On the Edge of X

In mathematics the letter X denotes an unknown quantity.  In nature this X is also a bit unknown as it  is in a place that is neither sea or land, the salt marsh.  Continually changing it is a rich salt tolerant biology feeds birds, mammals and amphibians.

But what have I noticed here, footsteps in the mud

Sheep crossing? The sheep like to munch on the saltmarsh although this little group with two keeping a wary eye on me are on the embankment. (Their compatriots can just be seen near the horizon).     Also just seen in the distance further down the embankment is a place to take your ease.

The seat, now with the tide covering the salt marsh behind it. Unusually for the UK where you can nearly guarantee wherever you stop on the coast there will be someone gazing out to sea whatever the weather, this seat faces in the entirely different direction.  Either because of the contrariness of the local settlement of Millom (its name of Norse origin means 'between' as it sits between two rivers and the tide)

Black Combe

or perhaps the view of the hills is thought to be more restful. The Millom Embankment was built to protects both this low lying farmland

and the railway that wends its way up the coast.  Northern Rail paint some of their trains with views from the north of England, the area they cover.   I'm a bit too far away for this to be very detailed. The embankment where I stand is also part of a long distance walk, the Cumbria Coastal Way.  The train is the ideal alternative way to do it in chunks as linear walks (except at its very northern end when the train track bends away).

The perfect journey for sea lovers. The water laps the embankment. If you have noticed the difference in colour  of the sea grass, the first three photographs were taken in February, the others last November when rain had nourished the grass. This winter and late spring was one of attrition for the wildlife so on the February walk there were a few remains but this one took my eye:

Did the duck fall from the sky or did it become entangled in the hedge?  It was a sad sight but although dead at least in winter there were no flies buzzing around and only the effects of xeransis (the drying of tissues).

An entry to ABC Wednesday - a journeys through the alphabet that has reached X

Christmas View

Surprisingly I completed all my Christmas shopping early, so today was rather relaxing, and I could view the laden shoppers, as I made my way to the Channel-side walk, with a certain amount of smug relief. As can be seen today was a still blue winter day, Black Combe still covered with snow. Well everywhere is still covered with snow, and tomorrow is promised to be the coldest day in England since records began.  At first the forecast was for the North West, but what relief that we are not to get below -20c here and the forecast for low temperatures seems to have moved to the Midlands.

The fishing boats are moored up for Christmas

so the fish can sleep easy tonight.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas

 

Into Each Life A Little Rain Must Fall.

We've had rather a lot of rain recently.  Sunday was like a sparkling jewel set in the middle of a grey stone.

Today I discovered when sloshing through a flood to my car that suede shoes are remarkable waterproof.

ABC Wednesday - Zero

Are you sitting comfortably, perhaps with some ice in your glass against the heat of summer. Let me take you in a trip back in time from January to March this year when temperatures were below zero for weeks on end.  Wonder if that duck is having much luck in the frozen ground. 

Or are they puzzled why they are walking on water, fluffing their feather against the cold, these two were having a morning snooze Getting their Zeds in..  Which is the better insulator in zero temperatures,  feathers

or wool?  Perhaps

technical fabrics as modelled by this human.  The sun on its way down over the Irish Sea, still not cold enough to freeze salty water.

A 'nice' coating of ice over the snow at the top of the mountain, the trig point marking its Zenith. 

And we zealously expected some good views, well the snow capped hills are somewhere in the murk.

Let me finish where I started.  Zounds, some zany kids are taking their skate boards on to the lake.

Zip over to ABC Wednesday to visit the participants and lots more words beginning with Z

This is the end  Round 6 of Mrs Nesbitt's zestful meme.  Are you in for Round 7?  There are thousands of words out there and more being added all the time.  I wonder why I struggled thinking of one for Z.

Unexpected

 Sometimes you can walk on a familiar path, and then notice something and think

has that always been there, or have I just never noticed it. An inventive way to close the gap in a dry stone wall and of course a photo opportunity.

After a walk on a warm day head for an ice cream from Haverigg Beach Cafe and an unexplained flag. A Quality Coast award for 2010.  I had to look it up on the net which tells me it is the environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy award.  There were lots of peole enjoying the tidy beach. This is the path along the top where you can sit and eat your ice cream while gazing out to sea.

Trying out the macro of my new camera on the peony which this year is unexpectedly perky after its mulch but due more I think to a prolonged period of dry weather and no stormy winds.

ABC Wednesday - Galanthus

They were late, but now are in everywhere and how happy to see them as they push against the door called spring.  The snowdrop's Greek name is from its milky white colour, gala (milk) and anthus (flower) giving Galanthus.  Experts can identify the 350 different species and cultivars from the green markings and the people who love them are called Galanthophiles.  Who could not love these little flowers that appear in the cold days of winter.  In the Victorian 'Language of Flowers' they symbolised hope.

Covering the woodland floors and nestling in hedgerows.  If the temperature reaches 10 degrees centigrade

the outer petals open horizontally, attracting pollinating insects.  This little bunch was in a sheltered spot and they were opening but it hadn't reached that magical warmth so were only half heartedly thinking about. it.

I always though of snowdrops as an indigenous flower but it is not. There is some dispute of how they arrived but the consensus seems to be that monks brought them to Britain from Italy in the 15/16th Century and that is why they are often seen in monastery grounds.

There are many beliefs about them, such as the first sight represents the passing of sorrow. The Christian story tells of an angel turning snowflakes to flowers to give Adam and Eve hope after being cast out from the Garden of Eden.  However folk law can see them as unlucky perhaps because

they grow in cemeteries and churchyards.  Never bring a bunch into the house for it is to invite death, so if you

 St Mary's at Whicham Churchyard

are using them as pain relief for a headache then it might be a precaution to rub them on your forehead outdoors.

No wonder our little Galanthus like the sheltered places for the only flowers on the hill tops are plastic ones.

See how brave those little snowdrops are, nestling in the Whicham valley, below these cold tops, but the snow was delightfully crunchy.  And how delightful that I found a flower beginning with G by accident when setting off for a walk.

Many poets have written about snowdrops and Wordsworth wrote at least two poems but I'll leave with one expressing Tennyson's simple joy at a first sight

The Snowdrop by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Many, many welcome

February fair-maid

Ever as of old time

Solitary firstings,

Coming in the cold time,

Prophet of the May time,

Prophet of the roses,

Many, many welcomes,

February fair maid.

Gallop over to the ABC Wednesday meme to see more words starting with G

ABC Wednesday - X

Saltmarsh, Duddon Estuary

X marks the Spot

A favourite device of pirates to mark where buried treasure lies

such as the map from Treasure Island which also has arrows



for how else would you know the direction to set sail. Although this arrow gives direction to
the top and a trig point, which are as useful as directional x marks the spot and to hill walkers, especially in bad weather, as they eXplore the countryside. These were erected by the Ordnance Survey in Britain as they mapped the country. The metal plate on the top is for securing a theodolite or reflector to make eXact triangulations. With the rise of GPS systems they are not all in use anymore and I suspect this one is not, so is an eX trig, but it has been adopted, for it was newly painted this year in time for Remembrance Sunday.
It is surrounded by a wind shelter, very welcome in eXtreme weather on this eXposed spot. If you look north from this point

in the far distance, at the eXtreme end of my camera's zoom, there are not X rays, but radiation of a different type, the eX nuclear power station, which is now being demolished, but still in use as a nuclear processing plant. Constructed in the 1950s when safety in science used to be more gung ho it used to be called Windscale but after a few leakages the name was eXcised, it had a PR makeover and renamed Sellafield.
Could X also mark the vanishing point as the eXpress train races down the line
or stand for danger at railway crossing. Sherlock Hemlock certainly says so in this short clip from Sesame Street.


eXit here to see more interpretations of the letter X on the ABC Wednesday meme.

Black Combe Walk

After a week of rain Sunday arrived with clear blue skies. We toddled out to take a walk to the top of Black Combe. The bracken is now all golden brown
and Moorgill Beck bubbled and gurgled in the lower reaches. A couple of raptors glided in the sky while nervous stonechats called 'tscak tscak'.
There were lots of wax-caps at our feet. I think these yellow ones are the Golden Wax-cap
and this is the Slimy Wax-cap. These particular fungi are an indicator of ancient grasslands and like moss and short grass. The sheep have been on these uplands for many centuries keeping the grass nice and short.
The trig point on the top had been newly painted a brilliant white. The Remembrance Day crosses had been placed at the bottom and a couple of poppies on the top in memory of those who no longer walk the Lakeland hills.

The breeze on the top was chilly but the sea below was still and the views were clear. The mountain ranges to the north, the Isle of Man and the Calf of Man to the west and Blackpool tower to the south. Looking towards the tower with binoculars The Man Who Knows said he could see the Big Dipper as well. Perhaps he could.

Path down from Black Combe foreground; In the sea - Barrow and end of Walney Island, top, with Hodbarrow Lagoon, lower left.

Returning on the lane down towards Whicham church here on this November day was a Foxglove. The hedge and all around was bare but this was budding and flowering. The Autumn days have been warm, almost spring like, so perhaps this mysterious flower had been enticed into life by the temperature.
Further along the lane the hedge's tops had been cut but a few branches were budding and also appearing, new leaves.

So perhaps the end of Thomas Hood's poem 'No' is not quite true for this month.

"...No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds
November"

ABC Wednesday - B

B is for Black Combe

My local mountain, or possibly hill as it is only 1,969 ft. Here is the view from Kirkby Moor with a piece of farm machinery, not sure what its original use was for. I am a generation away from my farming roots.
I can't resist a rusting building so here we are moving closer on a beautifully sunny day.
And here closer still from Skelly Crag on the Duddon estuary. This was a very breezy day so the washing at the end house would not take long to dry.

It is a popular walk to the top of Black Combe and can be approached from many directions. You are sure to meet at least one person on the way up, down, or on the top. They are usually walking but depending on the time of day there will usually be someone running. The local fell running club could only be called one thing the Black Combe Runners and there is usually a race at some time of the year here.
Popular also with cyclists, although they are fewer in number. Here is one going up from the north west side which has a lot less distinct path than the wide path from Whicham church. He is heading for the top.
Now I have, somewhere, pictures of the view from the top taken with my old film camera. They are hiding from me. On a clear day it is a fabulous view, out to sea to the Isle of Man and mountains to the north and the Coniston range to the east. I can't find one on the net so this is one taken by stridingedge.net of the trig point on the flat top. This is a good place to shelter from the wind and is a popular place to eat sandwiches and chat to whoever else is passing.
Being near the Irish Sea Black Combe does tend to attract the clouds and there is a saying "If you can see Black Combe it is going to rain, if you cannot see it, its already raining".
It appears and disappears depending on the air quality. This is a hazy view taken yesterday with the north end spit of Walney Island just visible under the hill and the Duddon Sands beyond. It was not visible at all today because, torrential rain, and more forecast tomorrow.

Now a hill like this, that stands alone on a flat plain, does not have only one saying about it, but two, but this one is of an older origin and is "nothing good ever comes round Black Combe". Which could mean our West Cumbrian neighbours, no just kidding, it probably refers to the Scottish raiding parties down from the borders commonly known as the Border Reivers.

For bags more Bs take a trip to ABC Wednesday