Cumbria Naturally
  • Home
  • Blog
  • My Books
    • Cumbrian Contrasts
    • A Lakeland Experience >
      • Introduction
      • Derwent
      • Langdale
      • Ullswater
      • Kentdale
    • About Scout Scar
    • Atlantic Odyssey
  • Other Writing
    • What Larks!
    • Further - Explore Shetland
    • Autumn Migration
    • Rydal and Nab Scar
    • Perspectives
    • The River Kent
    • Wings
  • Gallery
  • Contact

Sizergh Castle to Scout Scar

20/9/2019

0 Comments

 
PictureMares' tails through water lilies, SIzergh Castle gardens
A mellow morning at SIzergh Castle gardens where dragonflies mate in the bright and sultry air. Water lilies spiked with mares' tails and across the lake berries of hawthorn and guelder rose shot through with sunlight.  Cordons of apples bordering a profusion of flowers.   Red admirals nectaring on  everlasting flowers with waxy petals and sedum alive with small tortoiseshell, painted ladies, bees,wasps and hoverflies.   Here nature thrives.

Fruiting hornbeam seeds hang thick, like bunches of keys.  Spiders' webs on morning dew.  There are bee hives in an orchard where ripening apples glow in the sun.  The gardeners share their knowledge-  rare varieties of apples that tell a history of horticulture.  Flowers, fruit and vegetables in vibrant colour and a profusion of pollinators.  Pink and white daisies spill down the steps descending from the castle.  A bank of tufty grass is home to solitary bees, so neat handwriting on a slate tells us.  There's much to discover and the birds we hear in the tree tops will be easier to see once autumn leaves fall.    
Saturday 21st and a sensuous day on Scout Scar.   Sunny and warm on bare arms with a delicious breeze that rustled the dry leaves of ash trees.   So still I could hear the beat of ravens' wings.  A jay was calling down in Honeybee Woods below the escarpment.   Goldfinch gathering.  No sign of swallows.   
Whitebeam full of ripening fruit.  They grow in the cliff face and on the scree buttress below.  Whitebeam-  the white tree- named for the pale underside of its leaves.  Hawthorn thick with fruit too.  There are sloes but not in such abundance.   The last of the scabious and harebell flowers and yellow hawkbit.   Few late bramble flowers so few butterflies-  what a contrast to Sizergh gardens.
A fine day to walk the Scout Scar ridge with the Lake District Fells to the west and the Howgills to the east.  An autumnal haze in a cloudless sky.  Cloudless -  but let your eye sweep upward from the horizon to a zenith of intensifying blue.
A  herd of cattle has appeared on Kendal Race Course.  The warm weather has dried out the slop of cow muck along the farm track and about the stiles.  
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Author

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

    Archives

    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    September 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    November 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    April 2010
    January 2010
    November 2009
    January 2009
    January 2004

    Categories

    All
    A Local Patch
    Birdlife
    Butterflies And Moths
    Flowers
    Locations
    Views
    Walks
    Weather
    WIldlife

    RSS Feed

Website
Home
Blog
Gallery
Contact



​Cookie Policy
My Books
  • Intro - My books
  • ​Cumbrian Contrasts
  • A Lakeland Experience
  • About Scout Scar
  • Atlantic Odyssey
    ​
Other Writing
  • Intro - Other Writing
  • What Larks!
  • Further - Explore Shetland
  • Autumn Migration
  • Rydal and Nab Scar
  • Perspectives
  • The River Kent
  • Wings
Jan Wiltshire - Cumbria Naturally
© Jan Wiltshire 2021 All rights reserved
Website by Treble3