Recently, a well-meaning national park worker posted a photo of The Howgills. Got ten times the usual "likes" but also caused a PILE-ON due to the overgrazed, bare land it showed. No point repeating it.

Instead, I bought a book and went for a look.

a THREAD: LOVELY / DESOLATE ? Alfred Wainwright understated most things in his guides. How hard these walks can be. How beautiful they can be. But he leaves plenty of clues.
Like his amazement at seeing a single tree here.

As he wrote "even God has been driven out"
Alfred found loveliness & desolation here.

Visit @farfieldmill near Sedbergh this week or soon!

There’s a brilliant contrast of beautiful and ‘terrible’ things to see.

But most of all, there’s this: “Through The Locking Glass” - a collection of work created during lockdown by dozens of Cumbria’s creatives.

SHORT THREAD Here’s the ‘terrible’ in both senses...

Fancy coming for a walk round ours? Tried something new...I took a photo (in any direction) every 100 metres.
You don’t need to go that far, or reach summits to escape.

Dog-friendly stile.
Two pairs of snipe? seemed as surprised as me.
Landmark trees.
Tractor ballet. I’ve finally mown mine. First time since Spring. Three small bales.

Himalayan Balsam. Bees might like it but no one else does.

I can see the woods from here!

The ‘Huttonwood’ Walk of Fame. They’ll be glad of that when they look back...

I’m back. (I know. You didn’t know I’d gone. It’s OK).

Had an unplanned adventure yesterday. It went meanderingly well. Looked for fungi first, for BBC radio.

Overheard one of this trio reading aloud. They told of the local ‘Grumbletrog’. I knew exactly what they meant.

THREAD I once read a story aloud outdoors about the Raven of Eycott Hill. Bit intimidating as the writer and her family turned up.
And she is very tall and beautiful. I am neither.

She writes & draws story maps for nature reserves.
They enjoyed their Grumbletrog tale trail.
Then this

First walk for weeks with John.
Neither of us had been before.
And I thought he’d been everywhere.

We sploshed east of Shap summit (Wainwright somehow missed this one) to Bretherdale.

A lovely little valley. Turned out to be filled with abandoned farms. Not sure why.

A THREAD The farms must have been tiny. And working incredibly hard, arguably against the nature of this wild place.
Bit of a change from Missing Cat.
Think we might have found it, anyway.

And a wall gap that might explain why you missed your turn off.

‘Here be dragons’...

Bank Holiday THREAD - part 2

After Windermere's sunshine and swallows over Claife Heights, I was feeling short of what Alfred Wainwright called "featureless desolation, and solitude, and silence"...

Welcome to Wasdale, near Shap.

Low cloud 'CLAG' was a bonus. AW had promised: Terry Abraham was over in the other Wasdale that day filming handsome folk & fells. (Bet he'd have rather been over here with the wild Angelica).

Then the clouds lifted. I'd not noticed that the Shap Summit Memorial had it's own memorial before...

Another week, another 'outlying fell' or two. One in centre of the Lake District, one in the middle of 'nowhere'.

Both in Alfred's brilliant book.

I've nothing to sell but @wainsoc has, if you fancy a wander.(Get Chris Jesty's edition).

'29 years ago'... Bank holiday THREAD My first-ever Lakes trip, we prepared our outfits during the Oxenhope Straw Race. We (paid!) to camp in a rutted field, with a communal cold tap in Hawkshead.

I had Jeremy Ashcroft's book so we went up Claife.
It was deeply wet. Posed? for tourists by the ferry after.

To 2020..

Team effort behind this week’s absolute beauty.

Whilst discussing #TheLostWords and #AnimalsInChurches with amphibian champion @corriebruemmer she told me “there’s a newt in a church near Sedbergh!”.

I couldn’t quite pinpoint where as there’s lots of chapels in those Dales... I mentioned it to @LakesStiles & craftsman Ginty @glassbasics said “leave it with me”. He tracked it down on the glass grapevine. (You should follow them both).

Stiles went fell running in awful weather & found the church.
His camera was a bit misted up & just missed the newt...

This week, everything lined up perfectly.
Spent a day in the Lakes national park without seeing a soul.
Found no litter. Not even a balloon.
Parked for free.

This has never happened, in a decade of living here.
It started with Mark, a young man (seen here in an old book). THREAD As I packed my kit, an annoyed suit arrived and spoke to two roadside employees at double-espresso-for-breakfast speed. But they'd gone before I set off, so they don't count.

Fell pony views from a northern red-brick path.
A ladder 'hidden in plain sight'? Or an invitation?

I'd meant to finished my C2C blog by today. But time's caught up with me. Hope it'll catch up with the wildlife criminals out there on the Coast to Coast...

Here's part 2 of 'walking with wildlife traps'.

The EU banned this trap in April for being inhumane.

But...wait.
THREAD These traps have been misused for ages. And were set illegally in my photo (inadequate restriction to target their prey). Ring Ouzels have been found dead in these.

Banned in 1904 of being set without enclosures, on poles. So how did this eagle suffer this, in Scotland 2019?

On a whim, I went looking for wildlife crimes today.

It was an excellent day out.
Starred a few of #thelostwords too.

THREAD

@RuthTingay @ChrisGPackham @DtrCathleen @BerzinsBob @AmyJaneBeer @naturalistdara @MarkAvery @guyshrubsole @RSPBbirders

Heather by @JackieMorrisArt On Wednesday, grouse moors begin shooting.
Last week, I got an old Wainwright fell guide. I'd noticed this comment today, written back in 1974 when I was a toddler.

Happy Sunday everyone.
Took a trip to a wondrous place.

My fells guidebook fell open on this page.
I'd never known Alfred Wainwright be so cheerful:
"A place to lie adreaming, and life seems a sweet sweet thing"

But then I saw a sign that always gladdens the heart.

THREAD I parked at the school I'd visited on my C2C walk.
I like their style: "your donation will be used to help fulfil their wishes"

This is where thoughtful children told me about same-sex marriages & asked me about seals. What's that bird..?

@lwspellsongs

Scary THREAD.

I wasn't sure at first, but this beautiful bird is a young starling. One of #thelostwords

Starlings have declined by 66% since I was born. They're now red-listed as 'high conservation concern'.
I sat under 250,000 of them once.
But I loved seeing this new one. They were back this morning, two of them.
I can't see so well now, so wasn't sure what I was looking at here. Nor was my camera it seems.
Then that sinking feeling.

A weekend THREAD...for haytime

This is Muker on the 'Coast to Coast'.
I've mentioned it often, usually along with Neddy Dick.
It's changed (a bit) but less than you might think, since the days of the Swale's riverstone musician.
Here's the reading room. Used to be for men only. I visit often. Still haven't seen the Silver Band at Muker Show yet. The little village has some strong civic pride in its buildings. Behind them are the meadows.

As you walk away from the village the number of species increases. Each small meadow field has a restored cow'us.

A Sunday THREAD
About stones and time.

I returned to Eden valley (because of Anne Clifford).
A deceit of over a hundred lapwings swirled as I nodded to a traveller camped on the Old Way, with a modern-day vardo & a natty hat, listening to a bird in a cage.
Then - Anne's castle. The first builders foolishly tried to force the river round it...
"Let Uter Pendragon do what he can, Eden will run where Eden ran".

The castle had been repaired by a man called Raven for his wife, Juliet. They rest near the valley end now.

I thought I'd go uphill from there.

You might remember this. There's more.

That unusual moth nearly a kilometre up the mountain making me feel feeble, in June.

It traversed the map lichen then settled briefly on the very top. I only saw it as I was resting a while, trying to catch my breath.

A SHORT THREAD... I've seen a few moths but I'd never seen this one. I've always wondered why they look as good as they do.

Camouflage aside - no-one ever gets to see them really.

Do they perhaps reflect the moon?
My favourite has a face like a broken twig.
But...mountain moths?

#wildflowerhour @wildflower_hour
I’m not getting tangled up in #arableweeds aggro with any angry (or happy!) botanists.
Have a look, suit yourself.
I had a lovely time on the roadside (M6, junction 38).

Red clover + six-spot burnet moth (near & far)
Orchid
BIG ? #wildflowerID More roadside/traveller’s joy
Knapweed queuing for the phone on A6, the verge itself and ringlets plus motorway junction cranesbill on M6

This thread started 13 months ago, when a 17th century feminist I’d never heard of, got in touch via Twitter.

I finally got to explore further, yesterday.

@naturalistdara had sent me a sincere, helpful message whilst I was on my 2019 fundraising Coast to Coast walk.

Then this: I’d heard of this valley but never been, only passed by.
Lady Anne’s story is a phenomenal, pioneering tale of fighting discrimination and of outliving those who would do you wrong.

Somewhere between two counties, I saw a tall woman coiling metres of black cable. A volunteer.

#wildflowerhour from dripping mountaintops this week...

Alpine lady’s mantle among the thyme
Yellow mountain saxifrage
Goldenrod

And elderflower along the river with juniper...Cocktail hour?

@wildflower_hour @BSBIbotany @leeinthelakes ...then enjoyed a ‘Purple Patch’ along the Tees too...

Betony, Scabious (soon), Wild Pansy, Orchids

@wildflower_hour @BSBIbotany @LeifBersweden

Glad I went out, as always (due to @DrAmirKhanGP advice).

Young birds learning the ropes.
Siskin acrobats.
Horse with a beard.
A tree that wanted to be a wood.

Look at this smart, young blue tit...and its harassed (homeschooling?) parent.

A little Sunday...THREAD Young tree sparrows, goldfinches, blackbirds and more. Grumpy?-looking Greenfinch, perhaps thinking "SISKINS!"

Blue tit joined in the upside-down acrobatics and eating contest.

Headed to lovely woods, (it was always really about the local icecream maker, nearby @kimisgelato )

Today started with a bang on the window.
Yellow feathers still looping & drifting in the air.
One of the fledglings I’ve enjoyed watching ‘learn the ropes’ this month. A goldfinch.
It flipped over & when I gathered it up, watched me with one eye.

Final day of #30DaysWild
THREAD As it warmed up in my hands, and came round from being stunned, it calmly alternated between watching me and nodding off. I left it safe, warm, with food, water and a way back out if it felt better.

Then headed off to the meadows.