We marked the first of July with some much needed exercise on a circular stroll nearby, along a bridleway through fields by the forest’s conifer crowded edge, returning home by footpath and single track lanes.
Moody westerly weather gave us great variety of view over the high land, set off with constant shifts of light and changes in temperature. There are a lot of cattle out on summer grazing now but luckily we only had one field of cows with calves at foot to navigate. Not having a dog with us helped. Utilising hazel walking sticks a welcome assurance too in such circumstances.
The winding low water burn, emerging from the forest, carves a shallow valley for itself and at this time of year has meadow grasses aplenty with patches of yellow flowering Lady’s bedstraw and hawkweed in its banks.
One plant seen in amongst the predominant clover and buttercups of the grazed fields is self heal. As the name suggests it has a long tradition of use in herbal medicine. Found in shorter swards that have not been chemically treated this low lying creeping plant is adaptable to longer grass too. It has the prettiest of small violet flowers. (At home I leave clumps of the nectar rich flower unmown in the lawn areas, and rejoice to see the bees visit).
A tractor and cutter was laying a crop of grass for silage as a flock of seed seeking finches followed in its wake, with a scattering of corvids working the newly exposed turf for worms. This being a bridle path a jump for horses embedded in the stone wall makes perfect sense. At the next field an exultation of skylarks treated us to their etheral singing. Like John Clare we ‘listen to its song, and smile and fancy’.
Attempts to follow an OS map marked footpath convinced us it’s never, or rarely used. We passed an abandoned footbridge over a stream and wonder if the path originally went that way. Instead we’ve to make our way uphill to peer down through the gorge’s leaf canopy to find where the track should drop again.
A fallen ash blocked our passage and necessitated some nifty leg work over a barbed wire fence and a scramble back down the steep bank to where woodland gave way to field again. To our relief he footbridge we sought suddenly revealed itself. That in turn brought us up to the narrow lane and more easeful sauntering along its quiet lengths to join the wider road for home.
The generous verges and drainage ditches here are largely untroubled by man or beast so remain home to a rich variety of plants. Some I spotted were hedge bedstraw and burdock, silverweed and vetches, with a mass of Meadowsweet just starting to break into fluffed up creamy bloom.
Followed the weak winged but restless progress of a number of ringlet butterflies and finally catch a picture of one resting on yarrow.
Pleasantly surprised to spy a dozen or more common spotted orchids, their beautiful pinky white flowers peeping out between the grasses. Even more pleased to have one (for now) back home growing in the patch of roadside meadow by the yard gate. Fingers crossed it spreads is seed for next year.
Sign of the times. A supplementary official notice needed to remind scramble bike riders and 4×4 off road drivers that public footpaths are not BOATS (Byways Open to All Traffic)
On the higher and drier stretch of the road home the vegetation is coarser and dominant umbilifers are in the process of change over. The cow parsley now well over and seeding freely as the stouter hogweed, with its irritant hairy stems, beaks into flower.
Our front garden wall boasts more biting stonecrop this year than ever. Wonderful splashes of yellow emanating from the gaps between grey stone.
STEPHEN TOMLIN 