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

Holker Hall Gardens

30/7/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
 An outing to Holker Hall Garde3ns!  A scenic drive through landscapes I've known this millenium, but  out of reach this spring and summer, until today.  A first visit to these lovely gardens, and so  memorable. 
Herbacerous borders are fragrant and drenched with raindrops.  Fragrances of exotic and unfamiliar flowers. Then the morning brightens and the sun appears, bringing forth butterflies that flutter over the border of delicate flowers about the lawns.  



Read More
0 Comments

Brimstone Butterfly, Autumn Gentian, Harebell

24/7/2020

2 Comments

 
PictureFemale Brimstone butterfly




​​Being in the moment is the best thing,   In deep.
 
In the moment and mindful of all that has gone before,   here in this place,  for me and my friends, for others over time, over centuries as our stories interweave.


Read More
2 Comments

Yarrow, Milfoil, Achillea millefolium

19/7/2020

0 Comments

 
PictureYarrow, Milfoil, Achillea millefolium
 For everything a season.   So where are the hawthorn berries?  I could find none yesterday on Scout Scar and Helsington Barrows- so I shall persevere. Has the crop failed?  Blackthorn has green sloes and juniper has green berries- juniper whose fragrance I love.
And if the hawthorn crop of berries has failed up here, what happened- or did not happen? 
There are floral motifs of the season.  Deep purple betony amongst the bracken, thyme,  lady's bedstraw and yarrow.  No idea where the name yarrow comes from.  Yarrow, milfoil, Achillea millefolium for its feathery leaves.   I like its compact flower-heads  in shades of pink and white and patterns  as its buds form and burst into flower.  Today, a moment of perfect symmetry. 


Read More
0 Comments

Scout Scar and Helsington Barrows: July flora

17/7/2020

0 Comments

 
PictureYarrow, Achillea Millefolium, Milfoil
 Rain,  pervasive light rain and the fells are gone.
 A rabbit.  A linnet in an ash tree.  Swifts silent in cloudy skies.  A raven croaks.   Jackdaws call. 
On Helsington Barrows there's betony, thyme and self-heal, a raindrop palette of purples.  And fragrant lady's bedstraw.   Yellow flowers of hawkweed close against the rain. The elliptical leaves of mouse-ear hawkweed  pale and mouse soft,  mouse-ear hawkweed,  Hieracium pilosella.   The tiny petals of fairy-flax close tight to a fleck of whiteness. 
A morning of close-ups since the fells are lost in rain-cloud,  butterflies are sheltering from the rain.  The lush green of mid-July after rains, after drought. 


Read More
0 Comments

And Tree Pipit

15/7/2020

0 Comments

 
PictureSunlit cloud over the Coniston Fells
 When dark clouds gathered it took a while to enter into the spirit of the morning, its own spirit, not mine.   I heard linnet and redpoll in the scrub, busy rearing their young broods.  And a meadow pipit with a beak stuffed with insects gave a constant warning call to his nestlings, waiting for me to be gone.   Somehow they can  call without losing the insects they've caught.   I try to make out what the pipit brings to its brood for breakfast but the light is too poor.   It's so dark I can see little but if I stick it out something brighter will surely come. A metaphor for our times.


Read More
0 Comments

Lapwing and Scout Scar

12/7/2020

0 Comments

 
PictureThe Langdale Pikes under louring cloud
Where was the promised brightness?  Louring cloud  over    Scout Scar threatened  heavy showers.  I thought of  heading   home when I heard   lapwing and followed their call  through a scrub of hawthorn and gorse until I reached a dry stone wall  topped with a double strand of barbed-wire.  Finding a spot where I could see into the pasture beyond, I  searched amongst summer flowers  lush after rain, their constant calls guiding me to  lapwing parents with two chicks.


Read More
0 Comments

Flora of limestone grassland: Scout Scar and Helsington Barrows

11/7/2020

0 Comments

 
PictureAnthill with flowers of thyme
This July weather is so unsettled it's hard to know what the day may bring.   Saturday was predicted to be sunnier but the day was overcast and cloudy.  Few birds or butterflies on the wing  But rain brings forth flowers and we delighted in the flora of Heslington Barrows.
Insect populations diminish and the numerous anithills of the yellow meadow ant are not the floral hotspots they were some decade or more ago.  So we linger over an anthill thick in flowers of thyme with a mass of purple betony close by 


Read More
0 Comments

Dark Green Fritillary, Common Blue and Cinnabar Moth Caterpillar

6/7/2020

0 Comments

 
PictureDark Green Fritillary nectaring on thistle
It's so clear I can make out the distant waterfalls of Stickle Ghyll  and the gloomy cleft of Dungeon Ghyll.  Pools of light and shadow over the Langdale Pikes.  My heart is in the fells . A day of vistas and Sunday’s strong winds ease through the morning.
‘I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows.’ Butterflies will choose a sunny glade, a sheltered spot where warm air lingers over flowers rich in nectar, Their favourite bramble and thistle  are on today's menu.  
 A hint of blue at my feet, like the petals of a flower.  A long stem of seeding blue moor grass, not petals but wings.


Read More
0 Comments

Stonechat and fledglings

2/7/2020

1 Comment

 
PictureFresh flowers after late June downpours: betony
A glimpse of secret lives-  that's the best there is, a thrilling glimpse.  If we hope for more we delude ourselves.  Wildlife has its own imperatives, distinct from ours.  
In early spring, I listened to a stonechat singing and  his display flight won him a mate.. Through the season I've followed their progress. Alarm calls alert me to their presence and I always stop to see what I might discover.  And on a morning of louring cloud with interludes when the sun broke  through, here they were with their  brood. I knew they were raising a family but this was my first glimpse.





Read More
1 Comment
    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

    June 2025
    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