weather

On sunday we had the worst thunderstorm I have known in years, It began about 2-30 by a distant rumbling which we all ignored. After about an hour we got a few raindrops, then it began to rain so I went indoors. Watched most of it thru my bedroom window, it came like a river down my frontstreet, like Niagara from the troughings, a dip in my backyard fild up and threatened to inundate my house, so I relucantly had to close my backdoor, even if it was hot and humid.

The result was we escaped the worst of it whilst Todmorden, Rossendale and Manchester got the worst. To see pics of Tod, please go to Todtalk.

Today

I caught the 1-27 train out of Burnley to Hebden Bridge. Today was the start of the Arts festival, so I thought I may catch one or two of the street performances. I was lucky in that there was a folk singer performing when I got there, near St Georges Square, so I sat down to eat my lunch and enjoy the music. Afterwards I thought I would go up the riverside path to Midgehole and then up to Pecket Well. Walking along Hangingroyd Lane I kept having to dodge a big blue dragonfly which was zipping about quite madly. They are beautiful creatures but rather stupid, am sure they must have bad eyesight cos they blunder straight into people.

Once I got onto the riverside walk there was still no respite from the heat and humidity, after only a short while I found I had a stitch in my side. Walking up the long flight of steps onto Midgehole Road was almost the death of me, could hear my heart pounding. Took it rather slower the rest of the way to Midgehole, saw lots of foxgloves in bloom alongside nettles and buttercups. Eventually I flopped onto a bench across from the Blue Pig ( Midgehole working mens club) and drank about half a litre of water. Decided that there was no way I was going to venture up to Pecket Well as it is a very steep incline all the way up, so I had a look from the outside at a des res that is up for sale. On the estate agents photos the garden looks huge, the reality is its quite tiny, still a lovely setting to live but you would definately need wheels. A pub but no shop within miles.Doubt if there is even a bus.

I decided to walk back by the main road, stroked a beautiful black cat with a short stump of a tail, could be a manx cross breed I think, she had the sweetest meow. Then a border collie dog came up to me to be stroked. It belonged to a Thai lady and we chatted for a while. I told her Ive a friend in Burnley married to a Thai lady, it only turned out that she was actually waiting for the same lady to visit her!!!! A few minutes later Richards car past me then he picked me up on his way back and dropped me off in the town centre. Talk about synchronicity!!!! I talk to a stranger and she knows the same folk as me.

Once back in the town I sat and watched a percushion band, they were good, think everyone was jigging around to them, then a 3some folk group. Met an American lady who was wearing a thick winter cardigan, she said folk back home had told her England is always freezing cold, so she had only brought winter clothes. I said to take her jacket off but she replied she didnt want to get skin cancer!!!! More likely she will die of heat exhaustion instead.  On the way back to the train station I thought I would snag a few cherries of somebodies tree, well I would have done but they arent even ripe yet, another tree that is 2 weeks behind last year. Something to look forward to in a couple of weeks, ripe cherries.

Got home about 5pm, house empty and cats needing to be fed.

Crickets

In addition to the 4 species of grasshopper in Lancashire ( of 13 species found in Britain), we have three species of buch cricket in Lancashire which are found in a few scattered localities. These are the Bog Bush Cricket, a nationally rare species found at Winmarleigh & Cockerham Mosses. The Oak Bush Cricket is known only from woodlands in the Ribble Valley. The Roesel's Bush Cricket is found at Fleetwood. More information is in the book "Wildlife of Lancashire" publisherd by the Wildlife Trust in 2004 (available online or via bookshops). Hope this helps.

 

This was the response I got from emailing the Wildlife Trust in east lancs. My area is nowhere near any of these, you would have at least thought they would have shown some enthusiasm. I have discovered an area not know before to be populated with crickets, I would have thought they would have asked me for an exact location, but no, they didnt. So, its now my area, plus a few neighbours in the know, if they want to know where it is they can look for themselves. The same goes for the place that a rare specimen of orchid grows, I first found it 11 years ago and they still grow there.If I tell it to the world then it will get trampled on.Ive no doubt that they think I am a silly woman who cannot tell a cricket from a grasshopper, I spent 6 years in the middle east and I can differentiate between the 2.

 

Guess what I heard?

Tonight I stuck my head outside to see if the new moon was visible, could see plenty of stars but no moon. However, a strange sound drew me towards the back field. It was a cricket I could hear, Ive not heard one round here for many years. Even grasshoppers had become a bit of a rarity until foot and mouth disease kept everyone off the land. Now they have made a comeback and its good to hear them up on the Delph.

Was up at Trawden for the annual Pendle witch camp at the weekend, fortunately we were in a different field to last year, so no cow pats to fall in. Had a bright red fly land on me, havent any idea what it was until I have looked it up. Enjoyed listening to the curlews, they have a lovely call I think. I would have walked up to Wycollar country park on the sunday but the weather wasnt very good, quite foggy, cold and a strong wind. Will save that walk for a lovely day.

Hebden Bridge

Me and Angela, my youngest daughter, got a lift in with a neighbour today. Spent hours looking around shops then went onto the canal towpath. As we did so, a heron that must have been on the side of the canal suddenly swooped off, we got a real close up view of it. Earlier we saw a ruddy duck on the Hebden Water amongst all the mallards, quite distinctive with its red feathers and blue beak. Stroked a siamese cat and a persian female which must have weighed about 2 stones, I had to pick her up from the middle of a road.

The laburnum trees are in full bloom and a treat for the eyes they are. This year they are 2 weeks later than last year, probably because of the cold winter lasting so long.

Grassington Moor

The last pic was of Grassington Moor, a place we hiked over last October but I forgot to do a write up on.

Sunday

On Sunday we all met at Heber's Ghyll in Ilkley at 10am, that is 14 of us from the Northern Earth Mysteries Group. Our intention was to take a walk over Ilkey Moor. We started off by climbing up Heber's Ghyll, a very steep ravine, a stream cascading all the way from the top. There is a proper walkway with bridges over the stream, one of the most beautiful glens I have seen, reminiscent in a lot of ways of some of the Manx glens. The bluebells were out in proffusion and also ramsons, or wild garlics. It took ages it seemed to reach the top of the ravine, I think we were all gasping for breath by the time we arrived there. We climbed over a style and were then out on open moorland with panoramic views over the whole valley and Ilkley town.

Our first stop was the Swastika stone, so called because of the neolithic stone etching on it. Its a monstrous piece of rock, thankfully behind railings to protect it from vandals. The wind on the topps was freezing, was hard to believe it was the end of May, and by then we had all gotten into our jackets with hoods up. Next on line was the Noon stone, though none of us know why it is so called. After that we traversed the boundary of a conifer plantation for quite a while, I noticed that the cotton grass was flowering and that curlews, sky larks and meadow pipits were calling, also a few dandelions grew near to the path.

From up on the tops we had a wonderful clear view of Pendle Hill and also Bouldsworth peeking over the top of another hill, the early warning system "golf balls" near Blubberhouse Moor, and the Emley Moor transmitter. After a lunch stop we journeyed on downwards first to the Doubler Stones and then through a pine forest at Rivock Edge. This place is reputed to be haunted by hooded figures, unfortunately none of us saw any, but it feels quite an eerie place as nothing seems to grow there. We had to climb off the track to see Rivock Oven, a cave quite high up, a few of the more daring actually crawled through the gap in the stones. An old legend has it that if a man and a woman clamber through the gap then they will marry!!! I just did not want to chance it!!!!

Next our stop was the badger stone which is carved with neolithic art, its best seen in wet weather, luckily for us the day was dry, but unfortunate in that we couldnt make out too much of the art depicted on it.

Our final stop was a stone which had been covered in red paint a few years back, most of it has worn away, but a few patches still remain. They are mainly rune stones, we have still to find out what they mean.We follows cascades downwards and then wearily walked about 2 miles back to the descent into Heber's Ghyll.

3 days later my legs are still aching. I have done much longer walks, think it must have been all the plodding through peat bogs which caused them to ache, but at least my feet kept dry.