A sunnier day at last

Old Boots (Tree Creeper)

Sunday Nov. 8th 09 
                  What a change this morning sunnier skys and colder clearer air. Today I've been on a short six miles walk with a few of my friends. The walk started from Langcliffe in the limestone area of  Upper Ribblesdale north of the small town of Settle.

Langcliffe

Hoffman KilnStainforth stepping stones

Stainforth Foss

                                                                                                    (images from video camera)                      

Langcliffe weir

Langcliffe weir

 It was a walk full of interest, firstly through an industrial heritage site of old limekilns  then on to the village of Stainforth before returning along the banks of the River Ribble and the locally famous Stainforth Foss  which is well known for watching the salmon leaping up the falls and then  finishing up at Langcliffe weir another viewing point for salmon.

My Wild Live Garden...... Being less tidy.

Thursday Nov.5th 09.

                  Traditionally  Nov. is the month for tidying up the garden..... but not my garden, wildlife gardening gives me the perfect excuse to be less tidy. Dead foliage, seedheads and all the garden decay are best left over winter for all the hibernating  insects to overwinter in.and it also leaves a structure for those frosty and snowy mornings when the garden is transformed into abstract shapes that give the garden such an attractive appeal during the cold darker months of Winter.
         Looking around my garden this morning dodging the heavy showers the pond seemed quiet lifeless, there were no pond skaters, the water lilies were dying back and the shoals of sticklebacks and minnows had gone into hiding in the deeper areas of the pond under the water weed, but I did see some frogs digging them selves into the mud at the bottom of the pond. 

      All my orchid spikes have dispersed their seeds and only their skeletons remain,so on this cold November morning the garden is quickly shutting down for winter.

 

Autumn run of the Salmon

               
Mon. Nov. 2nd 09


   After the heavy rain and gales yesterday the weather is kinder today  but colder 7c. The heavy rain has brought the level of the Lancashire River Calder up 2 feet and this encourages the Salmon and Sea trout to move upstream to their spawning grounds in the higher reaches of the river but there is one big problem.....  and it's here at Padiham Weir, the weir is too high and until the environment agency and river authority do something about it (there is talk of a fish pass) this is as far the fish can ascend, its frustrating and sad to watch these fish constantly leaping to clear the lip of the weir only to be washed down again onto the stone sill at the base of the weir.

         The shutter on my small digital still camera doesn't respond quick enough to capture the fish leaping out of the water so the images of the fish are movie frames from my video camera. 

Another opportunity

Monday Nov. 2nd 09
           Sat.31st Oct     Another filming session for my "garden on the moor film" the quiet weather we've had over the past week was coming to an end with gales and heavy rain forcast for the following day. This was my last opportunity to record the beautiful colours of Autumn in this magnificient garden before the onset of Winter and I wasn't disapointed.

Our regular visitor

Tuesday October 20th 09

                            Since the end of April this year we've had a regular visitor to our garden,he's a handsom male pheasant but I'm not quite sure what type. I know there's nothing remarkable about pheasants being seen on farmland  but it unusual to see them in  back gardens where I live in the Pennines of North East Lancashire,he comes almost every day waits at the back door and doesn't go away until he's fed.

   There's no female about as far as I know, so it looks as if we've got him for the winter,he's living in the undergrowth between the surrounding gardens.

Is this Lancashires best stretch of countryside?

Pendle Hill 1831 FT.











Sunday 6th sept. 09.
Today there's been a short window of better weather, temp. 15 C . and it didn't rained until 4pm, so it's been great to set out on a 6 miles walk to lift the blues of the past weeks very unsettled weather. There's been four of us out today, Jim, Shirley, Audrey(my wife) and my self, we've walked from Chipping in the Forest of Bowland along the sides of the Hodder Valley which joins the Ribble Valley near Whalley. We haven't seen anything special but we've just enjoyed being out walking in probably the best stretches of countryside in Lancashire. However, one small discovery, a Salmon and Sea trout fish pass on a small tributary of the River Hodder, this wet my appetite for further visits in the next two months when I hope to video the Salmon and Sea trout ascending the fish pass to spawn in the small streams high on the Bowland fells.

Our Wild Purple Moors

Purple heather for miles and miles.

Looking back to Widdop Moor
Approaching Top Withens from Withins Height End.


Sphagnum Moss.

Thurs. 27th Aug. 09.
This post is not so much about nature but more about our walk today. We've been keeping an eye on the weather and also the colour of our surrounding moorland. Today the weather was set fair and the purple colour of the moors looked perfect. Our walk started on Widdup Moor and followed the Pennine Way over Withins Height End, the highest point on the walk and finished up at Top Withens the ruined farmhouse supposedly the setting for Emily Bronte's novel "Wuthering Heights", I.T.V.1 just happens to be showing a new adaptation of the novel starting this coming Sunday. To sum up....we've seen the moors at their best, a fresh breeze, the lovely purple tones and the're right on our doorstep, what more can be said.