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May on Scout Scar

21/5/2020

1 Comment

 
PictureHelsington Barrows
 
​A flock of starling swept clamorous across Kendal Race Course, and came down into the trees,  still vocal. Some had beaks full of insects. Did the flock including this spring's juveniles? 
Early in the afternoon, the cuckoo was calling and we saw him in flight. The light was constantly changing, illuminating the landscape anew, with dark yew trees casting dark shadows on the limestone clitter. 

The stonechat  beside the path chats away, warning his youngsters of our approach. There are hawthorn, holly and juniper- dense bushes where the stonechat builds a nest of grasses, lining it with softer material to cushion the three to six greenish blue eggs mottled sometimes with brown.
There were more flowers and butterflies to be found on Helsington Barrows, tiny Dingy Skippers that vanished as they settled onto the ground.  The sun shone on limestone clitter and a sweep of lemon-yellow flowers that  seem to grow densely, until you come nearer.   The lemon flowers looked lovely en masse, and offset by a foil of moss amongst the limestone.  Mouse-ear Hawkweed, Hieracium pilosella.  A basal rosette of ellipical leaves with woolly white hairs.(Pilose, with hairs.)   The flower attracts the glossy green beetle I photographed a few days ago.
Spring Bank Holiday is upon us, 25th May.  Beaches and beauty spots are braced for an influx of tourists.  ' Go home' is painted on the roads to Wales.  Cumbria  will welcome visitors, but not now, not yet. 
23rd May.  Breaking news:  how will  Prime Minister Boris Johnson  respond to his senior adviser Dominic Cummings' breach of restrictions in travelling with  his family from London to Durham whilst displaying symptoms of Covid 19?   Don't be a Cummings.  Make  rules for everyone else- self and family exempt.  It is an intolerable hypocrisy.  Like the author Neil Gaiman who flew over 11,000 miles New Zealand to Skye, to 'self-isolate easily.'  He apologises.  Gaiman is lost in a fantasy world, he simply doesn't get it.
'Who can arraign me for it?' asks Goneril.  She thinks she's  above the law, too powerful, too rich,  too famous.   
Only the Prime Minister can arraign Cummings, apparently. England expects ---
1 Comment
Glaramara
24/5/2020 10:57:26 am

England expects, but isn't run by, a prime minister with a sense of duty, sadly. I've been cheered up by watching house martins mating on the low roof beneath my window. I had to check that they were house martins - somehow I thought everything would happen on the wing, but not so. A certain amount of overbalancing, though.

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    Jan Wiltshire is a nature writer living in Cumbria. She also explores islands and coast and the wildlife experience. (See Home and My Books)

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