Category: Newton Wood
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The Bluebell Meadow, Newton Wood
Not very blue in Autumn. Compare with a photo I took almost from the same spot a year and six months ago. The blues of May have been replaced by the golden hues of Autumn. Meanwhile we drift into the month of November. The word has a Latin root, novem or nine, for in the calendar of…
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The best thing about Pteridium aquilinum …
… is when it’s dying off. Bracken, carcinogenic, toxic to livestock, invasive and dominating, smothering the growth of other plants. At the height of the summer it forms an impenetrable undergrowth. Yet the autumn bracken changes to rich yellow hues. Super even on a drizzly morning.
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Newton Woods
A day spent working with the National Trust to carry out repairs to the steps on the main tourist route up Roseberry through Newton Woods. Two tonnes of hardcore hand carried up in buckets to make good the treads which had sunk due to compaction. 28 done, only 170 to go.
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Newton Moor
Back home on my home moors and I’m saddened to find the remains of a campfire on Newton Moor which is at the remotest part of the National Trust’s Roseberry Topping property. What makes it even more depressing is that the wooden post to which this sign was fixed has been used for fuel.
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Horse Tails
Horse Tails has been described as a living fossil. It is the only surviving member of the class of plants known as Equisetopsida which dominated the forests 360 million years ago during the Carboniferous period. At a time when the dinosaurs still had to evolve Equisetopsida for 100 million years grew up to a height of 30m during which our coal…
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Male Fern
A wet miserable day with low cloud hiding any views of the hills so my attention had to be closer to my feet. In Newton Woods the bluebells have gone off the boil. Their vivid blues have paled and the bracken fronds overtaken them. But less prevalent than bracken are clumps of ferns. Now I’m…
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Ramsons
I’ve already posted a photo of this plant earlier this Spring (March 25). Back then the lush green leaves that covered the woodland floor were a welcome sight after the dull colours of winter. The flowers of the ramsons are a delicate white that display a carpet of colour that is equal to that of the bluebells.…
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Bluebells, Newton Wood
I’ve been holding off this photo for three or four weeks now. Just waiting for for bluebells to be at their best. They just don’t seem to be in the same profusion this year. Must have been the cold spring we have had. Finally my patience has run out. These will be the English variety which are a protected species under the…
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Celandine
One of the ideas I had for my daily photo was to record the seasonal changes in the woods and moors. But every time so far I have taken a nature photo I’ve come across something else more interesting. Today was an active rest day. So just a wander around my local patch. In Newton Woods spring…
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Kip, Cliff Rigg Incline
The ruined wall is the top of the self acting incline used to haul wagons of ironstone down the escarpment at the Cliff Rigg end of Newton Wood. It is known as a “kip”; the snow accentuates the profile. A rake of wagons full of iron ore was lowered down the incline by a steel rope wrapped around a…