Mystery bird

Distance: 9 miles
Walked: Saturday 3 August 2013
Total miles walked this year: 177
Route: Ashby to Hartshorne and back

This short but pleasant walk was all I had time for today. I was treated to the sight of this bird flapping around while walking through a section of The National Forest and turning a corner he was sitting on a post. I knew he'd fly as I approached so I held the camera (iPhone was all I had with me) ready for that moment. Unfortunately not close enough for ID purposes but it was large, browns with white flashes.

Any ideas?

Blackfordby Spire

Distance: 7m
Walked: Sunday 17 March 2013
Distance walked this year so far: 40m

I'm getting a bit fed up with slopping around in mud, you can see from this picture that there's water just standing on this field and the footpath. More of a paddle than a walk. But some blue sky and nice views.

I  had noticed that an older sign marking 'The Heart of The National Forest' had disappeared, and today there's a shiny new one. It'll look great when all's out in leaf.

Details of this route are here

Woodland - trying to be creative

Mum and I both like taking photographs, but at Christmas discussed that we were both a bit fed up with the regular old cheesy shots and decided to have a monthly(ish) challenge to get more creative.

For March our theme was 'Woodland' and so while out walking on Wednesday I tried some interesting compositions and also some special effects (nothing very clever).

Can you see what's wrong here?

This oil painting effect is achieved with the camera while snapping.

More photos from this walk are on Flickr

Unforecast hail!

Still breaking in my new boots and also breaking in my legs after a winter lethargy.

The forecast for this Wednesday looked good and 18 miles seemed about right, so I tackled my South Derbyshire 18 walk

The forecast didn't mention hail! It's still muddy but a different mud to a week ago, less wet, more gooey. Aside from a very brief hail shower it was a fine and pleasant day and most of the paths are good.

Misty

I wouldn't normally have turned out in such low-vis weather. But I couldn't wait to get out and start breaking in my new boots - more of that another time.

Maybe sunny shots look better but there's an eerie atmosphere on a foggy day and I challenged myself to try and capture it.

Close-up shots have a different quality, with the light being so unusually flat and even.

I was fascinated by this new willow fence / hedge, see the catkins!

Trying not to take the same ol' snowdrop picture

Mum and I were talking about how we tend to take point-and-click pictures when we walk. She laid down a challenge - we should get more creative and make it a competition.

So I put the thinking cap on for a while and came up with an effect that I wanted to try. Not an original idea but I'll take full credit for the execution:

Fantastic day for walking today and with the snowdrops in full effect it would have been wrong not to nip over to Dimminsdale on the Derbyshire / Leicestershire border. A round trip to Breedon Church made it a nice 6-mile leg-stretch.

More pictures from today here on Flickr

South Derbyshire Three Viewpoints Walk

This walk could be called 'Two Reservoirs' or just 'Viewpoints Walk' because there are many more viewpoints than the three of the title, including views across both of South Derbyshire's reservoirs - Foremark and Staunton Harold

One benefit of the rainy weather we've had this year is that the water levels are nice and high.

This is one of the first, if not the first, that I devised and I've walked it many times. It felt good to tread the 14 miles of South Derbyshire again today, I have neglected my hobby this year, a downside of the rainy weather!

More pictures from today's walk are here on Flickr

And more information about the route including a map is here at uk-walks.info

Early winter nature watch

Route: Blackfordby figure-of-8
Walked: 30 November 2008
Distance: 8m
Summary: Starting at the Heart of The National Forest, Ashby de la Zouch, walk to Blackfordby, continue out to Woodville, then back in a loop to Blackfordby and a different Route back to Ashy (Possibly starting and finishing at The Beeches pub, well worth a swift visit).

I've broken a bit of a lull in my walking and made the most of the glimmer of sunshine which made it through the dull sky.

We're just three weeks away from the winter solstice, which here in the northern hemisphere means the days are almost as short as they're going to get. This, combined with me being short of spare time and letting my fitness lapse a bit, means that a shortish walk starting and finishing at my house was the order of the day.

I've written about my Blackfordby figure-of-8 walk before. It's one of my most regular South Derbyshire walks. The distinctive broach spire of Blackfordby church is in view most of the time. Today the church was looking a bit green and mossy.




In another life I'm bracing myself for Christmas Caroling season. It's not quite the bleak mid-winter yet, but 'The Holly and the Ivy' did seem very appropriate today. On the whole the trees and hedgerows looked pretty lifeless, but a few things were still keeping vigil, or in one or two cases, just coming into their own. Ivy looks pretty healthy and its berries are just starting to appear:


There's quite a contrast here between the brown and brittle bracken (to the left of the path) and the thriving holly on the right:


Surprisingly there are still plenty of red berries, including rosehips. These ones are among brambles (the blackberry bush) which are still green, but looking very tired and yellowing:


This bush was heaving with red rosehips, and looking really interesting, I thought, in silhouette against an attractive winter sky.

The route above was generated using Meander.

Image produced from the Ordnance Survey Get-a-map service. Map image reproduced with kind permission of Ordnance Survey and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland.

mad flowers

Walked: 16 August 2008
Distance: 10m

I have done this route before, or variations of it. I've taken lots of photos of Anchor Church caves before, fortunately, because today I didn't have good batteries in my camera, and it was a grey, miserable day anyhow.

I did have enough battery power to take a few pictures of these mad flowers, though. For a long stretch alongside the Trent there grow these pink triffid-like flowers. They're tall (Rog is a good 6 feet tall), smell heavenly, and there are millions of them, tightly packed into this one spot. They look like a cross between a sweet pea and a snapdragon, but I've no idea what they are.

[edit] Thanks to Roger's mum, we now know that this is Himalayan Balsam, it escaped from Kew Gardens in 1837 and is running amok. Perhaps my triffid reference was more accurate than I thought.

Blackfordby blackberries

Walked: 9 August 2008
Distance: 8m

One of my most regular routes, the only really notable thing to say about today's walk is that the blackberries are starting to come ripe. Most are still green or red, but there are a few which are deliciously ready.

Bad planning produces results

Walked: 27 July 2008
Distance: 36 miles
Total time: 14 hours

I planned this South Derbyshire walk to be 30 miles, but because I didn't measure it accurately beforehand, and also because of some incompetent planning, the total at the end of the day was 36 miles. I'm so pleased about this because I've had the Ivanhoe Way as my goal for 3 years, and that's 36 miles, so I now know I can do the distance.

This was a very hot day. We started very early (started walking at 6:30), which was the coolest part of the day, but you can see by the reflection in this pond just how still the air was.


It seemed a little early for wild fruit, but to our surprise, there were quite a few wild raspberries around. It was a real pleasure to pick a couple of handfuls and eat them on the way.


The sky wasn't blue all day. by the time we arrived at Staunton Harold reservoir, there was a little bit of hazy cloud, but you can still see very still water between the algae.


I also felt that it was a little bit early for harvest and straw bales scattered around stubble fields, but this was obviously a good weekend for getting the wheat in.

We covered the very flat but easy-walking surfaced paths of the Cloud Trail and the Trent and Mersey Canal towpath during the hottest part of the day. Shade was scarce, but when we did find some it was very welcome.


These strange squid-like creatures are weeds at the bottom of the River Trent. This photo taken from the Cloud Trail's bridge over the Trent shows just how clear the water was today.


From the same spot, this beautiful view shows more harvesting.


I love dragonflies and damselflies. This fellow with dark spots on his wings was irridescent and changed colour from rich blue to emerald green according to the direction of the light.


My plan was to continue through Willington and leave the canal by Newton Solney. The map below shows how we found ourselves on the wrong side of the Trent with no bridge for miles! I have been caught out like this before, so shouldn't have fallen for it again. We did trespass across a field to find a footbridge which is marked on the map, but the bridge was well secured. A bit tired by now, we had to re-trace our steps to Willington and cross the river there, leaving this very strange appendage at the top-right of our route:

This is a very nice walk which takes you past what might be a farm or might be a zoo. It's very strange to see a cow grazing near to its more exotic cousins in the next field.


Nearby are llamas, and these deer.


Flowers are fewer and farther between now, but in this hedge I saw blackerry and dog-rose flowers, which are remarkably similar when you see them side by side, alongside honeysuckle.


I found this large mushroom in one of the fields. Yum.

The route above was generated using Meander.

Image produced from the Ordnance Survey Get-a-map service. Map image reproduced with kind permission of Ordnance Survey and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland.

Ashby to Hartshorne

Walked: 29 June 2008
Distance: 9m

Some classic South Derbyshire views, taken before I did my usual stupid acrobatic jump over a stile, landed badly and walked several miles on a sore ankle. That gave me a reasonable excuse to get a lift home when it started to rain.

This is a very pleasant walk. As far as pretty villages go, I love Smisby, the views from alongside the Ashby by-pass are superb, and the part of Ivanhoe Way from there to the Ferrers Craft Centre is one of my favourite local routes.

The derelict cottage is covered in elderflower, a fragrant flower which some people still use to make cordial and more importantly, white wine. I have collected mine this weekend. Later in the year the berries also make wonderful red wine. I've also seen someone eating the leaves in sandwiches.

I love this cottage as an example of nature very quickly reclaiming its land.

Summer Solstice dusk till dawn walk

Walked: 20/21 June 2008
Distance:14m

Here in the UK it's been getting dark later and later, and last night was the Summer Solstice - midsummer; the shortest night with the longest days.

A bit further north, folks would have experienced a 'twilight night' without complete darkness. Here in the midlands, the duskiness did give way to darkness, but only for a very short time, and the full moon kept it light. It was a wonderful experience watching the twilight go very slowly, and the dawn arrive very shortly afterwards.

The moon was very nearly full, and extremely bright. At one point when we were walking directly towards it, I had to shade my eyes from it. I don't remember seeing my own very distinct shadow in moonlight before.


I chose my '3 viewpoints' route, which I've trod many times, and I'm very familiar with now, but even so, I found that things look so different in the darkness!

I discovered a very funny game when it was quite dark. I didn't use my torch a great deal, but at one point shone it towards a black shape to see whether it was a cow, a straw bale or a bush. It turned out to be a cow, but the big surprise was seeing the two sharp points of light shining back at me! When you shine a torch into a field of animals, they look back at you and their eyes turn into bright spots of light. (Quick someone patent this idea - maybe it has a road safety application...)

It worked just as well with sheep, and when we found a field packed with a million sheep, to see all those pairs of eyes looking like fairy lights was a hilarious sight!

There are many nocturnal and crepuscular animals and birds; we saw owls and a badger, and heard so many rustles. In long grass we startled a partridge or pheasant which in turn startled me.

I started this walk tonight in a different place than usual, so that I wouldn't be walking through Melbourne at pub-turning-out time. I started just outside Melbourne, so it would be several hours before I hit 'civilisation' again.

At 11pm, the sky looked a beautiful blue, with a red horizon. It looks much darker in the photo than it did at the time. This is just before St Bride's farm, looking over at the Trent Valley.


The first glimpse of the rising moon was around Hangman's Stone, between Seven Spouts farm and Foremark Reservoir. It started out a fairly warm yellowish colour, but soon became bright silvery white. This is around 12:15


We crossed fields to Ticknall and by the Calke estate. This was the darkest part of the night, but it was still light enough to see without torches. By the time we first saw Breedon church, the morning's red glow was starting to appear on the horizon. Breedon church is somewhere in the middle of this picture on the horizon.


I've taken so many photos of Breedon Church, but not like these. It's floodlit, so can be seen from a long way away, and looks wonderful up close at night.


At this point, the horizon over to the East started to look very light.


From now on, the light changed rapidly from the eerie half-light to full brightness.



Having walked through Melbourne, perfectly light now at 4:20am, this is the red sky heralding the sunrise


I don't remember watching the sunrise before. Having arrived back at the cars, the first glimpse of the sun was an intense spot of light on the horizon. In just a few seconds, this grew and grew, and the sun's rays filled one of my most favourite views. You can really see the sun rising very quickly over the horizon.

Having witnessed all of this, it's no wonder that ancient people were in awe of the daily and seasonal cycles of the sun and moon.