Jan Wiltshire is a nature writer living in Cumbria. She also explores islands and coast and the wildlife experience. (See Home and My Books)

    Archives

    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    September 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    November 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    April 2010
    January 2010
    November 2009
    January 2009
    January 2004

    Categories

    All
    A Local Patch
    Birdlife
    Butterflies And Moths
    Flowers
    Locations
    Views
    Walks
    Weather
    WIldlife

    RSS Feed

Website
Home
Blog
Gallery
Contact



​Cookie Policy
My Books
  • Intro - My books
  • ​Cumbrian Contrasts
  • A Lakeland Experience
  • About Scout Scar
  • Atlantic Odyssey
    ​
Other Writing
  • Intro - Other Writing
  • What Larks!
  • Further - Explore Shetland
  • Autumn Migration
  • Rydal and Nab Scar
  • Perspectives
  • The River Kent
  • Wings
Jan Wiltshire - Cumbria Naturally
© Jan Wiltshire 2022 All rights reserved
Website by Treble3