Three of the best

Wed . 19th May 2010
         Spring is moving along so quickly that I haven't had time to upload any posts in the last few days because we've been to various locations to see the marvel of springs regeneration as it progresses through the season, miss a week and thats it it's past it's best and your having to wait another year.
    The first of the three walks was on Sat May15th in Upper Ribblesdale in the of the heart of the three peaks, Pen-y-ghent, Whernside and Ingleborourgh, up here in the high Pennines there's a tiny Primrose that blooms in the limestone grassland It grows in several locations in the dales but it is far from common. Todays walk is a circular walk of about 9 miles starting from Horton in Ribblesdale.

                                  Pen-y-ghent from Sulber Nick
In the Limestone pavement area the two main flowers that were in flower were the Early Purple Orchid and the lovely Birds Eye Primrose.

                                          Early Purple Orchid

                                     Bird's- eye primrose

Across the valley the egg shaped mounds formed by the movement of ice overiding deposited rocks and boulderclay in the last Ice age.

                                        Limestone wall country

                  The River Ribble only a few miles from its source                                                      

                       Only Bullhead and small Trout were surviving in
                       a few pools in this dried up river bed

                                               Frost damage

                                      A high Pennine hill farm

                             Walking back on the Ribble Way

                         More Drumlins near Horton in Ribblesdale

Sun.16th May 2010
       The delights of a Limestone wood near Feizor.
       This was a shorter walk with our friends

 

                                      Early Purple Orchid

We found some Hybrids....False Oxslips this is the result of
Cowslips and Primroses cross pollinating

                                             False Oxslip

                          Wood Anemones flushed with Pink

                  Just a few of the hundreds of Early Purple Orchids

Mon.17th May 2010
    An early start this morning because we travelled up country to Teesdale. On this walk we were joined by Eric and Peter.We caught the bus up to Langon Beck to the start of the 10 miles walk along the banks of the Tees back to Middleton in Tesdale.Along this walk are some of the rare wilds flowers of Northern England including the Spring Gentian.What was most noticable about the area was the season was a good 2 weeks behind and we'd only travelled about 80 miles north but this is a high cold dale.In the upper part of the dale the Spring Gentians were at their best but lower down the dale the famous spring flowers needed another 3 weeks to be in their full glory. This was a long day it took us 7 hours to complete the walk because we were there also to shoot a film, it's surprising how long it takes to line up all the shots and do most of the commentry to camera,  It was a long but brilliant day.

                                      Along Langdon Beck

                                              Spring Gentians

                                                High Force

                                     Mountain Pansies ?

                                        Globe Flowers

                                       Wood Anemones

                                            Low Force

                               The end of a brilliant days outing

A very successful search

Thurday 13th May 2010
          Yesterday we returned to the N.W. corner of Lancashire were the border adjoins the Cumbrian border near toArnside and Silverdale which is listed as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. This area south of the River Kent Estuary is famous for its wild flowers including several orchids. Because of my interest in wild orchids the seach was on to see if we could find any different orchids that we had only viewed in the text books, so we away early to search this unspoilt corner of N.W. England.
    On our way across country this field near to kirkby Lonsdale drew my attention, a field full of the humble Dandelions dispersed with the Lady's Smock (May Flower)

                Arnside viaduct and the River Kent from Arnside Knott

                     The distant Langdale Pikes in the Lake District

                                         Early Purple Orchids

                            Looking south across Morcambe Bay

A curtain of precipitation  hangs down below the cloud this falls as snow on the higher hills such as the Pennines and the Lake District Fells

    This field is old Pasture Land, in this field we found hundreds of orchids

        Our first new find... the Green Winged or ( Green Veined Orchid)

               Early Purple and Green Veined Orchids growing together

                         A type of Hybrid Pink Green Veined Orchid

 

                          I think this is a White Early Purple Orchid?

              Another Green Veined Orchid less than 2 inches in height

                                  Another shower approaching

                    Walking the coastal path around Arnside Knott

                   The woodland floor covered in Lily of the Valley

                                            Coastal path

                             Cowslips beside the coastal path

                      And finally back to the small resort of Arnside