Duke of Burgundies, A Holly Blue, An Osprey, Iridescent Clouds, an Interloper.

October 9, 2021 beatingthebounds4 Comments

A post to take me a bit further through May. These first six photos were all taken on the same Sunday. I was out for an early walk with TBH, then took B to rugby training in Kirkby, a chance for another brief wander, and finally had a short stroll, which took a long time, around Gait Barrows.

20210516_115826 — *River Lune near Kirkby Lonsdale*

P1330537 — *Herb Paris in the woods at Gait Barrows*

P1330557 — *A pair of Duke of Burgundy butterflies*

Obviously, Duke of Burgundy butterflies are like buses; I’ve waited years to see one, then two come along at once. Seeing me with my camera, a fellow enthusiast asked if I was looking for Duke of Burgundies? And when I replied; ‘That would be nice’, he pointed out where I could find a pair on one of the ropes which cordoned off the path.

“Hurry,” he said, “I’ve been watching them there for 45 minutes. I don’t know how much longer they’ll stay.”

Long enough for me to take lots of almost identical photos! What surprised me was how tiny they were – this is a really diminutive species of butterfly. Perhaps that’s why I’ve found them so hard to spot? They didn’t move at all, so intent on mating were they, so I didn’t get to see their upperwings. Maybe next May.

Duke of Burgundy butterflies are seriously in decline. Here’s the distribution map:

You can see that our population is very much an isolated North-Western outpost. The wonderful Back On Our Map project (BOOM!) are aiming to reintroduce or spread a number of rare species in the area, including Dormice and possibly Pine Martens. At Gait Barrows huge efforts have been made to encourage Primroses and Cowslips which are the food-plants of the Duke of Burgundy caterpillars.

20210516_153901 — *Big skies over Gait Barrows*

P1330567 — *Iridescent clouds above Farleton Fell.*

Here’s a curious phenomena which I don’t think I’ve ever seen before – rainbow colours in the sky, but not in a rainbow arc. Sadly, none of the photos I took showed the colours very clearly, but you can just about see them here in this enhanced shot. Fascinating to see; due to tiny ice-particles diffracting the light apparently.

P1330572 — *Another view of Farleton Fell.*

One evening whilst A was at a dance lesson, I made a first visit to Hale Moss nature reserve. There were lots of snails and a few Bird’s-eye Primroses dotted about the boggy open ground.

20210518_130800 — *Holly Blue butterfly, photographed in the grounds at work.*

Not much more to say about that one. Not the first Holly Blue I’ve seen, but the first I’ve seen locally. Probably, I think because they’re another small butterfly, and because they tend to fly quite high in the tree-tops.

P1330586 — *Reed Bunting at Foulshaw Moss.*

P1330608 — *Male Great-spotted Woodpecker (the females don’t have the red patch on their nape)*

I was standing on the raised platform at Foulshaw Moss which gives great views over the wetland, when a large white bird flew directly overhead from behind me. By the time I’d got my camera pointing in the right direction, the bird had already travelled a long way, but it was still obviously an Osprey.

The Wildlife Trust had webcams stationed over the nest at Foulshaw and through the spring and early summer I periodically watched the adults and then the chicks. Still special to see the bird ‘in the flesh’ though.

P1330666 — *Osprey being harried by a Crow.*

P1330690 — *Two more views of Foulshaw Moss.*

This bird was bobbing about in the reeds beneath the platform, singing enthusiastically. I think the prominent eye-stripe makes this a Sedge Warbler. I took lots of photos, but none were quite as sharp as I would have liked.

And finally, this also flew overhead that same evening whilst I was at Foulshaw Moss – ironically, I think that this is an Osprey too: a Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey. The rotors tilt so that it can take off, land and manoeuvre like a helicopter, but also fly like a plane. But what is an American military aircraft doing flying over Cumbria? Well, RAF Alconbury, RAF Fairford, RAF Lakenheath, RAF Mildenhall, RAF Menwith Hill, RAF Croughton – all US run bases in the UK apparently. None of them are near here, but I guess it must have come from one of them? Good to know that we’re still living in Airstrip One. When will we be ‘taking back control’ of military bases on our ‘sovereign’ territory? Don’t hold your breath.

Loopy

September 20, 2021 beatingthebounds2 Comments

The first of May, the Saturday of the Bank Holiday weekend. The weather was obviously a bit changeable with some sunshine, but some very dark clouds and showers about too. I managed to eke out 5 miles by walking small loops, returning to the house each time; one through Eaves Wood, one via the Cove and the Lots, and finally which took me to Woodwell.

20210501_163648 — *Morecambe Bay from the Cove*

20210501_164625 — *Green-winged Orchid on the Lots.*

20210501_165748 — *I think this might be an Acer, but I’m not good at garden plants. I liked the cheerful colours though.*

I’m always happy to spot the mauve flowers of Coralroot. I knew that it probably wasn’t native to this area, but didn’t realise just how rare it is in the UK.

*Coralroot distribution map.* *Blue dots show native populations.*

20210501_170319 — *Bottoms Wood, decked out with Wild Garlic.*

20210501_172718 — *Ominous clouds and the distant Howgill Fells.*

This last photo was the last of several failed attempts to catch the drama of these dark clouds with one tiny cloud on the right really catching the sun and shining quite brightly. It was quite a sight.

I would be heading out in the direction of the Howgills the following day.

A Market, A Fire-pit, Clouds and Sunsets

September 8, 2021 beatingthebounds7 Comments

Mid-April. Most of these photos are from a single day, which started with rugby training for B in Kirkby Lonsdale. The measures around the pandemic almost entirely wiped-out B’s final season with his age group team, although knee surgery would have kept him on the sidelines anyway. Hopefully he’ll soon be fit to join his contemporaries in the Colts team.

While he was training, I took my usual stroll by the Lune and through Kirkby. It’s unusual to see the river so clear.

20210411_111451 — *St. Mary’s churchyard, full of daffs.*

In the afternoon, TBH and I were out completing a circuit of Jenny Brown’s Point for a change! The sunshine was still with us, but now there were very dark and brooding skies too, a combination I find irresistible.

20210411_162458 — *Warton Crag and a snow-dusted Ward’s Stone across the salt-marsh.*

20210411_162734 — *Quicksand Pool and the copper-smelting chimney.*

20210411_162917 — *The Bowland Fells across Quicksand Pool.*

20210411_163311 — *Jenny Brown’s pano (click for larger image).*

The remaining photos are from odd days during the second half of our Easter Break.

20210414_201437 — *Post sunset from Jack Scout.*

B often does his best to present himself as a bit of a Philistine, memorably dismissing a stunning cave in the Cévennes, for example, as ‘just rocks and water’, but secretly he’s a bit of a romantic after all. He likes a good sunset and often watches them from Heysham Barrows with his school friends. I think this photo was taken on one of a couple of walks we took together in an attempt to catch the sunset from Jack Scout. We were a bit late on this occasion.

20210417_111813 — *Saturday market, Dalton Square, Lancaster.*

I’m not entirely sure why I was in Lancaster, possibly due to the return of BJJ training on a Saturday morning. What I do remember was how shocked I was to see market stalls and shoppers. Although I’d been back at work for a while, Lancaster always seemed to stay resolutely quiet and traffic free.

20210327_183338 — *Washing-machine tub fire-pit.*

This photos is a bit of a cheat, since it’s from March. Our washing-machine conked out, and, having replaced it, over a couple of Saturdays I dismantled the broken one and salvaged the drum to use as a fire-pit.

It wasn’t until April that we put it to use, toasting some marsh-mallows…

TBH got a bit carried away…

20210417_203430 — *Flambéed* *marshmallow.*

Actually, this is typical TBH cooking – she would call this ‘caramelised’.

A February Florilegium

August 15, 2021 beatingthebounds6 Comments

So: Operation Catch-up is underway. February gets just a single post. Lots of short walks in February, nothing much further than 5 miles and often shorter than that. No ascents of Arnside Knot, but endless trips to Jenny Brown’s Point. I see, from MapMyWalk, that there were a couple of spells when I didn’t get out for several days running – I think a combination of work, inclement weather and decorating were to blame (decorating, I have decided, is one of TBH’s hobbies). As far as I remember, I only left the immediate area once all month.

I think it’s fair to say that the weather was quite variable, as you might expect in February, but as my photos show, there was some blue sky about too from time to time.

The 1^st

20210201_110042 — *A distant view of the Howgills*

20210201_162706 — *The Dale and The Forest of Bowland from Castlebarrow.*

The 2^nd

A had a physio appointment in Lancaster. Whilst she was there, I took the opportunity to have a wander around Williamson Park and the grounds of the University of Cumbria (in Lancaster, in Lancashire, I know?).

20210202_153457 — *Williamson Park fountain.*

20210202_154838 — *The view over Lancaster and Morecambe to the Lakes from the Ashton Memorial. Shame about the light.*

The 4^th

TBH and I were out for our habitual circuit via The Cove and The Lots. We met A walking with her friend S, The Tower Captain’s daughter, and their dogs Hanley and Bramble.

20210204_164454 — *Dark cloud sunset from The Lots*

The 5^th

20210205_100248 — *Silverdale Moss from the rim of Middlebarrow Quarry.*

20210205_101411 — *A flooded path in Middlebarrow Wood.*

20210205_163706 — *Late light at Hawes Water.*

The 6^th

The 7^th

20210206_163458 — *Leaden skies over Eaves Wood.*

20210207_112620 — *A fierce hail shower.*

20210207_115946 — *Drifted hail by Quicksand Pool.*

The 8^th

20210208_162520 — *Clougha Pike from Heald Brow.*

The 9^th

A couple of hedgerows close to home were cut right back, down to the ground, but the roots weren’t dug out, I don’t think, so hopefully they’ll eventually grow back. (Must check on their progress.)

I love the shape of the oaks when their branches are bare.

20210209_173321 — *Late light from Castlebarrow*

The 10^th

Several different breeds of sheep here; I think the large one in the middle foreground is a Valais Blacknose sheep, presumably enjoying the ‘Alpine’ conditions in Silverdale. I’ve been racking my brains trying to remember wether I ever noticed any sheep like this when, years ago, I holidayed in Saas Fee, in the Valais Canton of Switzerland, but I can’t recall.

20210210_171151 — *Sunset from Castlebarrow.*

20210210_173414 — *Post sunset from The Lots.*

The 11^th

One of several photos I attempted to take of the sky, which had some interesting colours, during a wander around Middlebarrow Woods, where it’s quite hard to find a view which is uninterrupted by trees.

The 12^th

20210212_165558 — *Warton Crag from the Salt Marsh.*

This view was massively enhanced by the presence of a large flock of birds, which, unfortunately, were too far away to show up very well in the photograph.

20210212_170247 — *Sunset from Quicksand Pool.*

20210212_171746 — *And from Jack Scout.*

The 13^th

20210213_124443 — *A photograph taken from much the same place as the one two above. A very high tide.*

20210213_124621 — *The Forest of Bowland across Quicksand Pool.*

20210213_124943 — *Warton Crag from close to the old Copper Smelting Works chimney.*

20210213_130848 — *The cliffs of Jack Scout, Grange-Over-Sands and a distant view of snowy Coniston Fells.*

The 14^th

20210214_120129 — *High Tide again! Warton Crag across Quicksand Pool.*

The 15^th

20210215_174330 — *A gloomy day. Grange-Over-Sands from The Cove late in the day.*

The 16^th

20210216_115116 — *The same view the next day. Looking much brighter here…*

20210216_161106 — *But it turned wet later. With TBH and Little S on Castlebarrow.*

The 21^st

A walk across the sands, the first for quite some time, with TBH and A, from The Cove to Know Point. It was clearly ‘blueing up’ as Andy often says, so I tried to persuade them both to carry on around Jenny Brown’s Point with me, but I think lunch was calling, so I had to settle for continuing on my own.

20210221_124817 — *The grassy bank here was been eroding rapidly, revealing this clearly man made feature. Apparently there was once a small wharf here – could this be a remnant?*

The 22^nd

20210222_170108 — *The Forest of Bowland from Heald Brow.*

The 25^th

20210225_172049 — *Plenty of rain in February – the two seasonal springs at the Cove were both flowing freely.*

20210225_172144 — *Looking to Grange again.*

20210225_174400 — *Late light from Castlebarrow.*

The 26^th

20210226_171641 — *Late afternoon light on Warton Crag and Quicksand Pool.*

20210226_172935 — *The stone seat at Jack Scout.*

20210226_173126 — *Looking towards Morecambe and Heysham from Jack Scout.*

20210226_173852 — *Sunset from Jack Scout.*

The 28^th

20210228_121336 — *High tide at Quicksand Pool again.*

20210228_121732 — *A scramble on the rocks required to get to Jenny Brown’s Point.*

The two small figures on the water are on stand-up paddle boards, the toy of choice this summer it seems. It looked idyllic, I have to say. We debated whether we could use our inflatable kayaks in a similar fashion – we haven’t done to date, but maybe this reminder will galvanise some action on my part?

Warrendale Knotts

May 16, 2021May 16, 2021 beatingthebounds8 Comments

The weekend before Christmas, when we would, in normal circumstances, be gathered together for a wet weekend of overeating, anecdote bingo, and maybe a bit of walking. Obviously that couldn’t happen last year. At least we could meet up for a walk. Sadly, the Surfnslide crew were self-isolating and weren’t able to join us.

20201219_111410 — *Rainbow over Settle. Glad I got that sheet of corrugated iron in the foreground!*

We met in Settle with a view to climb Warrendale Knotts. I suggested we divert slightly from our planned itinerary to take a look at Scaleber Force…

I’d noticed that a small section of woodland here is access land, and that a right-of-way drops down to the bottom of the falls and then abruptly stops.

20201219_120356 — *The EWO and Scaleber Force.*

I think you’ll agree, it was worth a little out-and-back along a minor lane to see it. We found a likely spot, out of the wind, for an early lunch spot, thinking shelter might be at a premium later in the walk. Naturally, once we’d settled down, it began to rain. This seems to have been a recurring theme when we’ve met for walks of late.

20201219_124328 — *Pendle Hill. Plus more corrugated iron.*

20201219_124340 — *High Hill Lane* – *that’s High Hill straight ahead.*

It brightened up and we had a lovely sunny spell back along High Hill Lane.

But it was soon grey and wet again. It was that sort of day.

The route we took up Warrendale Knotts proved to be ridiculously steep near the top, but it was well worth the effort…

20201219_133320 — *Attermire Scar from Warrendale Knotts. The distant big hole in the middle of the picture is Victoria Cave.*

20201219_133745 — *On Warrendale Knotts.*

We spent quite some time on this modest top. It was very windy, but with the clouds scudding across the views were constantly changing and very dramatic.

20201219_134127 — *Warrendale Knotts and Attermire Scar. Rye Loaf Hill on the right.*

20201219_134551 — *Pen-y-ghent and one of the cairns on Warrendale Knotts. Is that Fountains Fell in the cloud on the right?*

Eventually, we had to move on. In fact, the Cheshire contingent had some pressing engagement and we chose to walk with them, initially at least, and so by-passed Victoria Cave.

20201219_135532 — Another view of *Pen-y-ghent*.

The weather deteriorated again, but the Adopted Yorkshire Woman assured us that she remembered a shelter, or possibly a cave, in the vicinity of Jubilee Cave, which would be kitted out with comfortable benches and provide a pleasant dry spot for another lunch stop. Sadly, it never materialised. Hard words may have been spoken about the vividness of the AYW’s imagination.

AT Jubilee Cave, the Cheshire crew left us to take a direct route back to Settle, whilst the remainder of our small party returned to Settle via Winskill and Langcliffe. That’s a very pleasant route, but I didn’t take any more photos, because the rain returned and this time it meant business. We did enjoy a brief dry spell and had a hurried stop in order to drain the dregs from our flasks, but by the time we reached the cars it was chucking it down. A small price to pay for a terrific walk though.

*The day before this walk I uninstalled and reinstalled MapMyWalk. It worked, so here’s the resultant map. I think the numbers are kilometres, although the 4 and 6 seem a bit odd?*

*Warrendale Knotts, not named on the OS 1:50,000 is the trig pillar with a psot height of 440m.*

I’ve never climbed Warrendale Knotts before, and I still haven’t been up Rye Loaf Hill. Looking at the map of the Dales, it also occurs to me that I haven’t been up Great Shunner Fell or Buckden Pike or Fountains Fell since the mid-eighties. Which seems criminal given that they’re all relatively close to home. Aside from the Three Peaks area, the closest bit to home, I’ve been neglecting the Dales. I have a lot of exploring to do!

November: On the Home Patch

May 6, 2021 beatingthebounds4 Comments

20201106_162354 — *Sunset from The Cove*

20201106_163329 — *Post sunset light from The Lots*

People were going further afield for their daily exercise. I knew this. Every day we drove past the Eaves Wood car park and it was full. I could read about it on blogs. People I met on my walks recounted trips to the Dales and the Lakes.

20201106_163333 — *Post sunset light from The Lots*

And I would be doing the same. Soon, very soon.

20201107_134735 — *Tree trunk near the mouth of the Kent.*

But somehow, I didn’t get around to it.

20201107_154159 — *Flooded fields from Arnside Knott*

I wasn’t particularly worried about what might happen, or any potential consequences.

20201107_161645 — *Late afternoon skies from Castlebarrow…*

I’m a creature of habit. I just seemed to be stuck in a rut of sorts.

Still, there are worse ruts to be in!

I was still getting out a lot. Frequent visits to The Cove, The Pepper Pot, and around Jenny Brown’s Point, usually with TBH.

The weather was a bit mixed, to say the least.

20201115_114142 — *“See that storm over yonder, it’s gonna rain all day.”*

This was a memorable walk. The tide was exceptionally high. So much so that we had to turn back and couldn’t get around Jenny Brown’s because the the salt marsh was inundated.

20201115_114215 — *All of this is usually green!*

It was also very windy and squally, with very heavy showers.

We walked across Quaker’s Stang which was completely exposed to the wind off the sea, and made for very bracing walking.

20201115_115951 — *The RSPB car park for Allan and Morecambe hides was flooded.*

20201115_132935 — *Waves (of a fashion) at Jack Scout.*

20201119_163948 — *The lights of Heysham and Morecambe from The Cove.*

20201121_150921 — *Another high tide at Jack Scout.*

20201122_121851 — *The salt marsh when it isn’t underwater! Warton Crag behind.*

20201122_122633 — *Warton Crag again, across Quicksand Pool.*

20201122_155121 — *Towering cloud catching late light from The Cove.*

So – I’ve dismissed November with a solitary post again.

What would break my out of my routine? I needed an external stimulus, an intervention you might say…

Here’s something I haven’t done for a while – a tune for the end of the post. I absolute love the interplay of voices on this Levon Helm track….

October 2020: More Showers, Rainbows, and Big Clouds.

May 5, 2021May 5, 2021 beatingthebounds7 Comments

20201020_171042 — *The view from Castlebarrow.*

The title pretty much sums it up. Photos from lots of different local walks, taken during the second half of October. I was aware that some people were beginning to travel a little further afield for their exercise, but somehow my own radius of activity seemed to shrink to local favourite spots not too far from the village.

20201022_162959 — *Crepuscular rays on the Bay.*

20201023_172613 — *Rainbow over The Lots*

This is my mate D and his pug. I often meet him when I’m out for a local walk. I think I’ve mentioned before how much bumping into neighbours whilst out and about has helped during the lockdown in all of it guises.

20201023_172926 — *The sun dips towards the sea, from Castle Barrow.*

I can’t remember exactly when this happened – let’s assume it was October: I bumped into a chap carrying a fair bit of camera gear in Eaves Wood. He asked if he was going the right way to the Pepper Pot. He was. I saw him again on the top. It turned out he’s working on a book, one in a series, about where to take photos from in the North-West. Based in Lancaster, he’d never been to the Pepper Pot before. Funny how that can happen. Cloud had rolled in and the chances of a decent sunset looked a bit poor. I saw him again, a few weeks later, this time he’d set up his camera and tripod a little further West, in a spot I’d suggested. I hope he got his sunset.

20201025_091037 — *A paper round rainbow. Just prior to a proper drenching.*

20201025_132317 — Among all the changes which Natural England have been carrying out at Gait Barrows – raising the water level, felling trees, removing fences, putting up new fences in other places etc, they’ve also renovated this old summer house by Hawes Water. Presently, it’s still locked, but eventually it will be an information centre and a vantage point to look out over the lake.

20201026_105647 — Around this time, TBH started to take a regular weekend walk together around Jenny Brown’s Point. It was interesting to watch the channel from Quicksand Pool change each week and to contrast the weather and the tides each week.

20201026_111023 — *Traveller’s Joy by Jenny Brown’s Point.*

20201026_152607 — *From Castlebarrow, heavy showers tracking in from The Bay.*

20201026_152552 — *Late sun from Castlebarrow again.*

20201026_172136 — *The lights of Grange from The Cove.*

20201027_065519 — *Sunrise from our garden.*

20201027_170908 — *TBH by the Pepper Pot on Castlebarrow.*

20201027_171157 — *Post sunset from Castlebarrow.*

20201027_173213 — *The last of the light from The Cove.*

20201028_080130 — *Silverdale Moss from the rim of Middlebarrow Quarry. It had just finished raining, or was just about to rain, or probably both.*

20201028_080823 — *Autumnal birches with a rainbow behind.*

20201028_092248 — *The Shelter Stone Trowbarrow Quarry.*

20201028_100020 — *Leighton Moss from Myer’s Allotment.*

20201028_152436 — *The Copper Smelting Works Chimney near Jenny Brown’s and more heavy showers.*

20201028_152547 — *Jenny Brown’s Cottages.*

20201029_070809 — *The Bay from The Cove on a very grey day!*

The brown cow at the back here is a bull. I’d walked through the fields on Heald Brow where they were grazing a few times and he’d never batted an eyelid. But on this day he and a few of his harem where stationed in a gateway. I was considering my options and wondering whether to turn back, but when I got within about 50 yards the bull suddenly started to run. At quite a canter. Fortunately, it was away from me and not towards – he was obviously even more of a wuss than me!

*A White-lipped Snail – the rain isn’t universally disliked.*

20201030_130650 — *Clougha across the Bay.*

P1320732 — *The yellow feet are a good distinguishing feature.*

20201030_133958 — *Picnic lunch – apple, mushroom soup and a selection of cheeses.*

I decided that the best way to make the most of sometimes limited windows at weekends was to head out in the middle of the day and to eat somewhere on my walk. This bench overlooking the Kent Estuary was a particular favourite. Haven’t been there for a while now – must rectify that.

20201030_141529 — *The tide had heaped up fallen leaves in a long sinuous line.*

20201030_143533 — *Scot’s Pines on Arnside Knott.*

20201030_144239 — *Birches on Arnside Knott.*

20201030_145301 — *Whitbarrow from Arnside Knott.*

20201030_145933 — *River Kent from Arnside Knott.*

20201030_150621 — *A flooded Silverdale Moss from Arnside Knott.* *Ingleborough in the background*

20201031_162516 — *Clouds catching late light.*

Distractions and Digressions

June 10, 2020June 10, 2020 beatingthebounds7 Comments

Early light on Grange.

In the first few weeks of working from home I was often out early for a pre-work jaunt. Sadly, I think these photos come from the last of those. I seem to have fallen into the habit of stumbling out of bed and downstairs to the computer just in time to start working. Once I’m on the computer, I enter that curious world where time seems to operate differently and what seems like five minutes of reading and composing emails can turn out to be a lot longer. On occasion, it’s been two hours later before I’ve surfaced and properly kick-started my day with a cup of tea.

An earlier start on a sunny, pin-sharp morning is a much better way to start the day, obviously. Must Try Harder!

It’s less than two miles to the toposcope on the Knott, even by the slightly longer route I’ve been using to avoid going through the yard at Arnside Tower Farm, which seems like an insensitive thing to do in present circumstances, so it’s isn’t like the walk need take too long.

Anyway, back to this particular walk…

It looked like it would have been a very fine morning to be out in the Coniston Fells.

And although there was a little cloud clinging to the tops, non-too-shabby in the Eastern Fells as well.

Mid-level clouds, I’d say – altocumulus?

The later starts are not the only change since lockdown began. During the latter part of April, I really pushed myself to ‘beat’ my total mileage for January. I did it, just, but towards the end it began to feel a bit like hard work. So once we’d slipped into May, I took a little rest for a couple of days. It was hot and I think I may have even lazed in the garden one day, rather than go out for a walk.

I know, shocking decadence! Lying down on the job…

Then my little rest was extended by a couple more days: I had a bit of a scare – high temperature, stiff and sore all over, but nothing too drastic, the kind of thing that might have kept you off work for a day or two in normal circumstances. Briefly though, it was a bit worrying. I even had a test, arranged online and very efficiently carried out by squaddies in a car park in Lancaster, well, in fact, self-administered, but with socially-distanced assistance from the young soldiers. I have to say, I’m full of admiration for all those people who have put themselves in harm’s way during this crisis to keep the rest of us safe and well-fed. Anyway, by the time the text arrived giving me the all clear, I was feeling fine and straining-at-the-leash to get out again, having self-isolated whilst waiting for the test result.

None of that, though, is the main reason that my mileage for May fell well short of my total for April. June is not likely to be any different either. Perhaps I should say ‘main reasons’, plural, the reasons being Unfortunate Distractions and my inability to resist them. Distractions like…

A common carder bumblebee busy collecting pollen from bush vetch flowers.

I took a lot of photos because both the bee and the flowers were marvellous colours, perfectly complementing each other and the light was ideal.

There are three all-ginger bumblebee species in the UK, but the common carder is prevalent and I’m not sure that the other two, the moss carder and the brown-banded carder, are found in this neck of the woods.

Is this too many photos of one bee for one blog post? I took a lot more!

Bush vetch is a leguminous plant, i.e. of the pea family. The flowers are small and, I suppose, easily overlooked, but well worth closer examination.

This wasn’t helping me get home in time for a pot of tea and some breakfast and to make some dough before starting work.

Fortunately, I was nearly home and just needed to walk along Townsfield to finish my walk. Confusingly, Townsfield is both a road, a cul-de-sac, and a field. As I turned into the road, a pair of roe deer crossed the road ahead of me and leapt gracefully over the drystone wall with striking ease.

Another Unfortunate Distraction. Oh no!

The Unfortunate Distractions ran across the field and then wandered along the hedgerow opposite.

I think this was the same pair I’d surprised in Eaves Wood a few days before. He had almost entirely changed into his summer coat with just a few scraps of the older, duller winter fur still evident; she, on the other hand, had hardly begun to shed her warmer winter garb. Not too dissimilar from most human couples I would think, like me and TBH in shorts year round and still wrapped up well into the summer respectively. Or rehashing the same old arguments about the settings on the thermostat. Our thermostat is remote from the boiler and seems to move mysteriously around the house. I can never find it, when I want to turn it down anyway. Takes an age touring all the rooms turning all the radiators down individually! (Oops! Shhhh. Don’t tell.)

Not that these are really a couple as such. For a while I’ve almost always seen roe deer in pairs, but roe deer, of either sex, are not monogamous. The rut is not until later in the year, but I assume that the large number of mixed gender pairs I’ve been seeing is in some way part of the wooing process.

He looked smaller than her, but I don’t think he was immature, his antlers have three tines, although his brow tines are very small. Three is as many as they get, at age three.

Screenshot 2020-06-09 at 14.48.11

He’s also definitely got a coronet and maybe some pearling, which is what develops as they age. They aren’t particularly long-lived creatures, with various sources giving something like six or seven years as an average and anything between ten and sixteen as a maximum in the wild.

Again, I took many more photos than the, perhaps too many, I’ve shared here. Whilst I was watching the deer, half-hiding behind a telegraph pole – me, not the deer – I was in turn being watched, by a house sparrow, on the next telegraph pole…

Probably thought I was bonkers, since any thought of a shower, breakfast or bread-making before work were now definitely out of the question.

Stratocumulus or cumulus?

At lunch time that day I had to pop to the shops, which is a legitimate reason to be out, obviously. Can I ‘pop’ via the Cove and the Lots do you think? Well, I did, and no harm done.

I’ve bunged this one on the end because I like to finish with a sunset photo. B wanted to go to Jack Scout one evening to catch the sunset. We contrived to just miss it, after putting too much faith in the BBC weather website. I took lots of photos, but all essentially the same. Lovely walk all the same.

Tunes. Today, two very full-on songs and then, in each case, a deliciously different cover version.

Back to my punk roots to kick off, with Black Flags ‘Wasted’ all 51 raging seconds of it…

…and then Camper Van Beethoven’s brilliant cover…

…it’s from their ‘Telephone Free Landslide Victory’ album, which, if you haven’t heard it already, you should definitely seek out.

Next up, ‘Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos’ from Public Enemy’s ‘It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back’

Which was totally transformed by Tricky on his ‘Maxinquaye’ album…

Finally, not music, but a movie trailer, for Alex Cox’s weird and wonderful 1984 comedy science-fiction b-movie strangeness ‘Repo Man’.

Emilio Estevez and Harry Dean Stanton star, Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Suicidal Tendencies and Iggy Pop feature on the soundtrack. Great film.

Perfect?

June 6, 2020June 5, 2020 beatingthebounds8 Comments

Swallow.

A speedwell. I don’t think it’s germander, the leaves were wrong. But I’m not sure what it is. It was tiny.

This footpath sign is looking decidedly worse for wear.

A magnificent copper beech near Hollins Lane.

Hart’s-tongue fern.

I thought these looked a bit exuberant for cowslips. I now realise but they are false oxlips, a hybrid of primrose’s and cowslips. There is a separate plant, the oxlip, but that isn’t found in the northwest.

The plants are tall like cowslips, but the flowers look more like primroses and radiate around the top of the stem rather than drooping all on one side as cowslips usually do.

For comparison…

…here are some shy and retiring cowslips.

These cowslips…

…which I saw a little further into the walk, are a bit more vivacious but still not as boisterous as the false oxlips.

Early Purple Orchid.

Carnforth saltmarsh and the Forest of Bowland from Heald Brown.

I was heading for Jenny Browns Point, with the aim of crossing the sands of the miniature bay between Know Point and Park Point.

On Heald Brow many of the grassland flowers had appeared.

Although the wildflower key tells me that tormentil flowers from June to September, I’m pretty sure that this is tormentil flowering in early May.

Bird’s-foot trefoil.

A buttercup, I don’t know which kind.

Pignut.

Speckled wood butterfly.

Warton Crag and Quicksand Pool.

A small group of greylag geese were sunning themselves on the far bank of quicksand pool. Most moved as I approached, but this one…

…gave me a steady stare…

…then had a leisurely stretch as if to say, “Don’t flatter yourself that I’m moving on your account. ”

Before strolling away nonchalantly.

You can see where I was heading almost dead centre in the photo above. I weaved a bit to investigate any foreign looking objects. Lord knows what this was or where it had come from.

Cirrostratus?

Herring gulls.

On Heathwaite, I tried a slender path which I haven’t followed before. It gave tantalising views of the sands I had recently crossed.

Eventually I reached the more familiar viewpoint by the bench. That’s Know Point right of centre, so you can see part of my route across the sands.

Nothing – and I mean, really, absolutely nothing – is more extraordinary in Britain than the beauty of the countryside. Nowhere in the world is there a landscape that has been more intensively utilised – more mined, farmed, quarried, covered with cities and clanging factories, threaded with motorways and railway lines – and yet remains so comprehensively and reliably lovely over most of its extent. It is the happiest accident in history. In terms of natural wonders, you know, Britain is a pretty unspectacular place. It has no alpine peaks or broad rift valleys, no mighty gorges or thundering cataracts. It is built to really quite a modest scale. And yet with a few unassuming natural endowments, a great deal of time and an unfailing instinct for improvement, the makers of Britain created the most superlatively park-like landscapes, the most orderly cities, the handsomest provincial towns , the jauntiest seaside resorts, the stateliest homes, the most dreamily spired, cathedral-rich, castle-strewn, abbey-bedecked, folly-scattered, green-wooded, winding-laned, sheep-dotted, plumply-hedgerowed, well-tended, sublimely decorated 50,318 square miles the world has ever known – almost none of it undertaken with aesthetics in mind, but all of it adding up to something that is, quite often, perfect. What an achievement that is.

Bugle.

I have three books on the go at the moment: I’m still reading ‘The Age of Absurdity’ by Michael Foley, I’m well into ‘The Road to Little Dribbling’ by Bill Bryson and I’ve recently started ‘Damned’ by Chuck Palahniuk, of ‘Fight Club’ fame. No prizes for guessing which of the three the quote comes from. I’m a big fan of Mr Bryson – Little Dribbling has a mixture of curious facts, lyrical description and curmudgeonly comedy which I’m finding very absorbing. He does repeat himself a little – he often expresses a fondness for our path network for example, but I’m ready to forgive him that.

Kent Estuary from The Knott.

I’m enjoying ‘Damned’, but probably shouldn’t have read another humorous book so hard on the heels of ‘A Pelican at Blandings’ and ‘Service with a Smile’. Palahniuk is witty, but he’s not Wodehouse.

Lakeland Fells from the Knott.

Whitbarrow Scar. The tree on the right is a Lancashire Whitebeam…

…with silvery leaves.

Later, I defied the lockdown to go out a second time and walk to the end of the lane, about 260 yards perhaps…

….the evening light was lighting the church and the stratus (?)…

I think my eyes were functioning okay.

Two unlikely covers today. First up, Baby Charles’ cover of The Arctic Monkey’s ‘I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor’.

And then World Domination Enterprises’ decidedly lo-fi, noise-fest cover of Lipps Inc’s ‘Funkytown’

It was either this or their classic ‘Asbestos Lead Asbestos’. Terrific live band. (In the 80s: I have no idea what they are up to now!)

Showers and Flours

June 4, 2020June 3, 2020 beatingthebounds12 Comments

The final two days of April, as clearly as I can remember, and judging from my photos, brought the kind of changeable weather which is more what we expect in these parts. Often sunny, but with plenty of clouds and showers evident, although I remember more smugly watching showers in the distance rather than being caught in them.

Farleton Fell – so near and yet so far.

Stratocumulus (?) clouds over the Bay.

Dark skies behind Hagg Wood.

Even though the sun was still shining on the crab apple blossom.

After many attempts, I managed to track down some bread flour in the form of a Doves farm ‘lucky dip’ with a selection of organic flours, some yeast and a recipe booklet. Result!