Full moon on Christmas Eve 2015 There was a glorious full moon on Christmas Eve. Christmas day was dull and rain quickly set in once more on this wettest December for 150 years, with more flood alerts for Cumbria on Boxing Day and the army and the Environment Agency in readiness. Up on Kendal Race Course there’s a traditional hound trailing meet. I wrote about the meet of Boxing Day 2006 in About Scout Scar. At the time, there was a hawthorn standing isolated on the Race Course. Easter Sunday 2008 and there’s snow on the ground and ewes about this dead hawthorn known secretly as the lava-tree.
Kendal Race Course December 2010, the lava-tree
December 2010 saw an Advent with snow and days of light. It was bitterly cold and I counted twenty four waxwing on a tree in the garden, and sunrise was spectacular. Brambling and siskin came to feed and there were fieldfare too. This year I’ve seen a pair of bullfinch here, once. Out on the Race Course the lava-tree made a striking image against the sunrise.
Sometimes, the Race Course is the assembly point for major orienteering events – a car park with tents selling food and kit and with a long row of portaloos. One year, there were lines of orienteers queueing to use the portaloos and at the end of those green cabins stood that dead hawthorn. What kind of tree was this? A lava-tree we decided.
It will feature in my new book, with the Race Course under snow. Now you’ll have to search to find it. The rotting stump won’t last much longer.
In all this rain I fear for wildlife. Losses are largely unseen. It was chance I saw those thousands of river creatures stranded after storm Desmond. Chance I spotted those sheep stranded on an embankment in the Lyth Valley. How much more will be lost this winter?
Sometimes, the Race Course is the assembly point for major orienteering events – a car park with tents selling food and kit and with a long row of portaloos. One year, there were lines of orienteers queueing to use the portaloos and at the end of those green cabins stood that dead hawthorn. What kind of tree was this? A lava-tree we decided.
It will feature in my new book, with the Race Course under snow. Now you’ll have to search to find it. The rotting stump won’t last much longer.
In all this rain I fear for wildlife. Losses are largely unseen. It was chance I saw those thousands of river creatures stranded after storm Desmond. Chance I spotted those sheep stranded on an embankment in the Lyth Valley. How much more will be lost this winter?
RSS Feed