Month: September 2016
-
Scarth Wood Farm
An intriguing building. Named on the modern map, as well as the Ordnance Survey Six Inch 1854 edition, as a farm but I can’t help thinking there is more to it than just a common or garden farmhouse. It is roofed with Welsh slate, a relatively expensive material, compare with the pantile roof of the outbuildings in…
-
Birdsfoot Treeroot
A break with tradition. An arty closeup. Had an explore along Black Bank, an area of clear felling on the escarpment of Great Ayton Moor where some crags and boulders have been revealed. Interesting enough but I was fascinated by this tree stump where the bark has worn off to expose knobbly, wavy roots. Reminding me of a bird’s foot. Or…
-
Piethorne Reservoir
It’s always good to explore a new area. Bleakedgate Moor, in the South Pennines south of the M62 is an area I have never been on. As the name says a bleak place, with hard gritstone tracks, tussocky moorland and black peaty bogs. But a warm, sunny day and a pleasant break on the way back from Manchester.…
-
White Gill
In the Tabular Hills, limestone country in the southern half of the North York Moors and a view west over the Vale of Mowbray to the Yorkshire Dales, supposedly one of the “finest views in all of England”. White Gill, the stream at the bottom of a deep valley with no name, and downstream, the village of Kepwick.…
-
Farndale
Farndale, one of the quieter dales of the North York Moors. Except in the daffodil season. Five minutes later the rain came.
-
Easby Moor from Roseberry
My turn to take the dog out this morning so out early from a damp and misty Great Ayton, the sea fret of yesterday still persisting. Climbing Roseberry the sun began to appear until a cloudless blue sky at the summit with the Cleveland plain hidden below. This is a view to Capt. Cook’s Monument on Easby Moor.
-
The complicated sex life of the Knopper gall wasp
Almost three hundred species of insect are associated with the oak tree. And that doesn’t include over 400 species of mites. One of these is a tiny wasp, Andricus quercuscalicis, which lays its eggs in the Spring in the buds of our native oak tree. This results in a woody growth or gall being formed between the…
-
Parasol Mushroom, Roseberry
I love mushrooms. Sautéed in butter with a hint of garlic. And if this is a Parasol Mushroom, Macrolepiota procera, it is reputed to be one of the best to eat. But if it’s a False Parasol, Chlorophyllum molybdites, I would be in trouble as it’s poisonous. Although native to North America it has been found in Scotland. Or then it could…
-
Caw Slate Mine
Fit for nothing today after yesterday’s exertions so I thought I would be justified in posting another photo from yesterday. This is Caw Slate Mine on the western slope of Caw, a 529m peak on the Coniston Fells. The view is north across the Duddon valley with Harter Fell the obvious peak left of centre.
-
Where was I today?
On the Lake District Mountain Trial so somewhere in the Lakes. But where? A reservoir, although a tarn existed before it was enlarged at the turn of the twentieth century. Apparently there was a riot amongst its construction workers when several were shot including one fatality. Quite peaceful today. No prizes only the kudos of being a…