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

Snow on Scout Scar

15/1/2021

0 Comments

 
PictureLooking north, the fells lost in mist
,Snow came overnight from the north-east,  patterning the face of the out-take wall approaching Scout Scar.   The Howgills lie snow-white and sculptural.  Fells to the north and west are lost in mist and low cloud.  Mist rises like drifting smoke from the Lyth Valley and toward Morecambe Bay the estuary and the sea gleam as the sun casts a soft gold over the sky.  The panorama of snow-clad fells is hidden but Scout Scar escarpment lies sunlit under snow, and that is rare.



Read More
0 Comments

Drunken blackbirds and The Northern Lights

13/1/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
What birds had I seen today, I was asked by a local couple. They had found a handful of fieldfare on Helsington Barrows. I was returning from the spot but had missed them.  We spoke of garden birds, of blackbirds and the January hungry gap.  Blackbirds had gorged on their rowan berries back in early autumn, perhaps as early as August. He had seen a blackbird eating twenty rowan berries, then crashing into their windows in intoxicated flight. He must have seen my scepticism and they assured me it is so. Drunken blackbirds?  


Read More
0 Comments

New Year Moon

10/1/2021

1 Comment

 
Picture

From behind the Scots Pines the full moon rises radiant on a cold, clear night. Scintillae of light sparkle somewhere in the freezing air, somewhere between the moon and me there are spiculae,  ice-particles only my camera can see. Then she appears in a corona of blue.  The moon looks down upon us with serene gaze.  I am curious of her mysteries. 
At midnight, she illuminates stairs to the skylight where I  open the window and look out upon her. 
​ 


Read More
1 Comment

Kendal Castle in snow

8/1/2021

0 Comments

 
PictureKendal Castle as snow falls
Snow-cloud gathered to the east and blotted out the fells. Slowly, gently the snow came in the afternoon.  Snowflakes floated in the air, snowflakes so light and airy they rose and fell in a swirl.  
Stay at home is the Government's urgent plea as the NHS comes under unprecedented pressure during the pandemic. There are ice warnings so stay at home makes sound sense.  Stay at home and find a project.  Mine today is weather-watching and to see what I might photograph from home.


Read More
0 Comments

Jay in winter

4/1/2021

0 Comments

 
PictureJay and withering January fruits
One spring, I came upon a young jay that had fallen from the nest.  And watched the brood learning to fly. This winter,  I often hear a jay in these same  trees as I walk to Scout Scar.  
A jay visits our gardens. With  lockdown 3  here is a challenge. 
Photograph the garden jay in good light, all aspects and details of  plumage.  
Is it the same jay who comes to the garden?
The breeding season is not far off. Will this bird find a mate and raise young here in our gardens?
Find where he spends the night.


Read More
0 Comments

New Year's Day on Scout Scar

1/1/2021

0 Comments

 
PictureLooking north, from Scout Scar escarpment
 New Year's Day and the panorama from Scout Scar is beautiful.  And beguiling.  The flow of cloud, of light and shadow, makes it difficult to be sure of what you're seeing.
Cloud or fell?   The word cloud means both crag, fell and atmosphere - all in the mix.
To the North, sunlight confers a warm glow on the fells. The woods below Scout Scar show in warm colour, with a hatching of shadows to distinguish the crown of individual trees in the canopy.  Snow on the distant fells, the ground hard and a keen frost. 


Read More
0 Comments

At full moon

31/12/2020

0 Comments

 
PictureFull moon rising, 30 December 2020
At  home in sequential lockdowns during 2020, we take much pleasure in the beauty of sunrise and sunset, in moonlight and in rainbows.  And we share the joy they bring with our neighbours.  Our horizons shrink, our freedoms are curtailed but the natural world has grandeur and splendour and it is there for everyone. 
So at sunrise and sundown I'm eager to see what these winter days may bring. 


Read More
0 Comments

The White Christmas of 2020

25/12/2020

0 Comments

 
PictureChristmas Day sunrise
2020 is declared A White Christmas.
On Christmas Eve there’s an icy wind from the North.  The muddy track to Scout Scar begins to freeze.   By Christmas Day puddles are iced over, the ground is hard but the wind has dropped so no wind-chill factor. And on both days there is sunshine and snow on the fells- hurray!



Read More
0 Comments

Songs of the Sky: the Northern Lights

24/12/2020

0 Comments

 
PictureSunrise, Christmas Day 2020
Christmas Eve: let us go, in wonder, into the realm of the imagination.
The Boreal forest was deep in snow.  Rime-ice sunlit on birch trees. Herald of spring, a black-bellied dipper splashed in a stream with ice-fretwork.  A male appeared, mated with her and was gone  in an instant. Sunlit ice prisms floated  in the air, translucent lozenges of ice, scintillating diamond dust. 
The Spring Equinox 2006. I was in Arctic Finland and north-eastern Norway. 


Read More
0 Comments

Scout Scar: treasure trove

15/12/2020

1 Comment

 
PictureThe Bright Field
The wail of ambulance sirens fades as I turn my back on the town and  climb toward Scout Scar escarpment.   Amidst the rain and December gloom there comes a day of wondrous light and I stand poised on the threshold of another world.  Here is treasure trove,  something of inestimable worth, and now to  make it mine . 


Read More
1 Comment

December Days on Scout Scar

6/12/2020

1 Comment

 
Picture
The Howgills sunlit in snow 5th December 2020

​Saturday 5th December.   Heading toward Scout Scar, we turned to look east and, behind us, the Howgills rose gleaming white with snow.  To either side, the fells were streaked with snow but the Howgills had borne the brunt of the snowfall.   It's not only snowfall that suggests the season- the low winter sun illuminates the earth distinctly. There is a hint of warm colour and texture too. 

Read More
1 Comment

Rainbows over Scout Scar

2/12/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
 A morning of brilliance and louring cloud.  Ravens glided and soared above Scout Scar escarpment,  riding the up-draught.  A dome of blue above, to the north  a mass of inky cloud.  Moments of light rain on the wind and a day of rainbows. 
I love to see winter trees caught in sunlight against a dark fell.  And the warm and subtle colours of winter woods.


Read More
0 Comments

Dawn Ist December 2020, the first day of winter

1/12/2020

0 Comments

 
PictureSunrise on the first day of winter
  Ist December 2020, the first day of meteorological winter.  And dawn  was glorious.  Carpe diem, seize the day.  Seize the dawn, I say.  Darkness over the town, with pin-points of light.  And s spectacle of ever-changing colour and pattern.   To the west.  windows flamed with reflected brilliance- as if  houses were on fire. 


Read More
0 Comments

James Rebanks English Pastoral, an inheritance: from Scout Scar

29/11/2020

0 Comments

 
PictureAgricultural landscape: the Lyth Valley
‘Most people are now largely illiterate when it comes to agriculture and ecology.’  So writes James Rebanks, English Pastoral, an inheritance.  Life on a Lake District hill farm through three generations, a picture of a farming community and its strong bonds.  English Pastoral, an inheritance. not an idyll, although there is beauty and wonder. An inheritance,  something to nurture  for future generations. It’s an important book- set in Cumbria with far wider resonance.
So, are we literate. can we read agricultural landscape and ecology?   



Read More
0 Comments

Scout Scar - thanks giving

25/11/2020

1 Comment

 
PictureFells to the east, their tops breaking through mist
A day of breath-taking beauty, calm and    still,  White mist  lingers in valleys and, to the    east, toward the Howgills, the  tops peep through- like slivers of dark cloud.  How welcome the sun after such a wet October and gloomy November days.  The second lockdown of 2020 and I can walk only here, but here is marvellous.  We may only  meet  outdoors but it's so warm and bright we relax into companionability, as we did in spring.  So, at Thanks Giving,  I celebrate the beauty of the natural world, and friendship.


Read More
1 Comment

Rainbows: Covid Diaries in November and lockdown 2

22/11/2020

1 Comment

 
PictureRainbow over Scout Scar
The rainbow is an emblem of hope and optimism. Always has been.  Non sine sole reads the motto of  Elizabeth 1st in her rainbow portrait.
Non sine sole  where there's a rainbow you'll find the sun.   
The rainbow has become an emblem of  the Covid 19 pandemic.  Yes, let's be hopeful.  Hope underpinned with  good sense and compliance. All of us, all the time. 
Out on Scout Scar I find three rainbows.  And I overhear conversations on Covid non-compliance and the anger it causes.  



Read More
1 Comment

A Hawthorn Hedge

12/11/2020

1 Comment

 
PictureHawthorn hedge on an embankment above an old track
Above Torver Beck we followed a track below an embankment topped with a hedge of hawthorn. A sheltering hedge, old trees gone to wild,  sculpted by age, by wind and weather.  Men  walked this way to quarry the green and black slate about Coniston back in the 13th century.  A hedge is liminal, the boundary where we venture forth  from  the safety of  farm and pastoral for the open fell and the unknown. 
​


Read More
1 Comment

Cunswick Fell in Lockdown 2,  10 November 2020

10/11/2020

0 Comments

 
PictureFieldfare and redwing in an ash tree
Hearing fieldfare and redwing, we found them in the top of a leafless tree , amongst ash keys.  On a cloudy November day winter thrush appear darkly.   No sun to illumine them but  look closely and you can make out the grey head, the light grey rump and dark tail, the disposition of the wings when the bird is at rest. 
On Cunswick Fell there are plentiful haws on hawthorn, with red arils on yew and holly berries. 
The last hazel leaves fall to leave branches thick with green catkins, dormant and ready for winter.



Read More
0 Comments

Fieldfare

7/11/2020

0 Comments

 
PictureFieldfare 7 November 2020
Frost and a dawn of soft, warm colour.
I know where to find  berried shrubs on Scout Scar and I'm always alert for winter thrush.  The whitebeam crop has failed this year, so hawthorn will be the attraction. A bird's white belly gleamed in the sun. A lone fieldfare. Its throat and breast cloaked in warm pattern, a flush of pure gold then radiant white.  You might think plumage would absorb light but this luminous heart of white shone forth  The head grey, the under-side of the tail shows dark.  
A sole fieldfare on a hawthorn, no more all morning.  The sun was warm and the day rather misty 


Read More
0 Comments

Blackbirds

6/11/2020

1 Comment

 
PictureMale blackbird
If numbers of blackbirds appear in gardens this autumn they may well be migrants from Norway, Sweden and Finland.  Come to compete for food with native blackbirds here throughout the year. .
A bright eye-ring and black plumage distinguish the male blackbird.  Follow this sequence of images and you'll see some with characteristic bright yellow bill, others- like this male, have a darker bill. I think this is a first-winter male.
This blackbird has squashed the berry he's about to eat. Others appear to swallow them whole.
Lockdown is an opportunity to discover more about a bird we think we know. 


Read More
1 Comment
<<Previous
    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

    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 2019 All rights reserved
Website by Treble3