Quadrate

A square form, a quadrate, nestles by the side of a babbling brook in Furnace Wood. 

The question is what was it for?  I don't know.  Perhaps it is associated with one of the old industries of the Duddon Valley, the making of bobbins, iron making, coppicing or even a hand tanning pool.   It is a mystery to me. Water was used from the River Duddon and perhaps

from this stream in the 18th Century for water power to operate the box bellows below

at the Blast Furnace.  The charcoal produced from the surrounding woodland powered the furnace that once lit would burn for six months, producing molten iron every twelve hours. (The casting arch can be seen on the right).

Another question arises as I take you on the path up through the wood, of what this faded message once said.

At least there is no question of what these flowers are by the side of the path, although the various varieties of mosses might be another matter.

An entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet, this week sojourning at Q here

   

ABC Wednesday - M

M is for Moss

A lover of dampness and low light - we have it in abundance. The clouds come over the Atlantic Ocean for a few thousand miles and here we are, the first landfall they meet and the rain falls. There are 763 species of moss currently known to occur in the British Isles however there are 12,000 species worldwide occurring on all the continents. Here are some bryophyta living in my local woods.

with daffodils (although you will have to click to enlarge to see them)

Taken this Easter week-end, these are also the first showing of this year's bluebells

Luxuriant moss with Wood Sorrel

Now you may have noticed that I have not named one species of moss and I must confess my ignorance but I think it is very beautiful. I remember a gardener once saying that she would like to be buried on a layer of moss which sounds soft and lovely but only if it was in a sylvan glade otherwise it might be a bit Macabre.....

A little moss on a table tomb in the ruins of St Peter's churchyard in Duffus, Scotland. At the corner of the graveyard there is a watch-house which was built in 1830 to shelter the guards against the body snatchers or as they were sometime know, the "resurrection men". The infamous Burke & Hare who operated in Edinburgh could sell corpses to medical students for as much as £12, a watch had to be kept day and night so the bodies were decomposed enough to be useless to the anatomist.

More marvelous Ms at ABC Wednesday