Two more local strolls from the back end of August. The first was a quick trip to The Cove and around The Lots, with TBH, but since she wasn’t ready to leave the house when I was, I first walked across the fields to Stankelt road and around Clark’s Lot first.
This spider was in our garden, but only just, hanging just beyond one of our kitchen windows.
The following day I walked our circuit around Jenny Brown’s Point, but had a mooch around Lambert’s Meadow first. This slight path runs around the eastern edge of the meadow…
It’s where I take most of my photos – you can see here that’s it under a couple of inches of water, which isn’t uncommon at all in the winter, but which shows what a wet August we were having.
“This is a large and brightly marked hoverfly, with 3 pairs of wedge-shaped yellow bars and reddish-orange legs.” It prefers wet heath, so Lambert’s Meadow is the right sort of spot.
The light wasn’t great, but there was plenty to see and photograph. In particular, a variety of snails seemed to be having some sort of rave. They were everywhere.
There were actually several more snails on these two tall stems, who knows why they were so busy that day?
On my way down to Jenny Brown’s, I emerged from Fleagarth Woods into a small clearing which was mobbed with wildflowers, especially Common Knapweed. The flowers were really busy with bees and hoverflies, so of course, I took no end of photos.
My roaming through the flowers disturbed this frog…
Had I realised how many different species of hoverfly were in that little clearing, I probably would have stayed to take even more photos, but until I got home to download and look at the photos I wasn’t aware of the variety.
Out in the real world, spring is springing, whilst here on the blog, I’m still stuck in last August. Will I ever catch up? I’m beginning to doubt it!
Anyway, at the tail end of the summer holiday, I had several excellent local meanders. The first was around our usual Jenny Brown’s point circuit. I was surprised to see several sunflowers – presumably growing from seeds dropped by birds from feeders in the nearby gardens? These days, we have a number of feeders in our garden again and I’m quite looking forward to a few sunflowers popping up.
I didn’t take my camera on this first walk, so not all that many photos. It was a frustrating omission. because I thought I saw two Great Egrets in Quicksand Pool, but they were too far away to be sure – I could have really done with the large zoom available on my camera.
So, the next time I was out, for a mooch by Bank Well, Lambert’s Meadow and around Hawes Water, I remembered my camera and, predictably, took hundreds of pictures.
I was astonished to see three Migrant Hawkers, all male, perched on the same Great Willowherb plant. I shouldn’t have been: over the next few days I would see lots more – it seemed like it was a good summer for this species, in this area at least.
And there we are: one step closer to the end of August!
Another portmanteau post to catch-up on several walks, rounding off our Easter break. The walks, over several days were: an early morning Arnside Knott walk, an evening stroll across the Lots and to The Cove, a slightly extended Jenny Brown’s Point circuit, starting through Eaves wood, and a couple of walks in the Gait Barrows and Hawes Water area.
It seemed to take an age this year for the Blackthorn blossom to appear, and then, when it did finally arrive, it didn’t last very long, or at least, that’s how it felt to me.
I hear and see Wrens a lot when I’m out and about, but rarely get a chance to photograph them – unless they’re feeling particularly territorial and pick a perch to stake a claim…
I’m guilty of assuming that any warbler I see is a Chiff-chaff, although in the woods you can hear them almost all the time in spring and early summer so it may not be that daft an assumption.
Not a great photo, I know, but I’ve seen many photos online this year of Godwits at Leighton Moss and the colour of these birds makes me think that these might be some of those. It’s here to remind me, next year, that I need to get down to the hides to see them properly for myself.
As well as being liberally festooned with flowers, this Blackthorn was attracting a host of insects. I spent quite a while snapping away, capturing as many as I could, thinking I was probably getting a variety of bees and hoverflies, only to find that the photos all seem to show the same species of hoverfly. Not to worry – it kept me happy for a while anyway.
The verges of this track through Gait Barrows had a fabulous display of Primroses. I’ve been thinking that this was a vindication of the management plans of the current warden of the reserve, but then I realised that Primroses and Cowslips, both food plants of the rare Duke of Burgundy butterfly, have been planted out around the reserve. Anyway, however they get there, I really appreciate them when they’re flowering.
I’m not the only one. Dark-edged Bee-flies are very fond of them too. I did see them on other flowers this spring, but most of the time, they’re on, or close too Primroses.
I got very excited about the possibility that these warblers weren’t Chiff-chaffs, because they weren’t chiff-chaffing, but then I discovered that Chiff-chaffs also have contact calls, and so now I’m not so sure.
I don’t know whether this is a male or a female, since Im getting by on human colour perception…
The blue tit (Parus caeruleus) has been classified as sexually monochromatic. This classification is based on human colour perception yet, unlike humans, most birds have four spectrally distinct classes of cone and are visually sensitive to wavelengths in the near–ultraviolet (300 to 400 nm). Reflectance spectrophotometry reveals that blue tit plumage shows considerable reflection of UV light. For example, the blue crest shows peak reflectance at wavelengths around 352 nm. Furthermore, the blue tit is sexually dichromatic for multiple regions of plumage, including the crest. Choice trials performed in the laboratory indicate that females prefer males with the brightest crests. This study has implications for both intra– and interspecific studies of sexual selection, as well as future classification of dichromatism, which should not ignore the possibility of variation in reflectance in the UV.
If this is a male, I hope, for his sake, that he has a really bright crest.
These fields had until recently been flooded. It looked as though the dike been dredged. It was a pleasant surprise to find that I could walk home this way, especially since I’d walked past this path only a few days before…
To see it completely underwater and definitely unpassable without waders.
I saw a lot of Brimstone butterflies this spring, but they refused to pose for photos. The same is true, to a certain extent, of Orange-tips. This Comma was more obliging.
It’s unusual to see a bee-fly with its wings not in motion. Even when they aren’t hovering, they still rapidly flutter their wings, which, in the case of Dark-edged Bee-flies, can make it look like they have tiny little bat-wings too small to fly with, because the clear part of the wing isn’t immediately obvious. I know that this is a male because his eyes meet in the middle. Females have a pronounced gap between their eyes.
I watched a pair of birds carrying nesting material, including the feather in the photo here. I have lots of photos of them slightly out-of-focus or obscured by a branch, but for once, my patience paid-off and I managed a solitary sharp image.
I rarely see Blackcaps, and then I see two in consecutive days. Easter is a great time for walks around home, because the birds are all busy and, with no leaves on the trees, there’s more chance than usual of catching a photo.
Back at home, our lawn had been raked again by our mysterious nocturnal visitors…
September, it turns out, was a very busy month, with some notable highlights, so I have a few more posts to come. But I thought I would mention the poetry festival first. I didn’t take any photos, unfortunately, so I’ve used the opportunity to throw in some other September odds and ends.
Our comedy show in Brooklyn and the Latin band we saw in Saranac Lake stood out as high-spots in our New York holiday and I resolved to make the most of any cultural opportunities which came my way closer to home. So when I saw posts about a poetry festival in Morecambe I bought tickets for both the Friday and Saturday evenings. Given that the line up included Mike Garry, Lemn Sissay, John Cooper Clarke, Henry Normal and Linton Kwesi Johnson, all of whom I’ve seen live before, mostly many years ago when I lived in Manchester, it wasn’t a difficult decision to make. They were all brilliant, as was Joelle Taylor, who was new to me. This year’s festival is scheduled for the end of September again and the line-up so far includes Carol Ann Duffy, Roger McGough, Brian Bilston, Jackie Kay and Henry Normal again. Very exciting! I need to buy a ticket.
The festival will once again be based at the Winter Gardens, which I see has just secured a substantial grant for more refurbishment. With that and the Eden Project North and a host of cultural events through the year, things seem to be on the up and up for Morecambe. I lived and worked there for many years and am really chuffed to see it has a potentially rosy future.
Not a September thing, but I think I forgot to mention that in June TBH and I saw Daniel Bye and Boff Whalley at the Duke’s Theatre in Lancaster in their show ‘These Hills are Ours’. You may remember that I was involved with them in a project of the same name a while ago. This show doesn’t relate to that, but is about a madcap scheme to run from Lancaster to Kinder Scout to celebrate the Mass Trespass. Highly recommended.
This film is not of the show, but is about a tour in Devon, during which Dan and Boff ran between venues, in mostly foul weather, and is worth a watch.
We’ve reached October in the world of my blog now. I’ll soon be caught up!(?)
The photos here are from a day with two walks. In the morning, it was the usual wander around Jenny Brown’s Point. It looks like the weather was good, so I’m surprised that I hardly took any photos.
Later, B was kick-boxing, I think his first time back after an extended lay-off following his knee surgery and a long course of physio to deal with pain and stiffness after the opp and the muscle imbalances which probably gave rise to the problem to begin with.
Whilst he was sparring, I had a wander along the Lune. This…
…is the newish bridge built to facilitate the new junction 34 on the M6. I was surprised, when the bridge was built, both by the huge size of the prefabricated metal spans and by the fact that they were already rusted, assuming that is rust?
This is the older M6 bridge…
…built with parallel spans of concrete. There’s a fair bit of graffiti on those supporting walls above the arches. Whenever I see graffiti in inaccessible places like that I wonder about who gets up there to do it? And how? And why?
Just a little way upriver from the motorway, some houses in Halton have fabulous looking gardens sloping gently down to the river. I was particularly taken by this fetching boathouse…
…which looks like it might be a family home too.
Finally, the following photo, taken on the Friday evening after these two walks, is the only one I took during the Lancaster Music Festival.
I should have taken more, it was a fantastic event. By this point I’d already seen, and heard, a couple of other acts, having stayed in Lancaster after work. A met me in the White Cross, and we met X-Ray somewhere after that. Later in the evening, the Herefordshire Hoofers arrived to catch the Uptown Monotones at the Storey Institute (my highlight of the weekend). We caught lots of other acts the following day. After being confined to barracks for so long, it was great to get back to socialising and seeing bands and having a few beers. Having said that, a week later I had Covid. None of the rest of our party did, however, so it’s equally possible that I caught it at work. I’ll never know. What I do know is that the dates for this year’s festival are the 13th to the 16th of October and that I shall be in attendance once again. Any takers?
UF was up from Manchester since we had tickets to see Martin Simpson and Martin Taylor at the Brewery Arts in Kendal. I invited TC to bring his dogs out for a walk around the village with us. We started in Eaves Wood with a visit to the Pepper Pot, then walked through Burton Well Wood and across Lambert’s Meadow. The fact that I have no photographs is, I think, a good indication of how poor the weather was. In the photo above, we are at the now decrepit bench at the top of the hill at Myer’s Allotment. Even on a wet day there was a bit of a view over Leighton Moss…
We dropped down through Fleagarth Wood to Jenny Brown’s Point, where, since it had stopped raining and the sand was reasonably firm, we decided to walk around the coast back to the village.
It was bracingly windy and rather splendid.
The next morning, a Sunday, UF made an early exit to make a prior engagement. Usually, when he makes a Sunday flit, he’ll be playing snap – the variant that has ‘seven no trumps’ and the like – or watching City play, but, if I remember right, on this occasion he was meeting friends for a walk. It might have been a good one, because the weather was much brighter, with big clouds, plenty of sunshine and heavy showers tracking in off the Bay. Having said that, I didn’t set out for a walk until late afternoon, so it’s possible I’d been waiting for the weather to improve.
I managed to string a five mile route out over nearly three hours. Tea breaks to sit and watch the showers falling elsewhere were the order of the day.
At Far Arnside, I spent some time looking for the fossilised corals in the rocks on the edge of the Bay; something I hadn’t done for quite some time.
I was surprised to get to the top of Arnside Knott without being caught by any showers. Perhaps I celebrated too soon: as I began to descend, it finally started to rain on me.
It was short lived though, and brought a rainbow with it.
Here’s the two Martins, performing a song from Martin Simpson’s repertoire, written, I think, by his father-in-law. It seems highly appropriate for these ‘Eat or Heat’ times.
Our standard weekend circuit around Jenny Brown’s Point. Except that, on this occasion, I was on my own for some reason. And, having started across the same field to the Green, with the usual views to the Howgill Fells, I turned right rather than left on Hollins Lane and then walked across Heald Brow rather than down through Fleagarth Wood.
And then, once I’d rounded Jenny Brown’s Point, I decided to walk around via the sands.
When ‘the sands’, turned out to be much wetter, muddier and clingy (TBH would say ‘clarty’) than I had anticipated, I retreated to the rather sketchy path along the cliff top. At least until I arrived at Know Point, just as the sun was setting…
When the Herefordshire Holidaymakers had to cancel their planned summer trip to Lake Garda, due to Covid restrictions and uncertainties, and us with no plans of our own, for the same reasons, the obvious thing to do seemed to be to invite them to join us in Sunny Silverdale instead. Happily, they agreed. We drove home from Towyn to tidy up a bit and inflate some airbeds, whilst they had the more onerous task of returning home, getting all of their washing done and hoping back into their cars for the long drive north.
In the early part of the week, we even had some half-decent weather, and, I think fairly soon after they had arrived, we had a wander up to the Pepper Pot and then down to The Cove.
TBH insisted that we should have a wander on the sands, which turned out to be quite wet and very sticky. Andy was in new shoes. It seems to me that it’s the destiny of walking shoes to eventually get muddy, but Andy was mortified that his pristine trainers were sullied by Morecambe Bay sludge and complained bitterly at every opportunity for the rest of the week.
We finished the week (I think) with another short climb up to the Pepper Pot. It was a lovely week, as always when the Herefordshire Hearties visit. We had a number of trips out too, so more posts to follow.
It remained hot. The kids, well A and B anyway, were joining friends for swims in the Bay at high tide. I’ve always regarded such behaviour as a sure sign of insanity, as the sea is not all that inviting here, being full of silt and murky brown and almost certainly full of unsavoury pollutants too, but finally I cracked and TBH and I cycled down to a spot near Jenny Brown’s Point a couple of times for a dip.
And……it was very pleasant. Hopefully, we’ll get the right weather and do it again next summer.
And then we went for our annual, marvellous, camping trip with old friends to Towyn Farm on the Llyn Peninsula. I remember that I did a lot of snorkelling in the first part of the week. The water was a lot colder than it had been in the Bay, but it was clear and there was lots to see as ever. Later in the week, the winds picked up and we switched to body surfing. Lots of games of Kubb and Molkky too. Beach cricket, frisbee throwing. All the usual fun.
Lots of walking happened too, but with B still suffering with his knee we generally opted to stay at the campsite/beach and keep him company, the only exception being the obligatory ascent of ‘Birthday Hill’ or Caryn Fadryn.
I apparently took no photos at all, apart from the rather poor one above of some of the Naughty Nine on Carn Fadryn’s summit.
Inexplicable. I did take lots of pictures in the garden after we returned home though! So here’s one of those:
Edit – TBH to the rescue – I did take more photos at Towyn, but using TBH’s phone – I think mine had no charge. So here’s a selection of photos, some of which I took and some of which are TBH’s work:
Obviously the travel restrictions over the last two years have been a pain in the neck, but if I’m allowed to go to Wales for a week every summer, I reckon I can get by; with a little help from my friends anyway.
For our Whit week half-term break we were joined by our old friends from Herefordshire and also by Jay-D, who was without her girls. The kids are all growing up and I’m afraid we might have to get used to holidays without them.
We didn’t stray too far on this holiday – lots of local walks; lots chats and cups of tea before, during and after said walks. So with good friends to walk with, I took photos of….flowers…
Oh, and when we stopped for a brew near Jenny Brown’s Point, I took a photo, not of the assembled crew, but of my stove…
…a much appreciated hand-me-down from Andy.
When we stopped for ice-creams at Gibraltar Farm (they make their own), did I take a photo of
(a) Family and friends enjoying their ice-creams?
(b) Caravans?
Judge for yourselves…
TBH has been warning me about my misanthropy for years. Faulty wiring upstairs I expect.
Later, when we repaired to ‘the dip’ for snacks and a mild bit of boozing, I did manage to get some people in shot as well as the fire…
The empties cans were upcycled as targets in a game of stone-throwing which I enjoyed immensely. Simple pleasures, always the best.
We had a wander around to Arnside.
I missed the return over the Knott. B was completing a DofE expedition and needed picking up from the Park Quarry car park on Hutton Roof. With hindsight, I set off far too early.
Early enough to have time for an ascent of Hutton Roof crags. The views were very hazy, but it was a fine walk none-the-less.
A fair bit of the holiday was actually spent lazing about at home, in the kitchen or the garden. Playing Kubb and Basketball. And messing about with B’s scooter, which TBF particularly took to.
Many things have been deferred, postponed, put-on-hold or just plain cancelled this year, so this week, simple though it was, came as a great relief. Thank goodness for old friends – even if they won’t pose for photos!
Andy’s posts about his visit, with more photos of people but less flowers, are here and here.