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Sizergh to Helsington Church

28/9/2024

Now, my friend insisted. Now while the sun's on the trees. So we lingered about the lake as sunlight coloured the foliage of guelder rose and spindle. Glad to have seized the moment because cloud soon hid the sun and when we returned to the lake colour was gone from the shrubs. The lake is surrounded by beautiful shrubs and trees and we enjoy returning to see how they fare, through the seasons and year by year. Foliage of the large spindle bush has quickly assumed autumn colour but it has no berries. Now for that lovely rowan, Sorbus Vilmorinii.

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Black Mire to Loughrigg Fell, and descent to Loughrigg Terrace

20/9/2024

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Bog asphodel and cross-leaved heath

Black Mire was golden with the seed-heads of bog asphodel, sprinkled with pink flowers of cross-leaved heath. Not a long walk, but tough. We sloshed up the fellside through the mire of saturated peat, our legs tethered by stems of bracken grown rank through a wet spring and summer. We slogged through the solitude of Black Mire, loving the way sunlight coloured a great sweep of bog asphodel, intense gold, dull gold. I love thinking through habitat, considering the flora that could be here at this season, then finding cross-leaved heath and devil's bit scabious.

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History and Natural History Mapped at Cockerham Marsh and the Lancashire Coastal Path

18/9/2024

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Glasson Canal

All the right notes but not necessarily in the right order, so said Eric of Morecambe Bay whose statue frolics by the sea.
So, a litany of place-names on an OS map of Cockerham Marsh and the Lancashire Coastal Path evoking those who fished and farmed here and wildlife whose place they shared.

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The right to roam Scout Scar and the Lake District National Park

13/9/2024

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Opinion on closing the Brigsteer Bridge

SCAM. That's what many people think. A graffiti artist has painted the word, big and bold, on the barrier above massive concrete blocks preventing access to Brigsteer Bridge. Not everyone accepts that closure is either necessary, or lawful.
For today, I'm grateful that a friend drives us via Prizet Lane, shunting back and forth as vehicles jam a narrow and winding country lane now the only Scout Scar access for diverted traffic.
With bridge closures we'll see who has made it to walk on Scout Scar.

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Smardale geology and trees

9/9/2024

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Gateposts indicate geology at Smardale Gill

Heading off Smardale Fell, toward the packhorse bridge over Scandal Beck, we follow a stone wall rich in limestone fossils. Gateposts indicate the geology here, one being of limestone, the other of sandstone. There's a disused sandstone quarry beside the packhorse bridge and another low on the fellside where we stop for lunch, looking out toward the double lime kilns and the limestone quarry on the northern side of the beck. Today, Scandal Beck flows fast and full and we hear the sound of a tributary beck running off the fell to join it.

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Smardale Heather Fell in September

9/9/2024

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Rough Fell sheep in the heather

Low cloud capped the fells and windscreen wipers cleared the rain. The ground was puddled, the track over Smardale Fell waterlogged. We squelched up the low fell-side where white flowers of Grass of Parnassus were beaded with raindrops. Later in the morning the sun shrugged off cloud and a distant light roved toward us and flood-lit the heather fell.

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Butterflies in Sizergh Castle Gardens

7/9/2024

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Brimstone

Brimstone is the butterfly of the day and they favour pink flowers in the herbaceous border. The morning is hot and at moments brimstones become translucent in strong sunlight, wings self-shadowing and body visible through the hind-wing. With leaf-shaped wings of cryptic design brimstones dissolve into green foliage. The quality of light is remarkable and a fine dark line bordering the wings is visible today. A flickering play of sunlight makes colour evanescent and in an instant a rich buttery brimstone is leaf-green or blazed white, all detail erased.

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Ings to Kentmere, an ambience of fells

4/9/2024

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Approaching Kentmere Hall

Late summer flowers are wayside at our feet and the Kentmere fells open up before us. A group of deer stares at us, then runs A buzzard circles, a cormorant stands on the shore of Kentmere Tarn.
Heather is in bloom, and cross-leaved heath. Devil's bit scabious is in flower and bog asphodel colours the marshy ground.

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Sizergh to Helsington Church

Black Mire to Loughrigg Fell, and descent to Loughrigg Terrace

History and Natural History Mapped at Cockerham Marsh and the Lancashire Coastal Path

The right to roam Scout Scar and the Lake District National Park

Smardale geology and trees

Smardale Heather Fell in September

Butterflies in Sizergh Castle Gardens

Ings to Kentmere, an ambience of fells

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