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Kentmere in October

24/10/2017

Looking north into Kentmere

To Kentmere, once more. No need for a map when my own memory map presents time and place of all those other days, other seasons. The sun spotlights the crag at The Tongue, gleams white off Reservoir Cottage and shadows the disused quarry where I once disturbed a peregrine with its kill. On the last day of March I once heard skylark as a flock of fieldfare took flight from the sycamores by the barns at Stile End, heading north toward the snows at the head of Kentmere.
The morning light is wonderful, in defiance of a gloomy weather forecast.

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Red Deer Rut, Martindale, October 2017

22/10/2017

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Cloud sits low on Rampgsill Head and the roaring of stags echoes about Martindale. Mid-October and the season of the red deer rut, an ancient, atavistic sound-scape. The Martindale herd of native red deer is the oldest in England. Through the loud wind the stags bellow their challenge for control of the hinds. From Hartsop, up past Gray Crag, listening and searching the gullies above Hayeswater, below The Knott, toward Rest Dodd and the head of Rampsgill, below Place Fell we hear the bellowing of the stags. It’s a rite of autumn, the deer rut experience.

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The Great Storm: thirty years to the day

17/10/2017

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Eerie light. 16 October 2017

A crescent of silver moon is lost in cloud. Did I imagine it? Dawn is murky but it's far darker by 9.00am, triggering street-lights. The River Kent flows dark and silent after the turbulence of last week when rocks rumbled in the bed of the river below Stramongate Bridge, below the weir almost lost to standing waves. There's an eerie light in the sky, a flush of red. Hurricane Ophelia is heading our way. Red is her colour.

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October 12th, 2017

12/10/2017

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12 October 2017

Yesterday in Kendal, the River Kent was rising fast. A rumble and clatter of rocks beneath the weir by Stramongate Bridge.
I left Castle Street with lots of signatures on the petition opposing cattle on Kendal Race Course. A lone voice questioned whether the cattle were actually there, she hadn't seen any. Well, here's the evidence from this morning. Once again.
Standing right by the cattle grid, blocking access to one of the two public footpaths.

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Wensleydale: Askrigg, Bolton Castle and Aysgarth Falls

9/10/2017

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Season of mellow fruitfulness 8th October

The warmth of this October day was unexpected and, over-dressed, I glowed like an apple in this Askrigg garden. A baked apple. Askrigg, the location of 'All Creatures Great and Small.' It seems so long ago.
After the Lake District fells, the open grassy sweeps of Wensleydale and its limestone scars were a delight. A network of field-walls, barn, so many barns and sheep.

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Far Easedale, Calf Crag, Gibson Knott, Helm Crag

7/10/2017

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5 October 2017

Becks brim-full , Sour Milk Gill a cascade of whiteness and every waterfall that ever flows pouring off the fells- rainbow in water droplets, rock gleaming wet. Up into Far Easedale, looking into sunlit waterfalls, by the tarn at Brownrigg Moss, over Calf Crag, Gibson Knott, Helm Crag - the sun gleaming off Easedale Tarn and threads of light on the meandering beck down in the dale. A wondrous day.

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Kentmere in October

Red Deer Rut, Martindale, October 2017

The Great Storm: thirty years to the day

October 12th, 2017

Wensleydale: Askrigg, Bolton Castle and Aysgarth Falls

Far Easedale, Calf Crag, Gibson Knott, Helm Crag

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