Kinder Scout via Crowden Clough

 

Hi readers. Sybil and I ventured out to the Peak District yesterday. It's been way too long since we last visited the park, and I was determined to make the best use of an otherwise empty Sunday.

We left the busy train at Edale, after Sybil had, of course, made friends with most of the passengers and train staff. Her habit of sitting on my knee in order to look out of the window always manages to bring a few smiles and friendly comments; at 20kg, she isn't your typical lapdog.

Our destination today was the plateau of Kinder Scout. I wanted to climb this via the less busy route of Crowden Clough. We joined the Pennine Way out of Edale and headed towards Upper Booth Farm. Today the farm was pretty much deserted, save for a few chickens pecking around, as it is still fairly early in the walking season.

A few hardy campers had pitched their tents in the field. Rather them than me, personally, as even my flat gets pretty cold during the early spring nights. Mind you, I am rather strict when it comes to turning the heating on.

We soon reached Crowden Clough. The path here winds rather lazily through the valley alongside, and sometimes through, the thankfully fairly shallow stream that is Crowden Brook. What the stream lacks in depth, it more than makes up for in natural beauty, particularly in the form of waterfalls. Here are a few pitiful attempts at photographing them:

Sybil, however, isn't too keen on getting her feet wet, and sometimes convincing her to cross the stream was a job in itself.

Hmm, really not too sure Mum. It looks all wet.

Is there a boat somewhere?

There is certainly no water-loving breed in this dog's genetic makeup. Posing, however, is a different story; that is, if you can get her to sit still for long enough.

Stopping for a quick rest.

Come on, Mum. The path goes this way.

The final scramble on the plateau was a huge undertaking for someone of my (non) fitness level. The path was so steep in places, and the footholds were far enough apart to make me glad I was blessed with such long legs. The large stack of rocks that is Crowden Tower loomed above me, drawing me forward by reassuring me that I was almost at the top. I had a vision of the tower being an optical illusion, that upon reaching it I would be confronted by another sizeable hill to climb before I crested the summit.

It's that a-way

Thankfully this was not the case; instead, the scene that greeted us was rather breathtaking. Rocks of every size, shape and texture dotted the plateau, some smooth and flat, whittled down by years of  rain, wind and snow; whilst others were huge, round boulders, taller than I was and three times as wide.

We rounded the corner, sticking to the most obvious footpath, only for myself to sink straight up to my calves in a huge patch of boggy peat. Sybil's delicate paws barely dented the surface, yet my not inconsiderable weight swallowed my feet and ankles whole. I proceeded to perform a strange kind of shuffle-walk, trying to walk forward without loosing either of my boots. Finally managing to reach firm ground again, I was relieved to see that we were heading towards a thoughtfully constructed flagstone path.

 



We passed through the amazing landscape that is the Woolpacks, a collection of misshapen rocks even more curious than those we had already encountered. The magnificence of them could not be captured by my amateurish photography skills, but the image that my mind conjured up was that the landscape was rather moon-like in atmosphere. Of course, never having been to the moon, I am less than qualified to compare the two, but it certainly is worth going up Kinder Scout to appreciate it.

 

Pym Chair, I believe?

Nice place for a lunch break



We stopped for lunch beneath another huge tower of rock I believe to be known as Pym Chair (please correct me if I'm wrong). The view was one not to be sniffed at as I sat and scoffed my sandwiches, watching people in the distance climbing the monstrosity that is Jacob's Ladder. With the mist beginning to roll out behind us, I decided that we shouldn't linger and curved round to meet the top of the Ladder. Descending this way with Sybil on lead was not really an experience I would like to repeat, but nonetheless we managed to reach the bottom unscathed and I let Sybil refresh herself in the river near the bridge before we joined the path back to Edale.

 

Rather delicately taking a dip

A helicopter suddenly appeared over the hill as we began our journey back to the village. I know the guys are doing some restoration work on Kinder, so hopefully this helicopter was involved in that work and not rescuing someone from the now mist-enshrouded summit.

   

With an hour and a half to wait until the train home arrived and now that Sybil was of drinking age, I decided to risk taking her in her first ever pub. I peered around the pub door rather nervously, mentally mapping out where all the other dogs were sat. I had little reason to worry though, as my usually leash-reactive Sybil was quickly making friends with another collie once she realised that well-behaved dogs got delicious chips.

 

She also got a fair share of the treats from other customers; in fact, one customer crouched in front of her to ask her to sit and give paw for a biscuit, and she rather shamelessly threw herself against him for a cuddle, eliciting the desired aww's from the room. My dog can be such a creep, sometimes.





A short stroll with the hounds

Yesterday I took Sybil and her friend Meg, a yellow Labrador, for a good walk around Scholes and Keppel's Field. We do this walk fairly often, but yesterday I decided to take my camera as there are usually a few interesting birds around.

It wasn't a great day for photography as it turned out as it was rather overcast, but we still enjoyed the walk. We headed up across the fields and into Scholes' Wood, where Sybil chased her usual squirrels and Meg trotted along rather faithfully by my side.

Pine cone in Scholes' Wood

Leaving the woods, we walked alongside the cow enclosure. There have been several cows, the Highland breed I think, on Keppel's Field for quite a while now. They don't cause any trouble, but at first I was a bit peeved that they take up a good portion of the field. There are several footpaths running through the cow enclosure, but we never venture inside unless the cows have been moved elsewhere.

The Head Honcho

Breakfast time

I also spotted the kestrel in with the cows. With the long grass, Keppel's Field must make a fantastic territory for a pair of kestrels, and I certainly see at least one bird everytime I'm here, either perched in a tree or hovering low over the grass. This time, it was a female:

A rather bad kestrel photo

Then the dogs did some posing. Meet my friend Meg, and of course you all know Sybil.

Meg

Sybil

Meg proving she can move just as fast as Sybil:

Labrador attack!

And we found a bit of snow to play in.

We went back down the other side of the large field, and met up with our kestrel again.

Another shockingly bad couple of kestrel photos.

I stalked the bird for a good twenty minutes, trying to get close enough for a decent photo of her hovering. However, everytime I set my tripod up and zoomed in, she would wheel away and carry on hunting even further out of shot. These are the best photos I could manage. It is now my mission to get a decent photo of her, even with my limited camera skills. Watch this space!

A random photo of grass poking through the ice

And a rather surprised-looking Sybil.

See you soon :)

Plot 23

I'm back again, with another update on my allotment plot. Life has been getting in the way of time spent down on my plot, so I've been doing my best to squeeze in the odd hour here and there. Hopefully, now the nights are retreating as spring draws close, I will be able to get a huge move on and start planting some seeds.

Greenhouse

I've been tidying the greenhouse. Not so much as you can tell from this picture, but the inside has gone from plain chaos to organised chaos, which is how I usually bumble through life. I managed to get two cotoneaster plants from Morrisons priced at just £1.50 each, so they are ready to go outside once I figure out where they are going. Most of the missing panes in the greenhouse are now replaced, so it will be a good place for my tomatoes in the summer.

Digging and weeding

I've started doing a little bit of digging. The ground is a bit too wet at the moment for this job to be pleasurable in any way, but it needs to be done. I've dug up several of what I think were rhubarb plants; it seemed the roots had rotted anyway, so they were probably no good, but I'm not particularly keen on rhubarb anyway so I have made way for vegetables I will actually eat. The dog food bag comes in handy for filling with weed roots and taking them up to the fire hut to be burned.

That's the stuff!

There are two piles of compost, all nice and ready to be thrown in the veg beds. I've emptied one of the piles, filling another dog food bag and lugging it up to the greenhouse to shake over the beds in there. The soil was really dusty and no use at all, but now with a good load of compost mixed in, my tomatoes will hopefully thrive.

You can see the difference in the quality of the soil in the above picture. The grey soil underneath would have been exhausted of nutrients and I would have struggled to grow anything at all in that.

The next job...

The picture above shows one of the next jobs to be tackled. Behind the greenhouse is a homemade shed, currently full of rubbish and scary cobwebs. The brambles on the land here need chopping down and the grass tidying up; perhaps in the future I will have a few hens on this area. I could modify the shed into a henhouse, with perches and a nestbox, and the land is a good size to section off for them. Just hope there aren't many foxes that visit the site...

Down on the Plot

Greetings! I've spent a few hours on the allotment plot, and most of the grass is now cleared. I now have several huge piles of grass, waiting to be burnt. I've also cleared the goosegrass and brambles from the fences and now have a fairly clear boundary.

Coming along nicely

I've discovered two compost heaps at the bottom of the plot, which I plan to bring back into good use. There are a few borders already marked out, and I will probably use these for herbs this year. I've also made use of a pile of aluminium sheets; these now make a nice fence. I just need to dig a couple of holes for some more fence posts and nail the sheets to the wood so they are secure. Don't want Sybil roaming onto other plots!

Underneath all that grass, a path of paving slabs was hiding. I've cleared a lot of the grass and need to secure the stones as some are a little wobbly, but this is one of the jobs last on my list; for each morning, as the wind blows down the makeshift fence during the night, I lift it up to discover a vole scurrying about in tunnels under the aluminium. I gently guide the vole onto the next plot along, which is currently empty. Don't want to be standing on the little fellow.

Vole tunnels in the grass

It's nice to see a bit of wildlife making use of my little garden. As long as the creature stays away from my seedlings in the spring, I'm sure we will all get along fine.

The next job now is to mark out where the vegetable/flower beds and paths are going to go. There are some handy planks of wood in the greenhouse which will make a nice system of raised beds. Shouldn't be too long with the next update, if this weather holds out!

What's all that white stuff?!

So, I guess it snowed over the weekend. Of course, the first thing Sybil and I did Saturday morning was go outside to play in it. Not to the park, for as I suspected the hills of which were packed with eager kids, both young and old, sledging away. No; Sybil and I visited our secret clifftop on the edge of Kimberworth.

We had the place to ourselves, and there were hardly any prints in the fresh snow. First we played catch:

Please excuse the fact that I am wrapped up well and Sybil is left to freeze with no coat on. She is warm enough, I assure you.

Look at that fine form

Oops, missed!

Where's that darn snowball gone?

Hmm, perhaps I'm no good at this game...

Then we built a snowdog. I say we: Sybil was more interested in eating the snow than building with it, so the resulting mess is mostly my own work.

Snowdog

Can you see the resemblance?

Nope Mum, nothing like me; especially now I knocked it's nose off.

And a bit of posing to finish. Enjoy what remains of the snow; hopefully it will be gone soon, so I can get back to work on the allotment.

See you soon!

I'm back! And I have an allotment plot.

Hey there, faithful readers! I'm back blogging after a prolonged break. I'm sorry to say that is has been a sad year for myself and my family; my mum became very ill during the summer and sadly passed away in September. Needless to say, I haven't been in the mood for blogging much. On top of that, I've also moved to a pleasant little flat near the centre of town. Sybil of course has moved in with me, and we have already got ourselves an allotment plot sorted in lieu of a garden.

Hmm, guess it needs a bit of work, but one thing I'm not scared of is getting my hands dirty. I've already made a good start on clearing the long grass, and the fence on the right is now repaired (sort of) so Sybil can join me on my digging days.

Another "before" picture. As you can see it is a decent size, and plenty big enough for growing veg and flowers, whilst leaving a Sybil-friendly space.

There were several plots to choose from, but the main reason I chose this one is for this beauty:

It has a huge greenhouse :o). A few panels missing here and there, but nothing I can't fix. I may finally get my tomatoes to ripen next year. I've never been very successful with them so far.


So, I'll be dropping in regularly with updates on the allotment plot, as well as reporting on the adventures Sybil and I get up to on our walks. I shall see you all very soon :o)

Some photos from Silverwood

Here's a few photos I took at Silverwood last week.

Gorse in flower

Summer is really getting into full swing now, with pretty much everything in flower. The spring flowers are over with; bluebells, celandine and forget-me-nots have given way to poppies, dog rose and, well, bracken.

The birds are still singing, and the trees hum with the sound of blue and great tit families moving through, looking for food to feed their newly-fledged young. Skylarks still sing their bubbling song from high up in the sky, and wrens throw their trilling song out of bushes as you walk past.

I found the egg shells above on the ground, just out of the long grass. It's likely they came from the nest of a ground-nesting bird such as a pipit or skylark, but I'm no expert. Speaking of meadow pipits:

My first mipit. Very happy

Mipit

I caught up with the swan family on the lake: the eggs have hatched and it seems they have five cygnets at the moment. They were at the far end of the lake and I could only get a rubbish photo of them, but I will be visiting again this week to see how they are faring:

Plenty of this about at the moment:

Cuckoo spit

And several of these. I was under the false impression that fungi only appeared in autumn, but I will be keeping my eyes peeled from now on:

I also found one of these: a lesser-spotted Sybil.