kevin

 Hear ye, hear ye!  Art, it's bloody everywhere.

Two things specifically went on today......

The big red ball...... ever heard of it?  Me neither, until today, when it popped up on our local news on the bee-bee-sea..... There's this big red ball.... and it travels the world (much like Andy Goldsworthy's Striding Arches) - it's worth a look and definitely "up my street" a far as art goes..... so, apparently, according to the news:

The big red ball is in Ilkley today, so there's no way i am heading over there to see it.....

Tomorrow it's in Saltaire for the day, which is still a bit of a trek.

This week, to help celebrate Bradford being city of culture, it's been touring the city.......

Now.....  this really starts to piss me off because:

To celebrate Braford as city of culture, it would have been bloody useful to have that information BEFORE the art project had been there instead of after it's been there?

Why the hell would you go to the trouble of telling us this news on the penultimate day of the big red ball's Yorkshire visit!!

I am a bit angry.......

The other item that piqued my interest today, is the emergence of another new Banksy..... this time in Marseille.....  it's intriguing and pretty sweet....  A lighthouse in the shadow of a street bollard, presumably as a homage to someone....

Here's the Banksy/

Here's the Big Red Ball

And here's a little photo of some blackberry blossom which is happening just now..... it was festooned with butterflies and bees, but alas, i had the dog in tow and i could not time my photo better than this....

wet

 Got a bit wet today.....

Splashing about in the stream, amongst the leaky dams......

Working our way, first up Red Brook where the iron ore merges with algae to form an orange jelly like substance that hugs the wet rocks..... 

Unplugging some tricky dams, in water that is suddenly, very deep...... and the rain is falling heavily..... bags, coats, everything receives a dousing.

Back to base for a quick dry out and a spot of lunch..... cutting up a few melted tree tubes from the fires earlier in the year where the Trust lost somewhere in the region of fourteen thousand young trees.

After lunch we headed up towards Redbrook Reservoir on Manchester Road, for a short stroll up Thieves Clough..... here be the remnants of the workings and the spoil heaps, created when the Standedge Tunnel was cut, some several hundred feet below us, carrying the canal between the two counties of Yorkshire and Lancashire.

At Thieves Clough we reset some stone slabs on the path that were wobbly...... lift them..... pack them out....... set them back down..... jump up and down until everything feels solid and stable.......  mebbe seven or eight times..... they're big, heavy slabs and it takes some good technique to do the job efficiently.

A few leaky dams at the Clough..... the day's rain, on top of a few more days of rain has meant that the water is actually right up to the top of the dams..... and with some judicious unplugging, we get everything flowing again.

The weather this afternoon was windy, warm.......  uncomfortable...... 

Look at my office though..... this was my last dam of the day..... and it was badly plugged..... i removed a massive lump of heather and roots, and the vortex sucked the water down and out......  very satisfying.

tangled

 oh, what a tangled web we weave......

Sometimes, all the loose ends and threads, flapping in the breeze, are too manifold for me to even know where to start in terms of picking up the stitches.

It becomes overfacing.

And in being overwhelmed, i generally have the bad habit of turning my back and severely procrastinating.

Life can be some complicated.

Then..... eventually, i start to pick away at the edges..... send an email, rearrange something, take something apart, tighten a screw......

The jobs start ticking themselves off and eventually, my head bobs up above the water, and i can breathe again......

I've had a hectic few days with one thing and another.....  seem to be getting back on track now.... sort of.

a) I forgot to blog about the nice walk we did on Monday.

b) I forgot to blog about the work I was doing yesterday.

So....

Precis:

The walk was nice - i already told you about the abandoned buildings..... turns out it used to be Allen Brickworks.... and you can read about it here.  Also, here's a route map of the walk, which were fabulous.....  Cromwell Woods..... Southowram (pronounced south-arrrr-um).....  Elland Wood Bottom..... you get the idea....

 Map is here.

Work.... spent yesterday morning on the moors.... more leaky dam work........  i've written about this a fair bit, so if you've followed , then you already know the sketch..... we went up Long Clough and sorted those ones out.  Then it rained..... quite heavy, so we went and spent the afternoon in a polytunnel, weeding some trays of moss.

Leaky dam work up Long Clough.

This one is blocked.... you can see the water level has reached the top and is pouring out to the left, effectively "scouring" a new path.......

Here's the same dam once it's been cleared and is running properly...... water level much lower

milko

 On the continuing theme of Yorkshire related phrases.... this one were taught to me by Uncle David on my Grandma's side, who i always thought, reminded me very much of Arthur English.

There was a cow from 'Uddersfield,

Who said that her milk would not yield,

Unless she 'ad 'er udders feeled!

That always tickled me as a kind, and no doubt led to my love of good pubs.

Here's a picture from today's walk, which i'll probably write up tomorrow.....  Out of the woods and into.... i don't know what..... a load of abandoned warehouse type units with no obvious means of access..... the whole place was in ruins and heavily graffitied but i thought it would have made an ace place for a secret party....... strange place.

saying

 I realise the "prayer" i gave you yesterday did not paint a Yorkshireman in a very good light...... but here's another Yorkshire saying to ponder upon.....

Yorkshire born,

Yorkshire bred,

Strong in th' arm,

and weak in th' 'ead!

Here's a picture of an old Vauxhall Cavalier that i regularly walk past on the way to the path we know as "ten fields"......  it's not going anywhere soon, but it kind of makes a nice still life, and i guess there's an air of time and decay about it..... very long term art installation?  I could probably get funding to take a photo of it every day for the next ten years or summat.

praying

 The Yorkshireman's prayer......

See all, hear all, say nowt; 

Eat all, sup all, pay nowt; 

And if ever tha does owt for nowt, 

allus do it for thissen.

Amen!

'ere's a picture of the lovely East Riddlesden Hall, scene of my first aid training course this week just gone.

compass

 Yar!  Set sail to the high peas.... shiver your lumbar..... yo ho ho and a gottle of geer.....

I've been playing too much pirate cat questing games, surely......

In all honesty, I once told Dawn that i'd have liked to live in "pirate" times, if there was ever such a thing, and assuming, given the spate of modern Somali pirate and definitely Russian ghost ship tactics, those times aren't now.

Dawn echoes this by telling everyone that i want to dress up as a pirate.... which of course is not what i saiid!

Random story, over!

I felt the need to apologise to my computer screen and to the five or six people who sometimes stumble by this blog fo being absent for a whole day.....  THAT'S a weird feeling.  But, if it makes anyone or anything feel better (probably me) then .... sorry.

See, i was questing.......

Set satnav for East Riddlesden Hall, and choose from a variety of circuitous routes, to that which lies twenty miles hence, but takes and hour and a half to drive!  It's a good example of why modern transport infrastructure is... bluntly, a bit fucked!

It's also a good example of why, when searching for a job, i put in my postcode, and select "radius" and feel a sense of shame as i dial back the drop down box to ten, then five miles..... trying to avoid the next ten years where i'll be spending four hours a day, sitting on the M62.

Ten years...... from today..... is three thousand six hundred and fifty three days..... of which one thousand and forty four are weekends.....  and there are eighty(ish) public holidays.... assuming i had twenty five days annual leave per annum....... i'd be working two thousand two hundred and sixty seven days..... even assuming two hours commuting a day (one hour either end) that seems like.... a hundred and eighty nine days, driving to get to work and back......

A hundred and eighty nine days, just sat in me car, alone with me thoughts......

I don't think i am ready for that commitment.

I'm procrastinating, of course......

Yesterday.... I drove out to Keighley and underwent a day of first aid training...... sponsored by the National Trust, of course, and hosted at one of their properties.  The course was pretty good, and i am pleased to say that i passed the multiple choice test at the end of it, so that's now something else i can add to my curriculum vitae.

I am saddened to say that, for the first x number of weeks of job searching, i believe i may have sent out my CV with the wrong email address on it..... i did send an email to the email address that i supplied to ask the person to forward any work offers over to me, but as of yet, i've heard nothing.... from either employers or my email doppelganger!

Sorry for rambling.

Now, as i went out last night for a pint and a fish supper, i snapped a pic of the Harold Wilson statue, in St. George's Square in Huddersfield.....  little did i know that it was thirty years ago today that he died.  So you can have this picture and you can make your own mind up on whether he was a hero or a villain.... here's an article about him - it's very well written and says it all so much better than i would/could.

For anyone who doesn't know, Harold Wilson was a Labour prime minister in England.... born in Huddersfield

gobsmacked

 It's one of "them" days......

A day off from volunteering, and one which my aching bones thanks me for.

A day when i catch up with a little bit of admin..... applied for a couple of jobs..... fingers crossed. 

Filled in my mileage claim, concluded my itemised list of hours "worked" at the Trust.  

Deleted a stack of emails.

During all these tasks, the heat of the day steadily increased.....

I did some gardening.... by which i mean, specifically.....

Examined the lavender cuttings and their progress..... they all seem to be doing well, and should probably get potted on.

Examined my chilli plants and topped up the hydroponic tank.....  some time ago i posted a pic of my first chilli flower and it's now forming a fruit.  More flowers to follow.... i was concerned they may not pollinate but they obviously have.

Made some more lavender cuttings from the garden.

Made my usual half-arsed attempt at clearing up after myself - my gardening style drives Dawn to despair..... and she regularly compares my "style" to that of my mother.... we are renowned for weeding things but just leaving piles of weeds everywhere..... 

I played a bit of video games....

Took the dog for a wander......

Tried to thrill you with a photo of.... no, as i did not get the photo, i shall not spoil the surprise..... one day soon i will thrill you with a photo and knowledge that will be sublime.

Tried to get some butterfly photos.... but holding the dog lead with an animal that could be likened to a kite in a hurricane, attached to the other end, is not conducive to photography.

I marvelled..... revelled.... luxuriated in the astounding array of flora and fauna.......  Too many varieties to list.... but everything is bursting and sparkling at the moment...... i hope the bank holiday weekend that is coming, yields the much needed rain.

Here is a photo.... not the one i wanted to present, but a photo nonetheless of common bistort. For those that wish to know.... there is an annual "dock pudding" competition held not far from these shores, in the village of Mytholmroyd......  the "dock" that is used, are the leaves of the bistort plant.  I am assuming the championship continues?  anyhow.... this is the plant:

beaten

 Been out on them moors again, mate.

Today was hot and sunny.... again.....

We took some little hand picks and various small tools, and headed up the cloughs....

Arriving at Eastergate we walked along the iron stained Red Brook before turning right and heading up the lesser trodden tributary, in Oakner Clough.

There's not much in the way of footpaths here, so it's a case of picking the best route, following up the edge of the stream/brook.  Not much water flowing because of the prolonged dry spell, but there's still some moisture underfoot where water seeps from the precipitous sides of the gully.

Reaching the top of Oakner, we start cleaning the leaky dams.... i've mentioned leaky dams before.... they're like dry stone walls in the stream, designed to let water flow through them, but in a more controlled manner...... they get blocked up with Molinia grass and bracken fronds.

Taking the right hand fork and working our way up Short Grain.... climbing a steep tussocky wall to get over a waterfall and arrive at the remains of Short Grain House...... not many people will ever make it to this part of the moor, and i dare say i won't be going back there unless we're doing the leaky dams again.

They tell me there's about a hundred and fifty of these little dry stone walls and by my reckoning, over a couple of days, we've probably done about a hundred of 'em.

Hard work in the sun.... and then, having carted all our rucksacks and tools out and up..... we have to make our way back down again....  slipping and tripping and flailing across the tussocks....

I'm tired and my body feels a bit broken from being jarred as my foot fails to find a hold.

Here's a lovely little frog that joined me briefly, today.

Here's a map of what we done did today......

For context.... again.... here's a before and after.....

questing

 So, i've been playing  game on my Nintendo..... 

The game is called Cat Quest III - i don't even know if there were two previous incarnations (scuttles off to look at google)....

The genre is "action RPG".... i might call it "roguelike" but that's a moot point.  It's billed as an "indie" game, which generally  means it weren't churned out by some big games company like Microsoft, or Rockstar, or summat.

It's played in 2.5 dimensions, apparently, which means it contains a mix of 2D and 3D elements throughout.

And it's an open-world game.... which, in gaming terms, mean you get to choose (mostly) how you approach the game, and you don't have to play it in a set order or in a linear sequence....  the game essentially, is not on rails (is how i'd describe it).

I mentioned already.... it's a type of RPG which stands for Role Playing Game.... so, what's the role you have to project yourself into to succeed at Cat Quest III?  Well, you're obviously a cat, and you're obviously questing.. but the premise is that you're a pirate..... and you have to sail and fight your way around a map of the Purribean.

The Purribean is a cat themed archipelago, swarming with pirate foes.  There are many cat-based place pun names to contend with.... in fact the whole game's dialogue is plagued with cat based punnery.

The modes of transport through this land/sea world are: Walking/Running, swimming, or sailing.

You get to fight with magic, melee weapons, ranged weapons, and you have to spend a lot of time tinkering with your inventory in order to optimise your health and attack stats.

Honestly, having not played a game on the Nintendo for a good while.... i am really enjoying this one.....  it also has 2 player co-op play, but as i've got no mates it'll never get used!!

End of advert.

Here's a smashed egg that i saw on the moors today..... i took it to be a pheasant egg but i stand to be corrected by anyone with better knowledge.

null points

I've tried to write summat nice about the Eurovision Song Contest.... i've written it, rewritten it, deleted it, tried again..... i guess what i am saying is..... no matter what i write, i suspect everything has already been said, and much more eloquently, elsewhere......

Suffice to say.... most years we seem to catch the final on t'telly.

It were on last night.... and it started about 8pm and it finished some time after midnight..... it's a long slog.... but there's usually plenty to see....

I liken it to spending an evening in Wetherspoons where you can simply zone out and watch the spectacle unfolding before your very eyes......  the good, the bad, the ugly...... it's all there, laid bare, and all you have to do is let it wash over you.

The variety of songs on offer last night was up to the usual standard, and i am always amazed at how wildly the different countries view and vote upon the acts.... often in complete and utter polar opposite to my personal taste.

The act that won the whole thing was, in my opinion, the worst track of the night, and when i saw it during the show, i think i said something along the lines of..... "if this doesn't get nil points, i'll eat my hat"..... and that's usually the exact thing you should never say.

The Eurovision makes me realise how un-European i feel...   i just don't get it..... if "it" is a reflection of what it feels like to be European, of course.

Other than that, i've cooked some food..... and been on a couple of dog walks.....

here's some photo or other.... i could have given you a lovely photo of Sookie on a dog walk.... or a beautiful show of a butterfly with its wings folded..... but instead, i'm gonna give you something different......

Ever seen that foamy shit on plants.... we used to call it Cuckoo Spit......  here it is on some heather.....

Ever wonder what it is?  Well, it's a white frothy substance, created by froghopper or spittlebug nymphs.  And here's a picture of what was inside the spit, for you....

They don't harm the plant or anything (as a rule) and the froth is just there to protect the nymph from predators...... here's a bit closerer look at it....  Off the top of my head, i can't narrow it down to any specific type of spittlebug, there are quite a few.... but if i investigate, perhaps i'll be able to work it out..... i'll let you know if i do.

dis-custard

 i've had a slob of a day.

Got up nice and early but failed to do much with the day.... it was hot, and i just couldn't be bothered.

It was too hot to take the dog out.... they always say, a dog never died from missing a walk, but they do die from overheating...... so we stayed home.

We kept the curtains drawn on our south facing house and hit from the sun's gaze.

I briefly ventured into the garden and put the umbrella up.  sat in the shade and ate a bowl of cereals.

Filled up the bird baths.

Me and the dog just kinda moped around the house a bit.

I got some fishing gear out and tied up a few fishing rigs.

Turned on my Nintendo for the first time in, well, i don't know when..... so long that it had to do several updates before it would let me do owt.  Started playing some sort of pirate/cat game..... which was pretty good once i worked out what the heck was going on..... the "learning curve" of the game was very poor.  Far below normal Nintendo standards.... but the game seems ok.

Hell, i don't even think i got a photo for the day.......

Tha'll have to meck do wi' a week old panorama from up t'quarry.

Tea party

 Working up on Hatter Lee today.

There's a single track lane that runs up from Eastergate - not summat you'd wanna drive every day, but we had to do it today.

Armed with wheelbarrows, strops, mattocks, mini-picks, spades, panel saws, screwdriver, digging bars and a few hefty stones...... we went up there to replace a broken boardwalk..... the plan:

1) Remove boardwalk - treads, stringers, posts....

2) Install stepping stones to span the exposed section of boggy path

Well, we quickly removed the old, broken boardwalk and set to, creating the stepping stones...... we dug a drainage ditch to take the water away from the path bit and into a gully...... and we dug and set a load of stones that turned more into "pitching" than "stepping" stones.... i.e. they were much closer together and more resembled a continuous path than interspersed steps..... it worked well, and of course we forgot to take before and after photos.

Following on from that, i spent the afternoon getting stung by nettles..... stung on the arse, the hands, the wrists, the arms...... all while trying to extricate the stems of Himalayan balsam that were growing down the side stream by Naze End that runs into Green Owlers Clough.....

It was a nice day for it.... and we did some seriously good work today..... but i now feel like the skin on my hands doesn't fit any more from all the nettle stings..... i imagine at 3am when i get too hot, i am going to wake up in a rage and curse the green devils!!

Here's a photo of a very pretty white ermine moth - see how it resembles the ermine collar on some royal stately robes or something..... what a treat to see this on the moor today.....

sign

 Woke up in a bit of a flap......

Let me rephrase that..... woke the hell up to a bird flapping about in the bedroom.......  i did not know what the hell was happening....

Dawn jumped up shrieking "There's a bird in the window".... and the dog jumped up..... and before i could even open my eyes, it felt like the sky was falling on our heads.....

I am quite calm with these things, of course, and simply advised Dawn to open the window a little wider and hold the curtains shut so the bird would find its own way out, which they promptly did.....

Well done.....  i do not know what would have happened had the bird appeared directly over our heads like Edgar Allen Poe's Raven.....

And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain

Thrilled me—filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;

So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood lay repeating

 “Shut curtains and open window more—

So that I may again turn over and begin at once to snore;—

This it is and nothing more.”

And after that, i went to "sign on".... the process was painless and efficient.... suffice to say.... different team member who dealt with me this week and the experience was pleasant.

Here's a picture of a spider that was in me lounge this morning..... it was only about 10mm across, so quite small.... apparently it's a "toothed weaver" and i found it fairly interesting..... Sorry arachnophobes....

grubbing

 Today it was hot.

We set off up Eastergate.... it's a very picturesque part of the Marsden Moor Estate.

There's a packhouse bridge (i've shown you photos before) and a little statue, in homage to the cuckoo that i've also mentioned before..... There's a packhorse trail that runs up the centre.... and a few streams/brooks/cloughs, firing off in all directions.

Put a pair of wellies on and set off looking for Himalayan balsam to destroy.  Heading out along Haigh Clough before scooting off to the right hand tributary of Green Owlers Clough - very little balsam to find, which suggests that previous excursions were probably quite successful..... we eventually found a small patch of about twenty very young plants that had sprouted where another stream flows in at Naze End.... so that's where we'll be going on Thursday.... coming down from the top of that little gully.

Back down the stream towards Haigh Clough and we spent a while unblocking the leaky dams..... i've mentioned this before.... but let me elaborate......

These "leaky" dams aren't meant to hold water back..... they are meant to slow water down......  nothing good ever happens quickly!!

So the leaky dams are getting gummed up with dead vegetation, and in order to keep them "leaky" we went and did a bit of decluttering....

Haigh Clough, done.

Redbrook Clough, done.

Oakner Clough, almost done..... just got the top bit, Hey Green Pits, left to return to.

It was nice to be slopping about in the streams, in a pair of wellies.... a really good way to spend a day..... i actually really enjoyed it today.

Here's a before and after of one of my leaky dams.....

Before....

And after....

And here's a little map for your reference.....

summat new

 River kicking.

It's a thing....

Walk up and down in a river, kicking the floor, for three full minutes, while sifting the resultant sediment with a fine net.

Then pick six fist-sized rocks out of the river and wash them in the same net......

Empty the net into a bucket......

Swirl the bucket around a bit.... and empty it, a bit at a time, into a tray.....

Examine the contents of the tray and sift and sort the critters, using a plastic spoon, into separate pots.....

Count up the types of each critter and record it on a sheet.

Sounds kinda simple, but the folks doing it were expertly skilled in identifying the critters, and we did three different sets of these samples.... and we were back at the yard by lunchtime.

As a rookie to this operation.....

I lost the pen.....

I could not catch the critters with my spoon.....

I couldn't tell my Olive from my Stonefly......

I spent a bit of time litter picking......

I wasn't allowed in the river (unqualified)......

Other than that, it was a resounding success.......

Here's a list of things we were looking at.... All in like nymph form, obvs....

• Gammarus
• Caddis fly (uncased)
• Caddis fly (cased)
• Mayfly
• Olive (blue winged)
• Olive (normal)
• Flat bodied up wings
• Stonefly

Here's some hands, sifting the soup......

Every day's a school day!

slack

 Had a day off.... literally, just wasted the day away....

It's been quite nice to just bungle about doing nowt.

Made a nice cheese sauce with tea....

End of story.

The day, like ice cream,

Melting, running down my arm.

Better to stay still!

the sunny, funny one.....

 Went for a walk.....  nothing remarkable about that, per se......

This walk was marked by a few things that did make it kinda remarkable though.....

Since finishing the Calderdale Way, some time back.... we had been promising to do the Kirklees Way.... and today was the first official stage of that seventy mile circular..... we are obviously doing it in sections that are manageable.

It was HOT!

It was also Golcar Lily Day and we were treated to a spitfire fly-by as we sat atop the hill above Bolster Moor.

My mate came over from Leeds for the walk.

It was HOT!

So, we set off for this first leg.... we started at the shallow end of Scammonden Dam, by walking towards the sailing club....  behind the club, instead of following the "normal" permissive Yorkshire Water path, we turned uphill and kept on going, all the way up Worts Hill, which we always refer to as Cornish Pasty Hill, on account of the fact that it looks like that pastry bound delight from the viewpoint of my mum's house.

Feeling a bit dizzy and hot at the top of Cornish Pasty, we sat for a brief while and i yammed a bit of food down, and drank plenty of water.... it was quite a climb to get here and now you have a view that is pretty good:

On the side we've just climbed you can look out over Scammonden and the M62 as it heads west across the dam wall.  Barkisland, Krumlin, Halifax, Stoodley Pike all laid out before you.  

Turning to the side that we're walking towards, you're looking at the Colne Valley.... Marsden, Slawit, Pule Hill, Deer Hill, Pole Moor and out to Castle Hill and Emley Moor..... extensive panorama.

We descend the track and walk across a causeway past a load of cows.  Onto Crimea Lane which runs past the radio masts of Pole Moor.  Past Rotten Farm, and onto Quebec Road..... the road I grew up on, and the road where i got run over as a very small child.... possibly when i was five years old?

Turning Right on Quebec Road, we pass beneath the Rocking Stones, a pair of stones on the side of the hill..... one large flat block and one menhir that used to stand besides......  toppled in recent years, and no longer rocking...... onto Rochdale road until we meet Harts Hole.

At the top of the steep hill to our left, we turn right into the field and it's a steep climb up a single field, in the blazing midday sun.....  a welcome rest on the bench at the top, alongside what used to be Scapegoat Hill football pitch...... the views here are stunning and this is where we see the spitfire.

down the track, across the common, down Nettleton Hill and into Pighill woods and Pendle Hill...... across the golf course to Lower Hirst and Upper Hirst.... up the hill to the old section of Outlane that was truncated when the motorway came through.... an area locally known as Leeches after the farm that was broken up by the arrival of the big tarmac strip......

Back down into Outlane and a very well earned pint of lager at the White Swan.

I'm gonna call it six and a half miles..... felt more like ten, what with the heat, and the series of hills that we went up and down......  section one complete.

Kirklees way 9.3% complete.

Here's a handy routemap of the walk with some stats, if you like that kind of thing?

Photos?  You bet......  just uploading them and they'll be here in the next thirty minutes......

Three sheep mad of granite, at a guess.... at the head of the walk

Our first Kirklees Way marker!

Frothy Mountain Ash blossom, in full effect

Deanhead Church, looking good in the sun.

The older, graffitti version of the Kirklees Way marker.... a blue "K" and an yellow arrow, much faded

Scammonden Dam and the M62

Just another marker on a nice piece of local stone.

Here he is, tramping up out of the valley..... nearly at the top

Another marker and a house my stepdad always fancied getting hold of..... he called it Sebastapol for some reason

Tiny butterfly - there were lots of these and i need to ID it..... possibly a Small Copper?

we used to call this vinegar leaf, but what is it?  Common Sorrel!

The masts at Pole Moor with Worts Hill behind us.

Acid yellow plant that desires identification.... possibly some sort of mustard?   I don't know yet.... but will keep looking.....

Up by Scape soccer field.... the sheep were hiding from the sun inside the metal food thing... water thing.... whatever it was....

Dead tree, and three amigos walking towards Scape.

Into Pighill Woods.... Golcar is having the Lily day in the background

Wild garlic is still very prolific but won't be round much longerer

The seven spotted ladybird or lady beetle if you prefer?

I always get hawthorn and blackthorn wrong..... i suspect this is hawthorn but i'll work it out

Upper Hirst, looking down the valley of Longwood, across Milnsbridge and Castle Hill with the tower

? indeed!

Weary travellers at Leeches.  Almost done.....

Hope you enjoyed this little meander..... stay tuned for more terrible walk descriptions and some very uninformative plant identifications.....

busy

 Once again, i've had a busy little day....

Back on the moors on the volunteering....

We headed out of Marsden for:

A spot of fence fixing - some new posts and refixing the main fence and the top wires.

Unblock a leaky dam that had stopped being quite so leaky

Dig a channel to take some water away from the footpath and down into the gully and away

Pitching in.... digging in some stones to make steps and back-filling them to make them solid

Digging up tussocks of Molinia grass and filling in some of the "alternative" paths so they won't get used no more.

It's not the work that's so hard, as much as it is yomping across the uneven ground and the ankle breaking tussocks.

Some nice sphagnum that i was admiring while i ate my lunch - possibly fallax or cuspidatum or something

a fox moth rested on the grass

a small stone arch over a culvert with hare's tail cotton grass..... and Pule Hill......