Skeggleswater 20 September 2016 Skeggleswater is not for everyone. Even with the heather moorland fragrant and in bloom a friend turned it down, wanting to walk high. So in August we headed for Shipman Knotts and Kentmere Pike, for vistas. From our vantage point we glimpsed Skeggeswater but the tarn and its heather surround appeared unremarkable.
Skeggleswater is secluded, lying low . On a late September day my friend Jill and I lurched through tussocks of tall grasses and boggy hollows beside Skeggleswater Dyke , through the flame-like seed heads of bog asphodel and cross –leaved-heath. A heather knoll rose into view and a green haze of reeds reached out into the tarn. Summer vegetation overspread the water, pond weed and water lily pads soon to shrink back into the silts below.
Skeggleswater is secluded, lying low . On a late September day my friend Jill and I lurched through tussocks of tall grasses and boggy hollows beside Skeggleswater Dyke , through the flame-like seed heads of bog asphodel and cross –leaved-heath. A heather knoll rose into view and a green haze of reeds reached out into the tarn. Summer vegetation overspread the water, pond weed and water lily pads soon to shrink back into the silts below.
Bright sun and fair-weather cloud in a tranquil solitude. Feathers on water lily leaves. The glimmer of grazing sheep as shadow swept over the fell -side. White cattle about an ash tree reflected dark in a pool of liquid gold as sunlight poured over pale grasses. Fish rose and fell with a plop amongst the lily pads. Somewhere to the north a flight of geese was calling.
Geese in the clouds, fish in the clouds. Reflections made magic. Everything was out of the ordinary, in a new light, a rare light that could not last. From the shore where moths flitted, I could stand on a rock and sky-dive down, down through the bright clouds, through pools of liquid gold pouring off the fell side, through a dark pool of heather reflected from the rocky knoll.
Geese in the clouds, fish in the clouds. Reflections made magic. Everything was out of the ordinary, in a new light, a rare light that could not last. From the shore where moths flitted, I could stand on a rock and sky-dive down, down through the bright clouds, through pools of liquid gold pouring off the fell side, through a dark pool of heather reflected from the rocky knoll.
Skirting around the tarn, we returned through the heather. I was on my knees photographing dark coloured sphagnum moss when Jill spied a movement, a tiny adder slithering through the grass. Our shadows loomed above it and it coiled, then vanished into the heather. Adder the colour of bog asphodel seed-heads, a juvenile adder. The females give birth to live young at this season. What a find!
Juvenile adder and sphagnum moss. Thanks to Jill for adder images. For more pictures of reflections on Skeggleswater, see gallery.
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