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Sycamore Gap: Hadrian's Wall, Northumbria - and Brigsteer Road, Kendal

27/9/2023

Sycamore Gap, Brigsteer Road, Kendal

On the night of Storm Agnes the iconic sycamore of Scyamore Gap on Hadrian's Wall was brought down. Not by storm-force winds but (it would seem) by a teenage vandal with a chain-saw. Why would anyone do that, the cry goes up?
The 300 year old tree has featured on countless photographs and in the film 'Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves'. 'I'm Robin of Loxley and this is my land and my tree,' he tells the Sherriff of Nottingham.
We feel a sense of stewardship for our trees.

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Kentmere

9/9/2023

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Autumn mists In the Kentmere woods

The morning was silent and still and a sense of mystery pervaded the wood. The light was low and colour drained away with toppled and tangled trees giving a weird look. A heron squawked and a pair flew over Kentmere Reservoir, a jay screeched at them. Nuthatch and great spotted woodpecker were calling and a tapping resonated in the silence. High notes of gold crest came from high in conifers. Crab apples ripen in the season of mist and mellow fruitfulness. The fells are lost in a thick white mist of saturated air that highlights the realm of spider silk.

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Cranberry flower and fruit at Foulshaw Moss

7/9/2023

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Cranberries and trailing evergreen leaves

'What are those red berries?’
From the board-walk we look beyond bog myrtle and heather, down onto wetter ground with sphagnum moss. Our location is Foulshaw Moss and here is the peat bog of a lowland raised mire. I reckon she’s found cranberries in a zone where sphagnum moss meets heather. And in a tangle of vegetation I glimpse tiny pink flowers – I had not expected to find cranberry flowering in early September. Here are flowers and trailing leaves, tiny pale green fruit and ripe red berries to be discovered.

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Erica studies

7/9/2023

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Cross-leaved heath, Erica tetralix

At Foulshaw Moss the pink flowers of cross-leaved heath fade to tawny-orange as seed-heads form. A terminal compact cluster of flowers on long, straggly stems with whorls of four tiny linear leaves of pale greyish-green. In this image cross-leaved heath shows distinctly against a backdrop of heather with pale purple flowers. Heather or ling is extensive here at Foulshaw, spreading over the raised mire with bog myrtle shrubs.
Cross-leaved heath favours wetter areas of peat and can often be found in watershed zones. Here at Foulshaw both ericas show distinctly, so it's the perfect opportunity to look closely at their structures.
To show something of ericas at different seasons I search my photographic archives for images from a range of different locations.

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Bog Myrtle, Myrica Gale at Foulshaw Moss

7/9/2023

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Bog Myrtle, Sweet Gale, Myrica Gale in early September

Bog myrtle thrives at Foulshaw Moss with shrubs mingling with heather beside the board-walk and spreading out across the raised mire. It's a fragrant plant and I love it especially in early April when its bare twigs are reddish-brown and its catkins burst into flower. When snow covers the fells Bog myrtle shrubs are still visible in boggy watershed zones and if deer and sheep browse on the plant you can see the tips of its branches nipped off. Its catkins are exquisite and they flower so early. I made April pilgrimages to find Bog Myrtle catkins. I should have given attention to late summer and early autumn.

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Perspectives from Smardale Fell

5/9/2023

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From Smardale Fell looking NW over the ghyll to Crosby Garret Fell

Heather is fragrant in the hot sun and there's a refreshing breeze. Dry stone walls pattern the fells, top-stones gleaming white. Heather gives way to pastures above Scandal Beck. There's a limestone quarry on the farther bank and, below it out of sight, two limekilns and a dismantled railway-line, the flower walk. To the south,the profile of Wild Boar Fell shows on a morning that grows hazier. Having walked through Smardale Gill so recently it's good to be high on the heather fell which cannot be seen from there.

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House martin mustering at Sizergh Castle

2/9/2023

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House martin muster on the tower at Sizergh Castle

The chatter of house martin fills the air as they fly in a whoosh and settle high on the castle wall, on narrow ribs on the stone tracery within a window, in a shallow shelf above lead guttering and in niches in the stonework. House martin cling to the stone, showing their white feathered legs and feet. Dark pointed wings poke up from a narrow shelf. Birds half-hidden cling close to the stone offering odd perspectives. This isn't a high-wire or parapet line-up with classic poses, it's much more quirky- like sea-birds crammed onto cliff- ledges.

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Sycamore Gap: Hadrian's Wall, Northumbria - and Brigsteer Road, Kendal

Kentmere

Cranberry flower and fruit at Foulshaw Moss

Erica studies

Bog Myrtle, Myrica Gale at Foulshaw Moss

Perspectives from Smardale Fell

House martin mustering at Sizergh Castle

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