A Walk Around Irby Dale

After spending a large part of the day getting caught up with some gardening, we left a lamb tagine cooking in the oven and took Jet for a walk around Irby Dale.  Again the colours are looking good, although I was intrigued to notice that in the depths of the wood the leaves remained green only donning their Autumn hues on the edges or in clearings within the wood.  I wonder if this is because they are less sheltered in these situations or they receive more light.  It was very quiet in the dale today with few signs of life, perhaps because it was the end of a dull, still afternoon.

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A Day in Lincoln

Heather and I enjoyed a day in Lincoln today, as I needed to visit The Collection and Usher Art Gallery to do some research for my degree studies.  After leaving the galleries we came across a creeper on a super piece of limestone wall that was ablaze with Autumn colour.  We pottered up the hill for a while before enjoying an Italian meal at Carluccio's, which allowed for some twilight shots of the cathedral/

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Autumn Colours in the Lincolnshire Wolds

Having just returned from a successful trip to The Lakes, I was still enjoying our wonderful Autumn this year.  All trees are looking at their best, but I am particularly noticing ash trees this year.  Often these trees stubbornly stay green and then suddenly when we have a couple of windy days, they will drop all of their leaves without any colour change.  This year, though, conditions have been perfect and ashes have turned a brilliant lemon yellow and we noticed one in particular at Glenridding in the Lakes.  With this in mind I set out to check up on a particular tree that I had photographed during all four seasons a couple of years ago.  It can be seen on the road between Swallow and Cabourne on the Grimsby to Lincoln road.  I was in luck.  Although not as colourful as that ash tree in Glenridding, it was turning a lovely yellow and looked magnificent in the sun.  It is to be hoped that ash die back disease isn't as devastating as feared as without these stately trees the whole landscape of the Lincolnshire Wolds would be dramatically altered.  From here I drove over to Scallows Hall to see how the colours were developing there and was suprised to see that much of the wood was still green.  I did enjoy playing with some long exposure shots though and was delighted to see and hear the resident buzzards.

The next day I enjoyed a day cycling in the Wolds with my regular cycling friend Brian.  We met up at Beelsby and then followed one of our regular routes to arrive in Rothwell to meet the ladies for lunch.  The colours on the way down the hill into the village were spectacular.  As always the climb out of Rothwell after lunch seemed much harder than it actually is; I'm sure it's nothing to do with the couple of pints and lunch!

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Autumn Trip to the Lakes, Day 5 and 6

On the Sunday we had another walking day planned, Place Fell above Ullswater this time and at 10.30 we met up with Thomas at Deepdale Bridge and were soon making our way up the steep path to the pass of Boredale Hause.  For a while the route became even steeper and by the time we stopped for lunch we were perched high above Patterdale with excellent views all around.  Sadly though the cloud cover meant that the sun stayed away and the colours were somewhat muted.  Our way from the summit took us on and down to Ullswater from where we followed the undulating lake side back to out starting point; 10 miles and one more Wainwright.  Most flowering plants are at the end of their season now and have died back for another year, but we did find several excellent specimens of sheeps bit scabious.

We enjoyed another stop at the Brotherswater Inn before Thomas headed back to Ambleside and ourselves a final night in the van before heading home today.

An excellent few days away.

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