Fells above Kentmere Hall A bright winter's day amidst days of rain. Everywhere there's the sound of water flowing off the fells. The becks are lively and water-tracks appear, and vanish in fair weather.
The low winter sun highlights a pattern of field-walls and outlying barns. Above Kentmere Hall becks are fringed with alder and birch and there's a scatter of boulders. The sky is peerless blue, winter bracken glows and the woods are warm and muted colours.
The low winter sun highlights a pattern of field-walls and outlying barns. Above Kentmere Hall becks are fringed with alder and birch and there's a scatter of boulders. The sky is peerless blue, winter bracken glows and the woods are warm and muted colours.
Hazel catkins gleam in the sunlight. Alder is distinctive amongst winter trees, its crown thick with dark purple catkins and last summer's cones still visible. Alder grow all along the upper reaches of the RIver Kent. On the slopes above Kentmere Hall there are downy birch whose crowns show hues of rosy-brown.
Yew trees found in a church yard often pre-date the church itself. A yew may be five thousand years old, and much older. Naturalist Richard Mabey spoke recently of the significance of yew growing by the south porch of churches. He believes they are emblems not of death but of regeneration. The tree can hollow-out from the centre, sending out new trunks, new growth. The yew at Kentmere Church has several column-like trunks. They just keep on going. Every part of the tree is toxic, except for the red jelly of the aril beloved of birds. But yew is also the basis for cancer-treating drugs, so life-giving too.
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