Bog asphodel, Narthecium ossifragum, Lingmoor Fell A calm and still day with haze over the fells. Bog asphodel is spectacular with drifts of starry yellow flowers beside water-tracks and in boggy cols. Bog pimpernel is elusive and we search to find it. The familiar track rising to LIngmoor is gone, overwhelmed with high summer bracken, the map out-dated. So we slog up through bracken, spiny thistle and thorny rose. When we emerge beside a water-track with bog pimpernel we feel we have earned the flowers.
Bog pimpernel has tiny pale pink flowers. Petals are streaked with deeper pink and anthers are dark, almost black. The loveliest flowers are growing in sphagnum moss.
Lingmoor takes its name from ling, heather, Calluna vulgaris. First of the ericas to flower is resplendent Bell heather. Cross- leaved heath flowers in boggy ground amongst orchids, bog asphodel and cotton grass. Ling, or Calluna vulgaris is budding and soon to flower. Bilberry and Stag’s horn clubmoss are offset by a foil of lichened rock. Long stems creep along the ground, rooting along the way. Pairs of green fruiting cones grow upright. Stag’s horn clubmoss, Lycopodium clavatum,
Looking down upon Blea Tarn from the Lingmoor ridge, its still waters mirror a milky sky. We come down off the ridge and the mood changes with our shifting perspective, and with the light. The summer fells are reflected in the tarn, its waters a sheen of green. Pale flowers of water lobelia stipple the still water, ruffled as a mallard swims through them. By the outflow are flowers close to the shore, delicate and lovely flowers. There are orchids and shrubs of bog myrtle.
Beside Bleamoss Beck, birch has green catkins already formed for next spring. I love this sense of seasonal transitions, a preparedness for what is to come.
Beside Bleamoss Beck, birch has green catkins already formed for next spring. I love this sense of seasonal transitions, a preparedness for what is to come.
Pipits vocal over Lingmoor but our best birds come late. Approaching the foot of the Wrynose Pass I hear yellowhammer and we find the bird all aglow in green bracken. It’s a while since I’ve seen yellowhammer so this sighting is a highlight of the day.
Somewhere in the trees fringing Greenburn Beck I hear redpoll.
Young Herdiwcks peer at us through a fence above Little Langdale Tarn and swallows flit low above them. Others perch low on a wire topping a stone wall. Here is a juvenile swallow, the adult shows richer red on the face and has long tail streamers. Here, late afternoon, the best light of the day catches the blue sheen on the young swallow’s mantle. Look at the foot-hold, the way the swallow’s claws enfold the strand of wire. A lovely interlude of swallows and Herdwicks in the late afternoon.
Somewhere in the trees fringing Greenburn Beck I hear redpoll.
Young Herdiwcks peer at us through a fence above Little Langdale Tarn and swallows flit low above them. Others perch low on a wire topping a stone wall. Here is a juvenile swallow, the adult shows richer red on the face and has long tail streamers. Here, late afternoon, the best light of the day catches the blue sheen on the young swallow’s mantle. Look at the foot-hold, the way the swallow’s claws enfold the strand of wire. A lovely interlude of swallows and Herdwicks in the late afternoon.
Next day is a writing day. There are alternative approaches. Swallows and Amazons, as a title, perhaps. To boldly go, that's our day. Bold and venturesome. Blood-blisters from wading through tall thistles. As for the rock descent of the ridge, between rock and barbed wire! What technique! Then sitting astride a rock, feet in Blea Tarn for close-ups of water lobelia. A satisfying sense of having given my all. An ugly twinge or two won’t last but good memories will. Well over two hundred images. Yellow hammer and bog pimpernel take dedication, cannot be rushed. Would we hear the chimes at midnight?
For a wider selection of the day’s images, go to Gallery.
For a wider selection of the day’s images, go to Gallery.
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