Spring

In December a garden at the bottom of our street was in full bloom with daffodils, something i have never seen before. My daffs were in leaf but no sign of buds. However, this week I observed in my bedroom a geranium plant which I had taken in for the winter, on one of its leafs was a caterpillar. Today the leaf has over folded itself over the caterpillar which is now becomming a chrysallis. Can anyone tell me how long it will take before it becomes a butterfly? I dont wish the butterfly to emerge within the house as one of my cats will surely eat it.

Also, at the bottom of the hill a plum tree which is normally in bloom in late feb/march, is now in full flower. In 11 years of living here, this is the earliest recording. My daffs are now in bud, so are my crocuses, my snowdrops are actually flowering. My anemones are sending up plenty of leaves also.

Wycoller

 

Last saturday Bill and I decided to go out for the day. I had last seen Wycoller when it was a ruined ghost village in the early 70's, since then it has been restored and inhabited again, in fact Penelope Keith bought a house there for a while.

We caught the Burnley to Trawden bus, then walked up past the field where I camped for the Pendle Witchcamp 2 years ago, then on the public footpath to Wycoller. Its actually a tarmacked road, so there was no concern over hubby getting his pants mucky, or shoes even if he minded horse droppings. Once we were appraoching the country park, we left the raod and went on a parallel footpath, which is a good idea as the road is so narrow. Its just over a miles walk from Trawden, so it didnt take very long. On entering the village on the left was a tourist information place cum cafe, cum art gallery. We decided to eat first then explore later. After we had had an excellent lunch at reasonable prices, we set off to see the village. The sky was darkening though it wasnt too cold and at least it was fine. Soon we came upon the old hall, sadly now a ruin, there was a show place where we could see old pics of the hall in the late 1890's. Some old vicar had sold all the roof tiles and a lot of the timbers and much of the stone work for a mill in Trawden. He should have got an ASBO for that!!!! An old barn dating back to the middle ages has been restored and many artifacts kept in it such as a key to the old hall. In the village itself are 2 ancient bridges, one an old clapper bridge, then further up the valley is an even more ancient bridge.Near to the duck pond an archealogical dig was going on, they had found an old wall, then more walls, so up till now there is no info on what exactly they were digging up. As I dont have a camera, I will update more photos from the net soon.

Panopticons have built one of there sculptures on a hillside nearby, so off we went over the fields. Luckily it was dry underfoot, yet still hubby complained about not having a road to walk over. I cannot understand fellas, grass is so much softer to walk over. G

oing up the hillside was well marked with eye posts, ancient way markings with holes in them, till we came to an old drovers track, backed with an old vaccary wall on each side. These date vack to the middle ages. Eventually we got to the top of the hill and the Atom was there. You can go inside the sculpture. Actually I think it is quite ugly, but it has these holes in it you can view the landscape from, so in a way it is inkeeping with the eye posts.An official guy asked us about our visit, think I was the first person to mention a connection tween the old and the new. After a rest there, a cup of tea from our flask we back tracked down to the village, then walked back to Trawden.

 

Hubby and I set off on sunday morning to Crown Point, one of the highest hill in the Pennines above Burnley. This was the first time for me to have seen the sculpture. On the way up, which took an hours walking, we encountered quite a few places of fly tipping, fridges, vacuums etc, there is no need for this, we do have a council rubbish dump. However, on a brighter note, the raspberries were abundant at the bottom of Woodplumpton Road, as were orchids part way up adjacent to the golf course. It was a dull morning yet warm, tied my cardi round my waist. One thing I did notice was an absence of skylarks and curlews. After an hour and 15 we eventually got to the singing ringing tree. It is constructed out of metal tubing and it is supposed to make sounds. It didnt!!! Not unless you put your ear up to one of the tubes. I must say though that it looks far better than the old brick radio transmittor station that was on the spot previously. By then it had begun a heavy drizzle, and looking down the Calder Valley to Tod, it was obvious where the bad weather was coming from. Do all bad things come out of Yorkshire? Dont bother answering that one. Studley Pike was barely visible, so we set off home. By the time we got to Healey Heights the rain had begun properly, but we were home in time to not get soaked.

Slugs

A neighbour gave me poppy plants to put out this year, they began fine and all was well till the rains began, and then, the slugs came out. Built like anacondas they snaked their way across my garden until the reached the poppies, and the begonias and everything else they encountered. Crunch, crunch crunch, till all was no more. I am now left with sweet peas dangling from a hanging basket and lobelia. Plus campanula which is now like a weed growing from every crack it can find. Was shifting a plant pot in my back yard and got stung with a nettle which is prolifically growing, couldnt see it for all the goddam weeds.

Does anyone know a fine weather spell? The only weather spells I know are rain ones and we've had far too much of that.

The Weather

Oak before the ash, you'll only feel a splash!!! Ha ha ha. That theory has been well and truly knocked on the head this year. All we have had for the past 6 weeks or so is rain, rain, and yet MORE bloody rain. How bad did it have to get before Noah built his ark? Come to think of it, where the hell did he get all his wood from? Thought they lived in a desert area. I digress. If anyone mentions global warming to me I will not be responsible for my actions!!! I spent all winter in pants and looked forward to airing my legs in shorts and summer skirts. I am still wearing jeans. And socks. And cardis and jumpers. My youngest lad has had the right idea and gone off to Malta for a week with his lady friend. Has anyone out there got about a grand they can send me? If so, all contributions will be very gratefully recieved, and I will go off to Malta to join them.

2 days ago

2 evenings ago, my daughters fella, Gareth, came in and asked if I had seen a strange bird on the front street. Looking from a window I saw what looked to be a small white bird, I said it wasnt a native british bird, but went out to have a closer look at it. It was up on a drain pipe and was a canary, tweeting away cheerily. By then others had come outside to have a look at it. A lady called Emma said it was hers that had escaped, so Marie got a bird cage to try to entice it to come down with some bird seed, but no chance. Eventually Emma brought the birds mate and put it in the cage. After much ado the little canary flew down to look at her hubby, Marie put a blanket over her and got her into the cage. I was so relieved as last year my white cat Spot caught and ate someones put budgie. Thankfully I never found out who it belonged to. My starlings who nest every year had also come out to have a gander at what was going on. Dont know if they kill canaries but this time they missed out. Finches are beautiful little birds but I am not sure if I approve of them being captive, to me they should be free to fly as they please.

Pic of me.

For any of my readers who ever wondered just what I look like, well, here I am in glorious technicolour!!!! The pic was taken on Midgely Moor last november at the trig point. The second photo is of a standing stone somewhere nearby.