The lambs of Underloughrigg lay fast-asleep in postures of abandonment at 7.00am.
At Fox Ghyll, I emerged from a tunnel of rhodedendron and came upon a heaven of bright stars beside the beck: the massed flowers of bog asphodel fade so fast while the seed heads go on and on. There were orchids and cross-leaved heath, and the white seed-heads of common cotton- grass. What a show! With open ground and water there came a lovely botanical mix and a respite from high bracken which overwhelmed everything else.
The waters of Lily Tarn had drawn back to leave a border of thick silts and rank vegetation. Now was the time of white water lilies, flowers of pondweed and water lobelia, and the yellow hammer sang from his rock redoubt.
On Loughrigg Terrace yellow saxifrage and tormentil would flower through a long season. Coming off the fell was a zone with bog asphodel where a water-track drained into Rydal Water. Attracted by white-flowered sneezewort whose Latin name, Achillea ptarmica, sounds rather like a sneeze, I stepped amongst tussocks and hidden pockets of water, with white bedstraw, yellow greater bird’s-foot trefoil, and purple thistles pollinated by bumble bees with white-tails. There were pale moths, a dark green fritillary sipped nectar from a thistle and an electric blue damselfly came down on soft rush and closed its wings. Magic in a patch of ground that merely looked ragged and overblown a fortnight later.
On Loughrigg Terrace yellow saxifrage and tormentil would flower through a long season. Coming off the fell was a zone with bog asphodel where a water-track drained into Rydal Water. Attracted by white-flowered sneezewort whose Latin name, Achillea ptarmica, sounds rather like a sneeze, I stepped amongst tussocks and hidden pockets of water, with white bedstraw, yellow greater bird’s-foot trefoil, and purple thistles pollinated by bumble bees with white-tails. There were pale moths, a dark green fritillary sipped nectar from a thistle and an electric blue damselfly came down on soft rush and closed its wings. Magic in a patch of ground that merely looked ragged and overblown a fortnight later.
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