A flying visit to Miltonrigg this morning to look at the green-flowered helleborines - and there were many. We counted 138 flowering spikes! The broad-leaved helleborines were spectacular too - very tall this year.
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| Green-flowered helleborines. |
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| Green-flowered.... |
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| Close up ...greenflowered... |
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| Broad-leaved helleborines. |
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| Broad- leaved... |
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| ...and again... |
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| ...and a common spotted. |
For a shorter walk, picking of two Wainwrights for the dog, who had 6 left to do, this turned into rather a longer walk than anticipated. We had planned to park at the end of the lane leading up from Brownfoot - 2 miles north of Staveley. However there was no real parking and the road was single track with no passing spaces - worse than the Kentmere road. So we retreated and ended up parking in Staveley. The bridleway from the end of the lane above Browfoot was lovely and took us past numerous flushes with many heath spotted orchids. On arriving at the ford - the description in the book we had read said - at the ford follow the wall to the summit of Sour Howes - which wall though was another matter! After we finally found a route up out onto the open access land we were able to spot the correct wall and from there on in navigation was straight forward. The round is a pleasant walk and it was good to be out on the fell again after the prolonged hot spell of weather. From the summit of Sallows though we decided to drop down Garburn Pass to Kentmere itself and take a well marked path back through woodland to our start ( with a great view of two foxes on the path) ....rather than risk any navigation errors! A good walk - 14 miles and Rocky now only has four remaining Wainwrights to do. Not many photographs due to drizzle!
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| From the flanks of Sour Howes towards our start. |
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| The correct wall to Sour Howes summit. |
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| Rocky on the top. |
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| Raven. |
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| Sallows summit. |
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| Looking across Garburn Pass to the Kentmere round. |
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| ...give him a boulder! and .... |
I have only just got round to photographing this piece of work - it is experimental and there are a few tweaks I'd like to make to it, but it has promise and I'd like to make a similar piece as a wave that stands up independently - this will have a stand made for it.
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| The piece and below, detail. |
Latterbarrow was very dry today - good to see lots of brimstone butterflies and to trip over an old aquaintance.
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| Betony. |
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| Brimstone. |
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| An odd looking brimstone - maybe just basking in the sun? |
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| Gatekeeper. |
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| Small tortoiseshell. |
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| Peacock. |
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| ..and an unobliging small copper. |
I always love the top of Whitbarrow; cracking views; lovely flora and butterflies...today was no exception. everything was very dried up, but there was a dark red helleborine.
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| Dark red helleborine. |
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| Broad leaved helleborine. |
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| On the top. |
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| There were lots of grayling flying around. |
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| Towards Central Lakes. |
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| Small scabious. |
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| Northern brown argus. |
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| High brown fritillary ...a bit tatty, but good to see. |
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| High brown frit. |
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| Juniper berries. |
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| Harebells. |
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| Looking into Central Lakes. |
Last year Tom and I tried to find the creeping lady's tresses - we had directions, but couldn't find the 'vague' path to them. This year, thanks to some kind advice, I was able to return and find them - near where we'd looked last year.
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| Creeping lady's tresses. |
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| Broad-leaved helleborine. |
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| The moss. |
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| Heathland ... |
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| Speckled wood. |
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| Bilberries - yum! |
