From Brund Fell looking down into Borrowdale A millennium ago, my parents and I walked to Watendlath from our farmhouse at Seatoller. A black and white photograph shows my father in a tweed jacket and me with his shepherd's crook walking stick. I was twelve and, in today’s hot sun, I wished I had the resilience of my girlhood-self to slog up from Rosthwaite to Brund Fell and Joppelty How through high-summer bracken. One summer there was a drought and our farmhouse garden looked scorched. Not the extreme heat of summer 2022 and we were innocent of the knowledge of Climate Change. And when you're twelve it's fine.
I wish I could step back in time, to contemplate the place through my naturalist's eyes. Back then, we walked the traditional route to Watendlath, via Hazel Bank, Resting Stone and Puddingstone Bank. Resting Stone, today it's a heady 24 degrees in the afternoon when we come down by Resting Stone. A rest, any resting stone will do so I sit down on a rock in the middle of the track!
Watendlath, the home of Judith Paris of The Herries Chronicles. My friend and I read the stories in girlhood and were captivated by the romance. Re-reading them when I came to live in Cumbria on the cusp of the new millennium I was disappointed, finding Walpole pedestrian and laboured. The loveliness of these fells endures, the secret places, not Watendlath itself but thereabouts. Even on a summer's day in the holiday season we find solitude. We are quite alone on that long hot slog up through high bracken to Joppelty How and for the magic to work let there be solitude.
Watendlath, the home of Judith Paris of The Herries Chronicles. My friend and I read the stories in girlhood and were captivated by the romance. Re-reading them when I came to live in Cumbria on the cusp of the new millennium I was disappointed, finding Walpole pedestrian and laboured. The loveliness of these fells endures, the secret places, not Watendlath itself but thereabouts. Even on a summer's day in the holiday season we find solitude. We are quite alone on that long hot slog up through high bracken to Joppelty How and for the magic to work let there be solitude.
So, a reprise of Joppelty How and Brund Fell. Heather is in full bloom and fragrant and as we climb we stop to look back down into Borrowdale, to Castlerigg and up to Dale Head and High Spy. From Joppelty How we look north to Derwentwater and Bassenthwaite. East of Watendlath lies the Ullscarf ridge and on this hot day I reflect on the thrill of being caught in a blizzard. From a panorama of vistas to the heather habitat at our feet. Unlike other parts of the UK, the Cumbrian fells are not frazzled this August. Becks are flowing and there are the sounds of water in the landscape. Heathers are in full bloom, and fragrant. The strong sun blazes through foliage and you can sense the heat in some of my images. There are more days of extreme heat predicted so we're fortunate to come whilst there's water in the landscape. For me, the essence of the Lake District is the sound of water and it's life-giving power.
How to distinguish those different heathers? Bell heather, Eric cinerea, has magenta flowers and favours drier ground and niches in rock. Heather, Ling, Calluna vulgaris, has pale lilac flowers around a slender stem. The pink flowers of Cross-leaved heath, Erica tetralix, are often found in boggy cols and closer to water. But sometimes we find all three heathers intermingled, and they do not show in field-guide distinctiveness. They morph from bud to full-bloom to seed-head with changing colours along the way. Our eyes are not good enough to pick out all the detail I can show subsequently in images and I discover one or two bilberries I missed at the time. A botanist friend told me that drought-stressed foliage changes from green to red and I find that on the leaves of bilberry plants. Bell heather has magenta flowers on wine-red stems. They’re lovely en masse and in detail.
Coming off Joppelty How, on a wet fell-side, we came upon more bog asphodel with a few yellow-star flowers and developing seed-heads. And common spotted orchid.
On the watershed in the direction of Dock Tarn there's a mass of bog myrtle in leafy green. Come here in April and bog myrtle is at its loveliest, with bare red stems and catkins of pink and gold. The fragrance is wonderful. In winter, there's more colour-contrast and dry stone walls show up distinctly. Over seasons, over time, in this way a place takes hold in the heart.
Coming off Joppelty How, on a wet fell-side, we came upon more bog asphodel with a few yellow-star flowers and developing seed-heads. And common spotted orchid.
On the watershed in the direction of Dock Tarn there's a mass of bog myrtle in leafy green. Come here in April and bog myrtle is at its loveliest, with bare red stems and catkins of pink and gold. The fragrance is wonderful. In winter, there's more colour-contrast and dry stone walls show up distinctly. Over seasons, over time, in this way a place takes hold in the heart.
Borrowdale is known for its Atlantic oak woods and, looking from Rosthwaite toward Brund Fell, we see that the lower slopes of the fells are green with native woodland.
Radio 4 BBC Inside Science on 11 August 2022 has its final item on the restoration of Hardknott Forest and native oaks. Scientists working on the project have discovered that it can be between 5-7 degrees cooler in a wood. It's due to EVAPOTRANSPIRATION, a process whereby water is transferred from the land to the atmosphere by evaporation from the soil and other surfaces, and by transpiration from trees. So woodland is a cooler place to be in the extreme weather of August 2022.
Planting young trees is not an instant solution to the loss of mature trees. It takes twenty years for evapotranspiration to bring about that significant localised cooling of between 5-7 degrees.
Radio 4 BBC Inside Science on 11 August 2022 has its final item on the restoration of Hardknott Forest and native oaks. Scientists working on the project have discovered that it can be between 5-7 degrees cooler in a wood. It's due to EVAPOTRANSPIRATION, a process whereby water is transferred from the land to the atmosphere by evaporation from the soil and other surfaces, and by transpiration from trees. So woodland is a cooler place to be in the extreme weather of August 2022.
Planting young trees is not an instant solution to the loss of mature trees. It takes twenty years for evapotranspiration to bring about that significant localised cooling of between 5-7 degrees.
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