Lake District, Sepember, Day 5

Just another reminder to be careful what we wish for: another wet morning.  Sticking to the plan, though, we headed off to Ambleside for 'A Tea Shop Walk' based on the magnificent 'Apple Pie cafe where we indulged ourselves with cornish pastie and one of their wonderful bath buns.  To be fair to us, though, shared between us, and that was more than enough.  Several years ago I was silly enough to have that for myself and could barely move for a week.  The walk recommended by the book is one we have done before: along Scandale to High Sweden Bridge and return along the other side of Scandale Beck via Low Sweden Bridge.  The route follows first quiet, but steep, lanes out of Ambleside and then an equally steep rough track up into Scandale Wood. The wood was a delightful place to be in, even in the rain.  Woods are a wonderful place in the wet: colour saturation enhanced, the beauty of water drops trickling from leaves and, in this case, the babble of the beck below us in the valley bottom.  We passed an ages old slate quarry, evidence of an industrial past, as, perhaps, as is the old hazel coppicing.

Leaving the wood brought us out onto wild fell side with Scandale Head above us hidden in the lowering hill fog.  We quickly reached High Sweden Bridge, an old pack horse bridge used by generations of famers, traders and hill ponies.  The ponies were often heavily laden, significantly extending their girth so such bridges as this have no parapet which would impede the ponies' progress.  Afer the bridge the path climbed high up the far side of the dale before wending its way down to Low Sweden Bridge, a more modern affair and still in use by today's farmers.  Views down to Ambleside and Windermere were spectacular with even some clearing skies on the horizon.  Even more dramatic, though, was the view over Rydal Water and Loughrigg to The Langdale Pikes with their heads clear of the murk.

From Low Sweden Bridge we made our way back down into Ambleside where I had a quick scout around for some new boots, my current ones having worn through into the midsole.  I have loved these boots which Scarpa still make but their replacement in the flesh pots of Ambleside was going to set me back £220!!  I shall be looking elsewhere!! ;-(

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Butterflies and Dragons on the Coast and in the Wolds

It has been very warm today with a slight breeze.  I decided to go down to Saltfleetby NNR at Rimac to see if there were any dragonflies about as well as butterflies.  Rimac was ablaze with flowers: birds foot trefoil or eggs and bacon, vipers bugloss, swathes of ladies bedstraw and froths of meadow sweet.  On the orchid front marsh helleborine was plentiful on the freshwater marsh and pyramid and marsh orchids were abundant.

On walking around the pond I enjoyed watching numerous four spotted chaser dragonflies performing aerial displays over the water as they hunted for prey, although they were far too active to photograph.  Just as numerous around the pond and elsewhere on the reserve were ruddy darter dragonflies; a much smaller species and, in the case of the male which is a rich red with striking black legs, much more colourful.  Butterflies were also very active in large numbers: ringlets, skippers both large and small, meadow brown, gatekeeper and occasional common blues.  Last year and this have been the best years for butterflies for a long while, although common blues remain quite scarce.  Our garden has had quite a few new species this year: comma, meadow brown and gatekeeper.

From Rimac I drove on into the Wolds to visit my winter feeding station site.  One of my favourite spots where I record observations of the wood and have my bird feeding station in the winter.  The front meadow is special here; it has never been treated with herbicide and has not been under the plough since WWII and is one of the few chalk downland meadows remaining in the Wolds.  
I first popped into the old victorian walled garden where, last year, I found comma and small copper butterflies, and then went into the front meadow.  And what a sight.  It is awash with flowers and lush grasses waving in the warm breeze.Birds foot trefoil, ladies bedstraw, clover and bladder campion provided most of the spectacle and one of my favourite plants, knapweed, is just coming into flower; this, too is an attractive plant for butterflies.  Butterflies on the wing included both large and green veined whites, numerous meadow browns, ringlet, gatekeeper, large and small skipper, small heath and burnet moth.
As I wandered in the meadow the plaintive mewing of one of the resident buzzards could be heard calling to the young still on the nest.  I also heard today that there are young barn owls in one of the barns on the farm so that's very exciting news.

Lake District September 2018. Day 3

A lazy start to today as we were waiting for Thomas to join us.  As he arrived the rain started so we continued our relaxed morning, eventually stirring ourselves to go into Ambleside for lunch.  The Apple Pie bakery was the only choice for cornish pasty and their amazing bath buns.  Lunch sorted we pottered round the town Heather doing clothes, crafts and galleries whilst Thomas and I hit the climbing shops looking at kit.  You can't beat kit! 藍
Shopping over and the rain stopped, we headed for White Moss car park where we set off to walk though the woods to Grasmere lake and the up Loughrigg Terrace and Rydal Caves. Despite the rain the river was significantly lower than the last time we were here and there were the first signs of Autumn with some trees and bracken already beginning to change colour.
Climbing steeply up to the caves, high above Rydal Water, we were suddenly deposited on a wide balcony overlooking the lake and backed by the vast cave entrance.  It is hard to believe that as often as we have visited The Lakes over the years we had never been to these caves.  And how splendid they are; huge entrance disappearing into a dark interior.
The path now descended steeply back to the lakeside where there were people swimming out on the water.  Wild swimming has become a very popular sport in recent years.
We returned to the car on the road side of the lake before returning to the van to cook pork loin for our evening meal.

An Excellent few days in the Lake District

As our son Thomas has moved to Ambleside in the English Lake District to study Outdoor Studies at the University of Cumbria, we decided it was time to pay a visit.  I have also set myself the challenge of walking all of the Wainwrights (peaks mentioned in the famous books of Alfred Wainwright) in the three years that he is there.  Early December turned out to be an excellent choice as both Ambleside and Windermere (where we were staying) were both beautifully decorated for Christmas.  We were also lucky in that the Lakes had the first snowfall of the winter while we were there.  On our first day Heather and I took things easy and pottered up the Langdale Valley and wandered up to Stock Ghyll Force behind Ambleside before meeting Thomas for lunch and then doing some Christmas shopping.

On our second day Thomas and I did the first of my 36 Wainwright Walks: a round of Striding Edge, Helvellyn, Seat Sandal and St Sunday Crag; some 14.5 miles and 8 out of 214 Wainwrights.  Unfortunately this was our only day of totally bad weather so we had very little visibility higher up and it was bitterly cold and snowing on the high tops.  To add to the excitement the knife edge section of Striding Edge was very icy.  A very enjoyable day nonetheless.

On our third day we drove up to Blea Tarn for some photography in excellent light and then stopped off for photographs of an in spate Stockwith Force.

All too soon it was time to head home but we delayed things somewhat by calling in for the night with friends in Blackpool.

On the final leg of our journey home we were delighted to see at least 30 red kites in the air over Harewood House.  What a spectacular sight.

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Windermere and the Langdales

Windermere

Windermere and the Langdales

The Langdale Pikes from Elterwater.

Colourful rocks in the quarry

The River Rothay and the Langdale Valley

The River Rothay and the Langdale Valley

The Langdale Pikes

The Langdale Pikes

Stock Ghyll Force

Stock Ghyll Force

Stock Ghyll Force

The Langdale Pikes from Blea Tarn

The Langdale Pikes from Blea Tarn

The Langdale Pikes from Blea Tarn

The Langdale Pikes from Blea Tarn

The Langdale Pikes from Blea Tarne

The Langdale Pikes from Blea Tarn

The Langdale Pikes from Blea Tarn

A snow storm sweeps over the Crinkle Crags

Stockwith Force

Stockwith Force

Stockwith Force

Stockwith Force

Stockwith Force

Early morning light over High Street from the slopes of Helvellyn

Harsh conditions on the summit of Helvellyn