Category: Roseberry Common
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Bracken spraying on Roseberry
Roseberry looks different. Striped by quad bike tracks spraying the bracken that infests the Common. Bracken is found worldwide and in Britain, it is particularly invasive especially on the acidic soils of our moorlands. It’s always been with us, a pioneer plant quickly establishing itself as prehistoric man cleared the ancient woodland. But bracken remained…
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Roseberry Common
An easy Monday, sauntering over Roseberry and to Newton Moor and down Ryston Bank. Young bracken fonds are beginning to dominate Roseberry Common. The zigzags of the paved Cleveland Way can be seen climbing Little Roseberry. A fine view to Guisborough and the North Sea beyond. Open Space Web-Map builder Code
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The National Trust Omega Sign
There’s always been an omega sign, the classic National trust design, at the end of Aireyholme Lane on Roseberry Common but the angle on which it had been erected did not give a clear view with the Topping as a backdrop. So when, a couple of weeks ago, I was tasked, as a National Trust…
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I’m doing fine …
… up here on Cloud Nine. There is a measurement for the amount of cloud cover in the sky. That is the ‘okta‘. Not surprisingly there are eight of them. Zero is when the sky is completely clear of cloud and an okta value of eight is when the sky is completely covered. so four…
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And so into February
The shortest month of the year, February takes its name from a Roman festival called “Februa” where the city was purified and evil spirits banished. The first day of the month happens to be the halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, qualifying it as the beginning of spring and the start of…
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Your friendly neighbourhood Robin
Working in the shade of Roseberry, where the frost persisted all day. Two years ago, almost to the day, we planted a new hedge along the north-western boundary of Roseberry Common. Some of those saplings have failed to thrive and so the task today for the National Trust volunteers was to fill in the gaps.…
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Roseberry Common
A glorious morning on Roseberry. The light overnight snow has highlighted the scars left by 19th century jet mining. The spoil still sterile after all these years. The hard black fossil of the Monkey Puzzle tree has been prized for jewellery since the Bronze Age but it was made fashionable by Queen Victoria after the…
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On a windswept Roseberry Common
Not many visitors climbing Roseberry today. There will be plenty of car parking down in Newton. On popular days parking is becoming very difficult. Folk are reluctant to use the National Park run carpark because of the cost preferring instead to park on the verges. There are proposals to introduce double yellow lines and an…
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First snow of the winter
Whoopee. Woke up to falling snow. The first of the winter. And much more to come according to the Express. Their forecast is the coldest winter for years. Very dire, El Nino’s fault apparently. The photo is on Roseberry Common looking up Little Roseberry. The snow was now sleet. Remembered my hat, remembered my gloves…
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Dead Men’s Bells
Have you ever heard of a more absurd name? Foxgloves, gloves for foxes! Foxes don’t have fingers so if anything it should be fox mittens. There are as many folk names for foxgloves as there are counties. Few refer to gloves and fewer to foxes. Bunny rabbit’s mouths, witches thimble, fairies petticoats, elf-caps, clothes pegs,…