Damson 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.
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.
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.
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