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

Damsons of the Lyth Valley

15/4/2019

0 Comments

 
PictureDamson blossom at Row, Lyth Valley
From Helsington Church you can see damson blossom all across the Lyth Valley. In orchards about the hamlets of Row and The Howe, about farmsteads, in gardens and bordering fields.  Damsons are delicious and when the last wizened fruit linger on trees run-to-wild the leaves are mellow in autumn colour.  From Whitbarrow, we came down past a limekiln or two, surprising roe deer in an orchard. The scent of wild garlic in the air. white blossoms of wild cherry beside Durham Bridge Wood.

There's excitement at Foulshaw Moss where the female osprey has laid her first egg.  Our best sighting was an osprey flying low across out path as we drove to Foulshaw and we could admire the size and plumage of the bird.
The quest to find the female flowers of bog myrtle is still on! Not for want of trying.  We puzzle over the reproductive strategy of a shrub where male catkins are abundant and the tiny female flowers elusive. 
The Foulshaw bird feeders are a show-case for redpoll, siskin, tree sparrows and reed bunting.  Identification is not as straightforward as you may think.  The hide faces south, into the sun, so sometimes  all you see is the silhouette.  I could show a rogues' gallery of uncooperative birds,  hunched out of shape, half-obscured by branches or vegetation,  heads deep in  feeders or looking straight at me- a successful shot requires a profile. Colour is determined by how the light falls. There is no true colour. 
Tree sparrows ( who bring their kin along) have  chestnut-coloured heads. Reed bunting come singly to feed. The reed bunting wears a black balaclava with a distinctive slash of white on the cheek, meeting  a collar of white.  At Foulshaw Moss you may sit in the hide listening to birdsong whilst studying the songster- it's the perfect way to imprint memory. 
Flames engulf Notre Dame de Paris this evening.  In The New York Times, Steven Erlinger asks what the fire reveals about the Soul of France.  I think upon kings of England and Scotland married there.  Henry V married Catherine de Valois in Troyes.  Their son, Henry V1, was crowned King of France in Notre Dame Cathedral.  James V of Scotland married Madeleine of France in Notre Dame. His daughter, Mary Queen of Scots married her first husband, the Dauphin, in Notre Dame.  Beams from the ancient oak roof lie charred and fallen, oak from the forests of France, beams signed by craftsmen who raised the roof.
Foulshaw Moss,  a landscape regenerated,  was plantation until the last years of the last millennium.  Now a few dead trees spike the moss,  perches for raptors. Like Notre Dame, there are hidden stories in the Foulshaw landscape.  The regeneration project brought a rewetting, a restoration of a lowland raised mire, a blocking of drainage ditches.  There are a few living birch out on the moss and clusters of dead trees with hoof fungus, now deep in water. 
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    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

    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    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 2021 All rights reserved
Website by Treble3