Willington Woods

 

The signpost points to Red Lane and as I approached it

a comma butterfly settled down in from of me opening and closing its wings before flying off

I walked into the woods on its broad path lined with ivy clad trees. The birds were singing and bees buzzing

spring is on the move

and 

some take the high road

some the low.  Turkeytail fungi forming a beautiful pattern while getting down to its true purpose, decomposing fallen trees. No need to hurry all things pass slowly here.

Back to open blue skies and another beautiful spring day.  I did think of calling in for an ice cream on the coast road but Roy's Ices had an enormously long queue of folk spending a leisurely day on the shores of Morecambe Bay.  Well at least no decision had to be made of what flavour to choose. 

Wander in Wet Woods

 

Acorn advance

A meeting place to exchange Christmas presents in, as they say 'a Covid secure manner' presented an opportunity to take a wander through Serpentine Woods near Kendal and potentially a journey through the alphabet.  A map and clues exist as to what one might find however we were rather unprepared, but happily not for the weather, being kitted out with wellies and waterproofs . The first sculpture was easy to spot for it starts the path in the photo above and  A -"will grow one day into a great tree"

"B has he most beautiful wings you will see".  The winter trees form a nice backdrop for this colourful butterfly

Count the legs and what do we see a centipede on a tree.  Fun fact you'll never find one with 100 legs because they have an odd number of pairs and those legs move fast.

but not as fast as a deer.  We spotted three more letters on the alphabet but missed two had a distraction or two and the rest and as Eric Morecambe said of his piano playing "they are the right notes but not necessarily in the right order"

Despite the dull day there was still colour in the woods. This fern was almost like a Christmas display. Ferns absorb nutrients from their leaves before shedding them and all the nutrients have been taken underground.  The snowy white fonds remains until they die and disappears.

Oh look we have found a ladybird. Hurray.

And a pheasant, not the weather for sitting.

Nature can produce her own living sculptures.  This Burr Knot almost seems to have little clasped hands beneath it.

Mr Rat with his curly tail.

Trying to work out how to make a door.  There are quite a few of these shelters throughout the woods and every one had to be  one had to be explored by a tiny person.

Eventually ending with a ring of the Jingle Bells.   We saw a lot of the alphabet but not all and one (the umbrella) we were told by a friendly passer by was undergoing repairs.

Time to go our separate ways home and leave the wood behind, it is a popular place for a stroll with dogs or children.  Here is someone who visited in Summer although the weather looks similar.

At Sea on Roa Island

 

 

 

Yesterday's sunshine tempted sailors out on the water

 

and out to sea past Roa Island and Foulney.   One side of the island was blue skies

 

and the other under dark clouds.  This swimmer acclimatising to the sea temperature standing on the end of Roe Island jetty at high tide could choose his own direction.  Left around the lifeboat station to sunshine or right to Piel Island under cloud.

Beach Art

The flotsam and jetsam has risen up on Haverigg shingle bank and stands sentinel.

In the stillness of the day nothing moved

The little mountain of Black Combe watches over sea and land

And still nothing moves

The jellyfish does not want to be here down in the sand it wants to move;

and dreams of the pools left behind by the tide.  We move on -

and in the distance see another sentinel on top of the sand dunes

From the sea to dune

an everlasting supply of tide washed buoys to gather and to string up on the skyline by our mystery artist.

Nature's art of tide and time is also gathering, perhaps to grow another shingle bank

of the beach pebbles remnants from deep time.

Autumn on Duddon Moss

 The Duddon Mosses have been well visited this year as a local escape into nature from Covid19 and for that reason the bracken has not overwhelmed the paths.  Now all is quiet as people walk elsewhere and only the birds were in residence as we walked the paths and boardwalk.

One of the joys of this time of year are the variety of fungi

such as these common earthballs nestling in the grass.  I love this passage in my old (1978) Observer's Book of Mushrooms and Toadstools .  "This fungus is unwholesome and should not be eaten; nevertheless as it somewhat resembles the truffle (in looks, not taste) it is sometimes used by unscrupulous restaurants in conjunction with the real thing" and then it finishes off with the zinger "but this happens mainly on the Continent as Truffles are little used in this country" . What were we eating in 1978 that may be thought of as continental?   Woman and Home tells me it was cheese fondue and quiche lorraine.  Heady days.

My fungi knowledge is scant but nevertheless I can admire their shapes, sizes and colours. This hat shape I think is a type of Cavalier

And a perfect round

From a distance this looked like a potato lying by the path.  I think it might be a Parasitic Bolete (Boletus parasiticus) and is parasitic on Earthballs (seen in the first photo) although it is now conjectured that they simply consume dying earthballs.  If my observation is correct it is an uncommon find.

Not looking in the best of health.

So lots of fungi but one I did not see was the instantly recognisable Fly Algaric which is very strange as usually there are a lot of them here. 2018 was an especially fruitful year as can be seen in my post at the time here

Leaving behind the paths we wandered across the boardwalk to admire

the Bog Asphodel whose other name is the Lancashire Asphodel and Lancashire is what this part of the country used to be until governmental edict turned it into Cumbria. The plant is in fruit

and they give wonderful colour to the green moss.  As we took the path to leave through the

wood a Speckled Wood butterfly flew past to gently land and open its wings to take in the warmth of the sun

and a young oak glowed with autumn colour.
 

 

 

 

 

Heather Bloom

Duddon Mosses looking towards the Coniston Fells

An expanse of  heather signals to us that autumn is on the way. Enjoy its purple glory and the ebbing of summer days. 

Ghosts of the Past

Time for walkies at Canal Foot for the Duddon History Group, the entrance to what was once the shortest canal in the country which today is a magnet for anglers, runners and strollers. The ship on the sign gives a clue to the reason for the canal as these came in at high tide from Morecambe Bay but there were also shipbuilders here as well. The notorious shifting sands and channels of Morecambe Bay added a bit of jeopardy to the changing  locations of piers.  The  canal had a short operational life and the coming of the Furness Railway sounded its death knell.  Canal Foot is now an ideal place to see the long railway viaduct (part of which can be seen in the background of the photo above) and the trains crossing, watch the bird life and enjoy the view,

We however were in search of past industries of which little remains but limestone quarries and lime kilns. The limestone is used in the iron making process and there were quite a few plants here at one time with also an iron ore mine but this view is what was the track-bed of the industrial rail link coming into the area and a rather fine limestone wall.

When I downloaded my photos I wondered why I had taken a picture of a field. Sheep in fields I am rather fond of but they are way in the distance then it was pointed out that banking loop to the right is also the old rail track.  In the distance can be see Hoad Hill

and the monument.  One can never get lost in Ulverston with this landmark and for generations of people a marker from a long journey that "we are nearly home".  After looking down the watery depths of the old iron ore mine we looped back to the canal

Low autumn light can make taking photographs tricky but it also lights up the colours of the few remaining leaves reluctant to let go.

After lunch at Canal Foot we journeyed half a mile down the road to the quiet hamlet of Sandhall with a handily placed postbox. In the 19th Century it was a hive of industry which included quarry, brick, and wire works and just round the corner

Carter Pool where the last ship to be built in Ulverston was constructed. From the size of it today it seems rather incredible.  Nothing on the surface remains of these industries and today this is a watery flat land and we watched hundreds of geese flying in formation in the sky, dividing and and then combining making shapes as they wheeled across the sky. Did I say nothing remains of the old industry here? Well there are two slag banks where now bee orchids grow and

a rather beautiful chimney that was once part of the wire works which operated from around 1882 to about 1919 and was left as a navigation aid for vessels berthing at Ainslie Pier, Hammerside.

The white brick banding is actually more yellow but digital doesn't pick it out too well. It looks to be in rather good condition.

I got rather excited about this chimney so clicked happily away as we passed it. Our guide for the day was Rod McKeever whose book The Industrial Archaeology of South Ulverston no doubt will guide us for another visit to the area.

Further and more informed information of Ulverston Canal and South Ulverston can be found on the Cumbrian Industrial History site