Black Grouse

My son was 'mountain-biking' yesterday evening, with his Explorer Scout unit. They stay for about 2 hours, but, since it takes at least 30 mins to get there and another 30 mins to get home, I put my boots in the car and walk whilst he's cycling. The centre he uses is in an area of forest and there are way-marked foot paths, however, walkers are in the minority! We find most folks engaged in out-door pursuits to be friendly, helpful people, generally. My son has been rescued by kind souls providing extra inner tubes etc in the past - when he has worked through the ones he had on the bike and his spares. Unfortunately for me, the centre now has a barbecue night on a Wednesday and, yesterday, were having some sort of time trial/race. The cycle and bike routes are entirely separate and clearly marked. However, the forest was far from quiet and crossing the main cycle tracks was almost like trying to cross a town by-pass in the rush hour. I followed the marked trail to its junction with a network of public footpaths over open moorland and escaped over the stile into peace and quiet.

When timber is cut the habitat is drastically changed. Good practice suggests that some trunks should be left as nest sites and perches, particularly for woodpeckers. These serve the purpose but have also been employed as something akin to totem poles. I have often wondered whether the carved silhouettes would be rocognizable to their real cousins and thus serve to scare them off. I took pics of a few including the 'bikes' for my son's benefit:

Once out in the open it was very windy and a little cold. There were many small, ground-nesting song birds which I did not identify. The path is little more than a sheep track - in places not even that. The sheep had obviously found it a little narrow and kindly left tufts of their fleece. I gathered some on the way back - although probably not exactly the same tufts as I saw on the way! The path was marked with arrows mounted on short posts at sensible intervals. I wasn't carrying a map having meant to stay on the forest trails, but the path was easy to follow. The area is used by local groups carrying out Bronze Expeditions for D of E and I was wondering how any of them ever managed to get lost - in good visibility at any rate. I walked for half the time available to me and then turned back. There were some lovely lichens, new curls of bracken and many heathers and grasses but it was much too windy for decent photos, neither I nor they could stand still! I took these pics just to reference the general colours:

As previously mentioned, the path was marked although otherwise a little indistinct. Having turned back the previously visible posts were now hidden by the heather and I took a wrong turning cunningly worn for me by the sheep! I could see the stile I was returning to, so was not lost. However, I must admit it would have been a little different in fog! The forest is peppered with carved 'statues' representing local wildlife. The forest trail, up to the stile, is marked as the 'black grouse' trail and statues of the birds - in a frighteningly large scale mark the stile. As I was running out of even the narrowest of sheep trails, I heard the characteristic 'Go Back' call followed by a sqwawk and a black grouse rose a little above the heather and flew of in alarm. I was thrilled to see both it, and its mate, by whom it was followed, but very sorry to have disturbed them.

My tracking skills are dreadful, I tried to re-trace my steps and failed. Not wanting to disturb them again I set off in an arc towards the stile. Unfortunately, the heather was getting deeper and I was concerned about stumbling across more nest sites  - be they of grouse or other birds. There were areas of recently burned moorland which I decided would be safer, since I could see my feet at least. I trudged through a very boggy bit to get to the first. Now I know that my bargain-priced boots are both comfortable and waterproof! My walking pole was not a 'must-have' 'look-the-part' accessory, but essential. My right arm aches almost as much as my legs today. I have found in the past that walking poles allow one to retain some dignity whilst effectively proceeding on all fours. Unfortunately my dignity was temporarily abandoned when I tripped over one heather bush - a springy soft landing at least! I was now short of time and the small patches of deep heather which I was still having to wade through were hard work. The areas of short new growth worked well but were not conveniently placed and I was zig-zagging in a ridiculous way towards the stile. I probably only had to negotiate about 500 or 600 path-less meters, but they wore me out.

I finally found my son and bike. Normally, after mountain biking he is forced to change or travel home sitting on a towel. On this occasion I was wetter than he was!

Return to blogging

..... I have been away for ages! Mainly due to time pressures/problems with Blogger/frustration with up-loading photos from Picassa (very cumbersome in my opinion!)

Anyway its now or never. I have been storing up lots of photos to share with you - some may now seem a little un-seasonal but I'm going to show you anyway!

I'm going to begin with some inspirations from the garden (both in culinary and needlework directions):

Hopefully, with a bit of self-discipline and a trawl through a couple of hard drives' coupled with a look at the calendar and a little musing over what we have been up to in the last couple of months' I will get up to date quite quickly!

Let it Bee - Folksy Friday No 37

I have been pleased to see some enormous bumble bees working their way round our garden in this week's sunshine. They inspired this collection. Click on any item to view it in its Folksy store.








linen tree
Artistic Plan
Wudwerx
Saffron Barr
Pantsandpaper
The Whimsical Wren

The shape of things to come?

Whilst walking back round the mere at Ellesmere, we came across this willow. I must have walked past it dozens of times before. Whether the light was different, or my state of mind was more receptive to ideas, I don't know. The tree is not symmetrical - probably due to some 'surgery' or damage. and due to its position next to the mere. Its shape is lovely. I am thinking about how to represent it and others in my work.

I realised that its beauty lies in its 'real' shape. Tree skeletons in  reference books tend to be a little less true to life. Best observed in the absence of leaves, I set out to find more 'tree shapes' for reference, in the fields surrounding our home.

I was fascinted by the shapes and textures of this:

Its surprising how much can be hidden by leaves:

This second one made me grin - it has an adjacent 'pup-tent' or 'granny annex' just visible to the right of the main residence!

To finish - a selection of bursting buds - and catkins - both willow and hazel - time to get stitching!!!

Ellesmere (continued)

Just a few images to show you of buildings in Ellesmere. I think this first may have been cottages for the canal workers - the row is the subject of a wonderful painting displayed in a craft gallery just a little way up the street:

I'm sorry to admit that I do not know the origins of this impressive building. There is now a modern town hall in Ellesmere and this building is close to the market hall, so I had wondered if it was originally the town hall. In recent years, I remember it as an excellent  greengrocers and florist. I think it is now a coffee shop. Whatever the building's origins the roof is very distinctive:

Back with a few photos of the mere tomorrow.

Ellesmere (continued)

Yesterday I showed you some photos of the canal as we walked from the Whittington direction into Ellesmere, along the tow path.

I was fascinated by this seat and shelter - a little difficult to show you the detail in rapidly failing light. The entire interior is covered in ceramic tiles with lovely relief impressions/illustrations, with plaques giving details of historical events. I really should have noted down some of the details for you.

And then on to this wonderful old building on the quayside  (shots below carefully composed with new Tesco store to our right, so as not to spoil the view!)

I wonder whether our modern industrial and commercial buildings will seem as atmospheric and attractive in one hundred years - or if any of them will have survived!

Ellesmere

A few weeks ago we spent a lovely week end camping at Ellesmere. I came back with quite a few photos to show you, intending to write several blogs over the following days. I have certainly been busy, but most of the delay has been due to my reluctance to use Picasa. It now seems to be the only way to post photos, not otherwise stored on Flickr etc to my blog and I find it cumbersome and time-consuming. I guess Google are trying to force business their way but, in my case at least, it has resulted in fewer posts/reduced use of Google programs.

Moan over! I have got round to up-loading some pics. Ellesmere is a market town with the benefit of a canal and a beautiful mere. I always find canal-side walks relaxing and fascinating. Many stretches of canal  are beautiful but they are, of course, an industrial relic, now adapted, in many cases, to the leisure industry.

This photo is not of the best quality. I have not done any research but the low building (central to the photo) resembles many old dairies locally. Much of the rest of the site is now used as a builder's yard. Another structure, set a little behind the building on the right, has been some sort of warehouse, with a typical lifting block structure over three floors of warehouse doors. The low building now provides facilities for canal users.

The building I am describing as a 'warehouse' is behind the crane in this shot.

My husband took these photos. Conscious not to appear too intrusive, both these boats were occupied, they are somewhat distant and the features I wanted to show you are not apparent. Most of the boats on this stretch, had flues for log burners, with log store neatly stacked. They also had solar panels, mounted so as to be tilted to either side, according to the orientation of boat/canal/sun ( it is somewhat easier on a static house!), and wind turbines - mounted so as to be able to fold them flat along the roof of the boat. Brilliant! They just needed a horse to completely break their reliance on diesel. The next boat along the tow path nearly choked us with fumes as it ran its motors - presumably to charge batteries!

More of Ellesmere later this week!