Longlands and Lowthwaite Fells

A sunny walk before the preparation for Saturday's Hesket Show begins! Up Longlands so that Molly could photograph Rocky on the summit - she's photographing him on all the Wainwrights, but he missed this one as we left him at home as it was so hot when we went up earlier in the year!

Rocky on Longlands overlooking Overwater.

Rocky and friend Rocket on Lowthwaite Fell.

Panorama from Lowthwaite.

From Lowthwaite Fell.

Binsey with big skies.

A quick nip up Binsey - the light wasn't easy...

Turkish spindle - hand spinning

Apologies for yet another textile post - blame the weather! I've recently learned to spin using a Turkish spindle - the hand dyeing is great too. Now to dye and spin for a specific project!

Hebridean and then the bottom two hanks are blue-faced Leicester with Shetland fleece. 

Ceps in north Cumbria

A quick nip out and pleased to find some ceps. These were duly cleaned and dried and then the left over bits boiled up to make a dye for wool.

The wood

The ceps

Drying slices of cep on the Aga.

Left - the wool soaking in vinegar solution and the drained 'cep water'.
Top right - the cooking of the inedible bits of cep.
The dyed wool - which is a stronger colour than the photograph shows. 

Jura tapestry weaving

It was good to be able to teach Tom how to do a tapestry weaving and unsurprisingly  the result was fab! Based on a photo taken from Mulreesh on Islay - looking across to Jura he was able to combine many of his hand dyed and spun fibres. These included wool dyed with hemp agrimony, various hand dyed greens and some fibres from the Wool Clip in Caldbeck.

Selecting the yarns.

The finished piece. 

Hebridean tapestry weaving

A small weaving on a very wet day ......including some of my own hand dyed and spun fibres.

Causey Pike round

We had planned to go up Blencathra today but the cloud was down and we had to be back for mid-afternoon, so we quickly devised Plan B! Four Wainwrights including Causey Pike whose top we could see was clear. Needless to say Blencathra did clear out! A good walk though with plenty of good views and lots of up and down! We parked in Braithwaite; up Stile End (not a Wainwright); down to Barrow Door and onto Barrow; back to Barrow Door and behind Outerside; across and up to Causey Pike (rather than the usual path to the col below Sail); then along Scar Crags; down to the col before Sail and then back over Outerside and down from Barrow Door back to Braithwaite.

Left - towards Causey Pike
Top: big-bailing bracken for compost with Grisedale Pike in the mist
Middle:   from Stile End across Outerside
Bottom; towards Force Crag

Grisedale Pike; Scar Crags and looking over Stile End from Outerside on the way back. 

Rocky on Stile Crag, Barrow, Causey Pike and Outerside.

Parton towards Whitehaven Fossils

We went down to Parton this afternoon, in order to evade the heavy showers - and did so successfully! Best of all, Tom found a variety of wonderful late Carboniferous fossils including fish, plants and shells. The fossils of Parton are of late Carboniferous age and formed when coal forming swamps covered the UK. They are similar to the fossils of Pow Gill- details of which can be found here- Rhizodopsis Teeth & Flora & Fauna.

The most common fossils found were freshwater mussels, that are found in beds in large cobbles. They were very hard and did not split, but could be appreciated from their cross-sections.  Also many plant fossils were found such as the common Calamites- a relative of the modern day horsetails.

Left: Calamites, Right: Freshwater Mussel beds.

One of the best finds for us was a Sigillaria fossil, which is new to us. A relative of Lepidodendron, which is also found at Parton Bay, this plant fossil could be found in the shale on beach pebbles like most of the other fossils.

Sigillaria fossils - around A3 in size, this large fossil clearly showed both the leaf scars and the protrusions to the left of the scarred stem.

Freshwater mussels were not just found as hard nodules, but in the shale their imprints are clearly visible and give a rough 'bumpy' texture to the outside of the cobble or pebble, making them instantly recognizable. 

Freshwater Mussel fossils. 

Alongside these mussel fossils were fish remains, giving us clues about the ecology of the late Carboniferous, of which these fossils belong. 

Fish scales (as yet unidentified, but similar to Rhizodont scales) were found on top of the mussels in one specimen.

The specimen containing both mussels and numerous fish scales. 

As well as scales, fragments of skull and fish remains can be found such as the specimens below:

A variety of scales and plates including possible fin like protrusions (bottom). 

A fish tooth (and trace). As yet unidentified, this likely fish tooth is considered a micro-fossil due to its small size. 

The fossils of Parton (and towards Whitehaven) are varied and beautiful. A little searching can yield some wonderful results. A hammer and chisel would be advised as much of the shale must first be split to reveal the stunning specimens inside. 

NB: As you may gather, Tom wrote this instead of me as he clearly has a higher level of expertise! 

Harebell scarf ....

A project that certainly tested me and I learned a lot! The scarf is made of dyed scrim. Harebells were felted - using a polystyrene egg as a form. They were embroidered and had stamens added as beads. Felt leaves and felted stems were added too.... Having a dummy - 'Gloria' to hang things on really helped. Then we made a specific scarf stand that let the light through the scarf .....

Top left - planning and pinning .....then the completed scarf. 

Rhizodont (Rhizodopsis) teeth in the Coal Measures

After finding a Rhizodopsis fish scale at a locality in a nearby ghyll (see that blog here); Tom returned to look for more fish remains. On finding a single tooth, Tom brought the small slab back to reduce it in size and clean it. On splitting the shale a further 3 teeth were revealed.

Rhizodopsis teeth (middle left: with mm scale, top left: with pencil lead for scale). 

Butterflies in the garden.

After what seems like a very long period of mist, fog, low cloud and thoroughly dreich weather here in north Cumbria,  there was some sun. Suddenly, there were seven species of butterfly basking in the sun - albeit briefly!

Peacock; comma; painted lady; red admiral, wall brown; large white and small tortoiseshell. 

Whinlatter Fell

Continuing walking the Wainwrights, this hardly felt worthy of being a top - not because the views weren't fabulous, or the top distinct, but it was such a short and easy walk. We parked at Whinlatter Forestry Commission car park, up through the woods, out onto the open fell, along a short ridge and onto the top. Cracking views ...then down for a cream tea!

Up through the forest via the Gruffalo! 

....and out onto the top of Whinlatter.

Bejewelled grass. 

Dyeing with fungi.

It was a really dismal, drizzly day, so we went to Keswick for a walk in the woods. There were quite a few different fungi, but few opportunities for decent photos given the weather! Back at home though we tried dyeing with some lurid boletes - and were surprised by the vibrancy of the colours.

Beef steak fungus, something pretty! and black bulgar fungus.

Boiling the lurid boletes to extract the colour.

Dyed Dorset horn, herdwick, Valais black-nose and jacob.

Flora and Fauna of the Cumberland Coalfield.

While looking for fossils in the Coal Measures in a nearby ghyll, Tom found a fossil fish scale. Fish scales aren't common in the sequence and are hard to find due their small size. The scale belongs to Rhizodopsis, a Rhizodont fish, which was a large, freshwater fish that lived in the Carboniferous (and Devonian) periods in the coal swamps that formed the Cumberland Coalfield, part of the Pennine Coal Measures.
These fish were lobe-finned fishes that are most closely related to modern day Lungfish and Coelacanths. They preyed on lungfish, other fishes and tetrapods in swamps, where many plant and animal species also lived.

Rhizodopsis scale. Left: Low Loughing Beck specimen, Right: Comparative diagram for identification.

Rhizodopsis was not the only animal species to inhabit the coal swamps. Carbonicola and other freshwater mussels burrowed into the sediment and siphoned their food from the murky waters.

Left: Rhizodopsis scale, Right: Freshwater mussel species.

Surrounding the streams and pools numerous plant species inhabited the land. Their leaves and stems fell into the sediment and were preserved, and now a large array of fossil plants can be found.
The fossil flora assemblage includes:

• Sphenopteris diliatata
• Alethopteris decurrens
• Neuropteris gigantea
• Sphenophyllum cuneifolium
• Lepidodendron lycopodiodes 
• Calamites suckowi

Lepidodendron lycopodiodes- a scale tree (also known as a giant club moss) (top and bottom right)
Alethopteris decurrens- a seed fern (bottom right and middle right)
Neuropteris gigantea - another seed fern (middle left)

Great Sca Fell, Knott and Brea Fell round walk.

With a deteriorating forecast for the day a local walk was planned. We parked up at Longlands and walked along the track before peeling off to the right along the footpath that goes to the right hand side of the beck that comes down to Rough Close. It's a lovely gentle track that gets you into the heart of the Uldale Fells, with ease. Great Scar Fell was clearly visible and the views from the summit were good - unfortunately there was an indigo-tinged wall of rain moving in from the west and the wind was rising, so a quick nip onto Knott and then over to Brae Fell and down cross onto the original track back to Longlands.

Top - the path up and then bottom looking back down through nice interlocking spurs. 

Top - looking back over Longlands and Binsey.
Bottom - towards Brae Fell.

Rocky on Great Scar Fell .....Looking across to Overwater and then with Skiddaw behind. 

Derwent Water round walk.

The forecast for the tops was that cloud would lower during the day and that it'd be damp, so round Derwent Water it was. A pretty similar walk to that in January Click here except that it was about 15 degrees warmer and the lake was actually higher - which just shows how low it was last winter! More atmospheric views!

Fungi beginning to appear in the woods...

Lodore Falls were spectacular today! 

Bowscale tarn and fell.

We managed to snatch a quick walk out this afternoon before it started banging it down! Quite atmospheric, but not too damp. We walked up along the usual track from the road to the tarn, then straight up the back face of the corrie onto the summit and then down to the right of Long Gill, so as to avoid a steep and slippery descent.

Top left - looking up Swineside and top right - High Pike.
Bottom - Bowscale tarn.

Tarn Sike which runs from Bowscale tarn is still dry.

The summit pile of stones.

Mistiness coming up from the tarn.