Grey Friar; Great Carr; Swirl How (twice) and Wetherlam

 A stunning walk yesterday with excellent visibility. Four new Wainwrights for the dog : we had intended to park at the top of Wrynose pass at the three shires stone, but there was no chance (even with an early start) as the spaces were mainly taken by camper vans that had obviously been there overnight. Fortunately there was a space at the bottom, so our walk began with walking up Wrynose. From there up to Wet Side Edge and across to Grey Friar. The top was lovely with great views across to Wales - we suddenly realised you could actually see Anglesy; the Isle of Man; Ireland and Scotland! From Grey Friar across to Great Carr and then onto Swirl How. Then we descended the Prison Band - a nice little easy scramble and onto Wetherlam. Back up the Prison Band (now I feel we have done Swirl How as coming onto from Great Carr felt too easy and a bit of a cheat) and then we cut back down to our original path and back to the car. Splendid! Rocky now has 30 Wainwrights left to do. 

Looking across Wrynose Pass to Pike O' Blisco and Crinkle Crags.

Alpine clubmoss.

From the left: Wetherlam; Swirl How and Great Carr.

Grey Friar. 

Grey Friar.

From Grey Friar across to the Scafells. 

Grey Friar plateau.

Wreckage and memorial to the eight that died when a Halifax Bomber, lost in cloud,
went a few feet too low to try and get a glimpse of the land below. The wreckage, except for that used to create the memorial, was pushed off the edge of Great Carr to avoid it being reported again as a crashed aircraft. 

Blue Herdie! 

Looking down to Wetherlam.

Looking back at Great Carr.

The view - to North Wales on the horizon.

Herdies. 

Colourful spring.

Rocky's four tops. 

Arthur's Pike and Bonscale Pike

Well what a delightfully easy and relatively flat walk that was! We parked on the roadside (lots of parking) behind Helton and took the path out past the Cop Stone (a bronze age standing stone thought to be part of a large stone circle). Several stone circles were evident before crossing the Roman road along High Street and walking along the edge of Barton Fell. The views from White Knott, Loup Knott and Arthur's Pike were superb. We then crossed to Bonscale Pike and its pillars before returning along the Roman road and crossing back to the start. 

The Cop Stone.

The hooligan on the stone circle! 

Heading out towards 'The Cockpit'

The Cockpit stone circle.

Looking up Ullswater towards Patterdale.

Looking across to Blencathra.

Arthur's Pike.

Bonscale Pike summit - Rocky has 34 Wainwrights left now.

Bonscale Pillars - the bottom one is known as 'The Tower'.

Hesket Newmarket lino print - done!

 Today was spent hand-colouring five of my prints of 'the other side' of Hesket Newmarket; next will be printing off some cards....

The final print.

First photos are taken....

Sketches are made and the design finalised....

The cut plate is inked up...

Prints made ....and dried...

..and coloured.

Poplar hawkmoths

While we were moth trapping Tom noticed some hawkmoth eggs had been laid on the backing sheet. These were carefully collected and then kept until they had hatched and grown into small caterpillars. They were then released onto a local willow tree and we were delighted to see that at least one of these had survived ... although the poor thing won't be so keen on today's weather! 

Hopefully the caterpillar(s) will survive to become the moth.

Headend Quarry - Butterflies

 Before Storm Francis hit we had a gloriously sunny day ...and the butterflies were out ...

Small tortoiseshell.

Peacock.

Red admiral.

The quarry...

A rather tatty aberrant wall brown - potentially ab. pallida.

 

The view from the quarry entrance back to Skiddaw.

Beautiful Bassenthwaite

 On the way home from Castle Crag we stopped off at the shore of Bassenthwaite...spectacular vies and some common quillwort washed up. 

Castle Crag, Borrowdale - Forked Spleenwort

 A glorious day - and a trip out to Borrowdale to look for the nationally scarce and near threatened forked spleenwort. It occurs at ten sites in Cumbria - most of which are fairly inaccessible. We managed to find three specimens on the crag face. Last time I went up Castle Crag the visibility was less than good, so it was nice to see it at its best! 

Castle Crag.

The path up....

The hunt for forked spleenwort...

Black spleenwort and maidenhair spleenwort.

Orpine.

Forked spleenwort.

The atmospheric quarry.

More slate.

Spectacular views over Derwentwater towards Skiddaw and Blencathra.

Sunshine in Borrowdale.