Seed-heads in winter light With the sun low in the sky winter light is distinctive. Hawthorn along the disused railway track were bare of fruit so with scant food-source there were no fieldfare or redwing. A small flock in flight might have been winter thrush, might not. Scandal Beck gleamed out of the shadows. A dipper perched on a rock and flew beneath Smardale packhorse bridge. Can we name the flower from the winter seed-heads, or from memory of the summer?
Light scarcely reached down to the railway track but sunlight roved the surrounding fells and the morning grew brighter until we walked under a dome of blue. The ground at our feet looked sombre, the heather of Smardale Fell interspersed with dull gold grasses, eluded by sunlight. As we walked east there was a raw head-wind but the skyscape was wonderful, dark cloud rimmed with brilliance my camera cannot show. Perhaps cloud is too diffuse for a sharp focus.
Solitude at Smardale gave the day a special quality. A lone dipper, a few corvids and what a wren unseen. Stone walls over Smardale Fell are a geologist's delight. There are disused quarries of sandstone, and of limestone. And today we explored an unfamiliar stretch of wall, finding a wealth of coral fossils. Coral boulders in a wall are offset by shadows in the interstices and there are wisps of winter grass. White lichens pattern the stones. I look out over the top-stones toward sunlit fells and a constantly changing light.
In summer, the banks along disused railway track are a mass of flowers. Now, in December, there are seed-heads of flowers and seeding grasses etched against a winter light. We recognise what were the dense florets of Great Burnet. The quality of the light changes throughout our walk.
December is a time of tradition and remembrance. I am mindful of other seasons, other days of discovery here at Smardale, and companionship.
December is a time of tradition and remembrance. I am mindful of other seasons, other days of discovery here at Smardale, and companionship.
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