Peak District Holiday 2016

Tags

annual meadow-grass, Betony, bull, calves, cows, Devil's-bit Scabious, enchanter's nightshade, eyebright, flowers, former industrial landscape, garlic mustard, grasses, greater plantain, harebell, hart's-tongue fern, Hawthorn, Ilam Country Park, Ilam Cross, Ilam Hall, Ilam village, industrial landscape, lamb, Lesser Burdock, Maidenhair Pleenwort, Paradise Walk, Peak District, power station, Rabbit, River Manifold, rowan, Sheep's Fescue, Small Teasel, stile, The Battle Stone, tormentil, unimproved grassland, wind farm

Richard and I had a weeks holiday in the Peak District during August and stayed in our caravan as usual and at a favourite site.  We travelled on the 15th taking Elinor with us and once we had set up the caravan and had had a short rest we then drove to Sheffield as Elinor would be staying the week with Alice.  We had a cup of tea, a nice chat with Alice and Richard met Mona, Alice’s cat for the first time.

This is Mona

Richard and I then returned to our caravan near Leek in Staffordshire calling in at the supermarket on the way where we bought enough food to keep us going for most of the week.  We couldn’t find anywhere to buy a take-away meal so we heated up a ready-made lasagna in the oven and had a very late but tasty dinner.

The weather forecast was for four days of good weather followed by cooler rainy weather so we thought we’d do as much walking in the dry at the beginning of the week as we could.  Our first full day was also Richard’s birthday and we decided to have lunch at the White Hart in Leek where we know we can get very nice Staffordshire oatcakes filled with cheese and bacon or cheese and sausage.  Before going in to Leek we had to put the awning up on the caravan.  An awning (for those who don’t know) is a tent, shelter or canopy which is attached to the side of a caravan which provides a little extra space to live in.  We find ours very useful, especially in wet weather as we can keep our soggy shoes and coats out there.

After lunch we tried to find a wood I wanted to walk in but we had great difficulty following the directions to it.  In the end we gave up and went to Ilam Park and walked from there.

Ilam Hall which is now a Youth Hostel

From the carpark we walked towards the remains of the hall and through the archway to the other side of the building.

The gardens at Ilam

The gardens are very attractive and have places to sit and admire the scenery.  We made our way through the pleasure grounds, the path descending towards the River Manifold.

Hart’s-tongue Fern (Phyllitis scolopendrium) and Maidenhair Spleenwort (Asplenium trichomanes) decorate the wall behind the handrail.

The underside of the leaves of the Hart’s tongue Fern have stripes of spore sacs.

Looking down through the trees to the River Manifold

Looking back up the steps we had just come down.

The water in the river is very clear.

Interesting rock formations can be seen down by the river.

A profusion of Enchanter’s-nightshade (Circaea lutetiana)

The view across water meadows from ‘Paradise Walk’

Paradise Walk is a Lime tree avenue where, in its heyday, the owners of the hall and their guests could walk and talk and admire the parkland.

The Battle Stone

The description of the Battle Stone

This cross shaft, known as the ‘Battle Stone’ has been set in a little enclosure at the side of the Paradise Walk.  It is strange to us to find that people in former times were happy to use any material they found to build their houses, even part of a cross!

We were advised not to use this bridge to cross the river.

Small Teasel (Dipsacus pilosus) growing with Lesser Burdock (Arctium minus)

Small Teasel

This was the first time I had ever seen this plant and it took me some time to ID it.   My photograph isn’t the best and I wasn’t too sure where to start my search.  The plant is often found on damp, disturbed ground near woodland edges and near streams and rivers.

Lesser Burdock

We went over the river at the next bridge and then crossed a meadow the ascent of which gradually got steeper.

Cow and calves

The calves were a little curious but the cow continued calling to them and they stayed with her.

Bull and cows

At the top of the field was a bull and a couple of cows.  Fortunately, they were more interested in eating than in us because we were quite puffed by the time we had got to the top of the field and I don’t think we could have run anywhere!

The next field was even steeper and the grass was dry and shiny.

There were flowers everywhere! Tormentil (Potentilla erecta) (the yellow flowers) and Harebell (Campanula rotundifolia)

Betony (Stachys officinalis)

Devil’s-bit Scabious (Succisa pratensis) and Harebells

Devil’s-bit Scabious and Tormentil

I’m afraid the photos got more out of focus the further up the hill I got.  It was all I could do to keep my footing.

Betony and grasses

Annual Meadow Grass (Poa annua)

The view from the top of the hill

We were glad to get to the top and catch our breath.  There was still rising ground to cover but the really steep bit was finished with.

I think this grass is Sheep’s Fescue (Festuca ovina) It caught my eye because the seedheads were shining in the sunlight.

Eyebright (Euphrasia officinalis agg.)

Eyebright is slowly becoming rarer because it is semi-parasitic on the roots of other plants and will only grow in undisturbed grass land.  There is very little undisturbed grassland in this country.

Another shot of the same view but from further up the hill

I love this rather untidy scene

Through the gateway

Both pictures are typical of cattle-farming country.  The well-trampled area next to the gateway and water-trough which in wet weather is extremely squelchy.  The bank of nettles beyond the trough…

A hedge in this part of the world is a rare thing

A view of Ilam village below us

A weathered Hawthorn tree (Crataegus monogyna)

I like the stand of trees on the crest of the next hill

I used the zoom on my camera to photograph a wind farm on the horizon

A different source of electricity. This may be Willington power station or maybe Rugeley? I know both these places have/had 5 cooling towers and my camera has quite a powerful zoom. I would be interested to know which station this is.

This is the interesting thing about the Peak District.  The whole area has been industrial at some period in its history.  We may be out on the moors and seemingly miles from anywhere but industry or the effects of industry surround us.

We began the descent towards Ilam village.

Grasses and flowers

This may look like a rather uninteresting patch of grass with a few flowers in it.  However, in this approximately 40cm x 40cm piece of land there are at least three different types of grass and more than six different flowering plants, not all in flower.  True diversity!

Having had cows, calves and a bull on this post we had to have a lamb too. Look at those ears! Richard called him/her ‘Wingnut’!

One of the many stiles we clambered over that afternoon

The path across the meadow

The path was much clearer in real life than in my photograph.  An indentation in the soil; the grass growing differently on the path and the light reflecting off it in a different way making it look lighter, sometimes darker than the surrounding grass.  I’m sure it would be more obvious at sunset or sunrise or with a dusting of snow on it.

A Rowan tree (Sorbus aucuparia)

Another stile. This time a squash stile’; my favourite (I don’t think!)

We had descended to the valley again and entered Blore Pastures Wood by the stile.

A brown lamb in the late afternoon sun

I was surprised to see Jack-by-the-Hedge/Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata) in flower this late in the year

Greater Plantain (Plantago major)

We saw this enormous plantain next to the road as we approached Ilam.

Ilam Cross, built by Jesse Watts-Russell (who also built Ilam Hall) in memory of his wife.

The cross was badly damaged in a storm some years ago but has recently been completely restored.

A plaque with all the information about the cross

The village was full of people enjoying the evening sunshine.  I had hoped to photograph the houses and the bridge but there were too many people in the way.

A Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) seen on our way back to the carpark

A most enjoyable walk in glorious sunshine.

Thanks for visiting!

 

 

May’s End – Part 2

Tags

Brown Hare, Bugle, Common Comfrey, cow parsley, Creeping Buttercup, Dandelion clock, field maple, garlic mustard, Greater Stitchwort, ground-ivy, Hawthorn, Hedgerow Crane's-bill, Herb-Robert, Meadow Buttercup, orange-tip butterfly, red campion, rowan, Suffolk, trees, Tufted Forget-me-not, wild flowers, Wood Avens

This post will be featuring the wild life photographs I have taken away from home, either on short walks to the postbox for example, or when I have stopped the car having seen something special.

The Cow Parsley has been spectacular this year and especially so on the lane I drive down on my way to Norwich each day via Bungay.  I was glad I took the following photos a couple of weeks ago as the road is now closed for road works and I hate to think what has happened to all these lovely flowers.

Cow Parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris) and Red Campion (Silene dioica)

The Red Campion has never been better in all the time we have lived here too.

Cow Parsley and Red Campion

Red Campion

Male and female flowers are borne on separate plants.

Greater Stitchwort (Stellaria holostea)

This plant is a member of the Pink family and is a shade lover.  It shines luminously in the twilight.  Its stems are very weak and need the support of other plants to gain any height.  The stems snap easily too, and according to the ancient ‘doctrine of signatures’ this means that the plant was thought to be able to help heal broken bones.  The Greek words for whole ‘holos’ and bone ‘osteon’ are incorporated in the botanical name.  The common name of Stitchwort refers not to mending but to another kind of stitch – the horrible pain in the side and similar ailments.  A preparation of stitchwort and acorns taken in wine was a standard remedy.  Stitchwort was regarded, at one time, along with White Campion and Field Poppy, as a ‘thunder flower’ – the picking of which provoked thunder and lightening.

Herb-Robert (Geranium robertianum)

Herb-Robert has orange pollen.

Herb-Robert with Ground-ivy (Glechoma hederacea)

Bugle (Ajuga reptans) seems to be growing everywhere this year too. I don’t remember seeing any at all last year.

Bugle was thought of as a cure-all by medieval herbalists.  It healed all kinds of wounds, thrusts and stabs, as well as ulcers and broken bones.  It was also highly recommended for delirium tremens brought on by too much alcohol.  It has been called one of the mildest and best narcotics in the world.  The Latin name Ajuga and the common name Bugle appear to be corruptions of one or more of the plants earlier names of ‘abuga’, ‘abija’ and ‘bugula’.

Jack-by-the-Hedge or Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata)

This is the only British member of the cabbage family to smell very strongly of garlic.  The smell of the small white flowers isn’t particularly pleasant but it attracts midges and hoverflies.  The plant is self-pollinating.  In June the pale green caterpillars of the Orange-tip butterfly can be seen feeding on the long green seed pods from which they are almost indistinguishable.

This is a photo of an Orange-tip butterfly feeding on the nectar from Cow Parsley. The camouflage is very good!

Creeping Buttercup (Ranunculus repens)

This plant spreads very quickly with long-rooted runners.

This is one of the fields next to the lane I drive down every day. It has a lot of buttercups in it (probably Meadow Buttercup (Ranunculus acris) )

Another view from the lane.

This shows the mass of Cow Parsley on the verge of the lane with two grand-looking Horse-chestnut trees (Aesculus hippocastanum) on the corner.

Common Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale agg. ) fruit or ‘clock’. 

Wood Avens or Herb Bennet (Geum urbanum)

I think this may be Tufted Forget-me-not (Myosotis laxa)

This is the lane as it goes up a gentle rise towards St Margaret’s church.

Common Comfrey (Symphytum officinale)

Common Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna)

Hedgerow Crane’s-bill (Geranium pyrenaicum)

Hedgerow Crane’s-bill with Cow Parsley and Ground-ivy

Field Maple (Acer campastre) flowers.

Rowan or Mountain Ash (Sorbus aucuparia). This is a photo I forgot to include in Part 1 as this is a tree in our garden.

Lastly, I include a couple of photos (not good) of a young Hare, or Leveret (as young Hares are called) that I saw in our garden yesterday.  It was very curious, investigating everything.  It kept on the move all the time, which made photographing it very difficult, suddenly racing off in one direction only to come racing back again next minute.  It appeared to run for the joy of running!

Thank-you for visiting!

Catching Up

Tags

amelanchier, bluebell, cow parsley, cuckoo flower, early spotted orchid, fruit trees, garlic mustard, greylags, Holy Week, honesty, mallards, marsh marigold, pasque flower, rooks, St Lawrence, St Mary Homersfield, stock dove, thrift, tulip, wood pigeon

We spent last week, 5th to 12th April, away in the Lake District staying in a rented cottage with no phone signal and no internet.  As I don’t have a smart phone I wasn’t able to send or receive messages or post anything on my blog.  It is very nice to be away from home and duty and all other pressures but there is so much catching up to do on one’s return!   Lots of e-mails, lots of interesting posts to read and such a lot of housework!!  As I am still working my way through two weeks worth of washing and ironing I don’t envisage that this post will be very long – but I may be fooling myself and will ramble on at length as usual!

It took us five and a half hours to get home which wasn’t at all bad as it had taken us over seven hours to get there on the 5th.  The roads were dry and it was cool and cloudy – ideal driving conditions.  We unpacked and had a hot drink and phoned our mothers.  R’s mum was fine but was worried about her new home help who will be coming to her twice a week.  Her old help recently retired and mother-in-law doesn’t want or like change.  It doesn’t seem fair that at 88 years of age she has to constantly make concessions and put up with unwelcome changes and interference in her way of life.  But, if she wants to stay in her own home for as long as possible, that is what she has to do.  My mother seemed fine and had had a visit from my brother, who lives in Surrey, on Friday which had pleased her very much.  She had not been able to go to church the previous Sunday so my brother was the only person she had seen and spoken to since I had taken her out the Wednesday before that.  Nine days with only her cat to talk to!  I arranged with her that I would take her to church on Sunday as I knew she wouldn’t want to miss the Palm Sunday service.

R and I then did a tour of the garden and there were some pleasures and a few disappointments.  The most noticeable thing was that the goose was no longer on her nest but there was no sign of any goslings.  What had happened while we were away?  Had the goslings hatched out and subsequently died?  Had all the eggs been infertile?  In which case wouldn’t we be able to see them still on the nest on the island?  Had the goslings hatched out and then been taken off somewhere else after a couple of days?  When we first lived in this house that is what the pair of geese did then but after three years they began to stay until the goslings fledged.  We had a change of geese nesting on the island last year after a bit of a battle between two or three ganders, so perhaps the new pair don’t feel this is a suitable place to bring up their young.  There is still hardly any grass round the pond and we have got rid of all the willow cover on the bank which might be another reason why they didn’t stay.  We had no goslings last year either, but we put that down to the terrible weather in the spring and also the goose wasn’t good at sitting on her nest.  The goose this year was very good on the nest and only left it twice a day for very short periods and always covered the eggs well with down.  We will never know what happened but I would like to think that one year we will get goslings in our garden again.

A lot of damage had been done by rabbits.  A hole had been dug at the back of my border against the house.

A number of my plants had been eaten – probably by rabbits perhaps by deer.  We did find a dead, fully grown rabbit near R’s flowerbed.  It had been dead for a couple of days and R couldn’t see any obvious reason why it had died.  No scavenger had fancied eating it either.  Moles had been making lots of molehills.

A blackbird had been killed and plucked next to the greenhouse.  I have seen a female sparrowhawk flying about a lot since our return, strafing the small birds with fear, so I suspect her or her mate were responsible for the blackbird’s demise.

We were pleased to see that the pear tree was in full blossom.

The greengage and the bullaces had lost nearly all their petals and we hope that we may have a little fruit.  The bird cherries were still in full blossom.  R decided that he ought to start on the mowing.  We have well over an acre of garden and most of it is grass so we have a tractor mower.  It is some years old now and makes R infuriated when it keeps blocking up – I think we will be getting a newer better model soon and then I will see R in his element again, racing round the garden, weaving in and out the trees just like at Le Mans!

The rook chicks have hatched out in the rookery as I can hear them squeaking and squawking all day.  Here is a rook looking for tasty morsels.  Notice its glossy black feathers and feathered breeches.  I have included the second photo even though it is blurred as you can see the shape of the beak and the bald scaly skin at the front of the face.  The older the rook, the balder the face.

The duck and drake mallard are still happy in the pond at the front of the house.  A couple of common crows are also nesting in the trees on the opposite side of the lane.  Wood pigeons abound and so do Stock Doves.

Duck and drake Mallard

Wood Pigeon

Stock Dove

The marsh marigold in the big pond is flowering well.  The flowers are more than two inches across.

The marsh marigold in the little pond is flowering well too.

I have found a cuckoo flower by the big pond.  This flower belongs to the cabbage family but is much nicer than cabbage.  John Gerard, the 16th century herbalist said this pretty flower was called cuckoo flower because it blooms ‘for the most part in April and May, when the cuckoo begins to sing her pleasant note without stammering’.

Cow Parsley is coming into flower.  In East Anglia it is called Sheep’s Parsley as well, because in olden times this area was a wool producing part of the country.  Another name for it is Queen Anne’s Lace which is a lovely name and describes the frothy whiteness of large quantities of the plant along the hedgerows.

Bluebell spikes are just appearing under the crabtree at the front of the house.

The crabapples are also coming into flower.  Pasque flowers and Thrift are blooming in my flowerbed.

As are miniature scented tulips.  I used to have more colours than this orangey-red but they have gradually disappeared over the years.

The Amelanchier is in flower.  It was planted in the garden a few years ago but then got damaged so I dug it up and I’ve tended it in a tub.  It will no longer grow to be a tree as I had hoped but will look alright as a shrub.  Once it has stopped flowering I will plant it out in the garden again.

 

An Early Spotted Orchid is coming up in one of the tubs containing jonquils.  We are fortunate to have a lot of these orchids in our garden and they like seeding themselves in flower tubs.

One of R’s cacti is in flower in the conservatory.

This is a Bee-fly.  It is harmless to humans despite the nasty looking proboscis.  Its larvae live as parasitoids in the nests of mining bees.

In driving about during the past few days I have noticed Alexanders and Stitchwort in flower in the hedgerows.  I have also seen Orange-tip butterflies flying.  The food for their caterpillars is Garlic Mustard, another member of the cabbage family and the only one to smell of garlic.

I found some perennial Honesty at the entrance to one of the farm yards down our lane.

Oil-seed Rape is everywhere this year and is in flower at the moment.  We are surrounded by it.  We see it to the left of us…

and to the right.

It has a strong distinctive smell both when in flower and when left to set seed.  I don’t like it very much and it gives me hay-fever.

It is now Holy Week and we start, on Palm Sunday, by celebrating Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on a donkey.  At Mum’s church we gathered in the church-yard and processed into church carrying our palm crosses.  Mum and I enjoyed the service, both having a bit of a cry during a favourite hymn.  Poor R went to St John’s church on his own but met our friends there.  I went to Compline on my own on Monday night as R had a migraine.  (I had woken with a migraine myself early on Sunday morning!).  The service was at St Lawrence church but sadly there were only four of us there.  As I drove to the church the sun was setting on one side  and the almost full moon was rising on the other side of me.  The church door was left open during the service and even though the church is up a lane off quite a well-used road the sounds of the few cars driving along it at 8pm faded away and the silence enveloped us.  Now and then we heard the evening warning calls of blackbirds and robins but most of the time it was absolutely quiet.  St Lawrence church is built on an ancient site.  The Romans had a building yard there, I think, and a Roman carved face is set into the wall of the church.  The road from which the lane to St Lawrence church turns off is called Stone Street and is a Roman road.  If one comes from Halesworth it is known as the Bungay Straight and if one comes from Bungay it is known as the Halesworth Straight.  On my way home the sky was apricot on the horizon where the sun had disappeared.  Above that the colours changed from yellow to turquoise to dusky blue and the enormous moon was shining brightly.  I saw a couple of hares and some tiny rabbits, only about four inches long – probably on their first night above ground.

Tonight R and I went to Compline at St Mary’s Church at Homersfield.  Another lovely church which has been in danger of closing for some time.  There were eight of us there tonight and the church was lit by lamps and candles as there was no electric light.

As I thought it would, this post has got to be a long one again and I haven’t done all the housework I should have!