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~ An occasional blog, mainly photos

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Tag Archives: speckled wood

Cornwall 3 – 1. Luxulyan

13 Monday Sep 2021

Posted by Musiewild in Countryside views, History, Industrial archeology, Photography

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

Agar-Robartes, Carmears, Cornwall, granite, leat, Luxulyan, red admiral, speckled wood, Treffry Viaduct

The last (and indeed only) time I had been in Penwith, the very tip of Cornwall, including Lands End, was way back in 1973. For some years now, I had harboured a desire to go back. I made it as far as north Cornwall in 2013, on a geology field trip, and for some years had been gathering together material on furthest Cornwall. So when, last January, I abandoned all thought of a wildlife holiday on the Continent, I booked a week in a BnB in Penzance. Already availability was low; I think many other retirees had the same thought as I had – grab the first week the schools are back.

On my journey down, the augurs were good. Just minutes from home, as I took Bella to the cattery (Tilly was left well provided for at home, as she is not vaccinated) as I drove through Meare there was a young woman walking along the pavement with a large owl on her arm! I was not quick enough to stop and take a photo, sadly.

Traffic down the M5 was heavy but rarely slow, and I arrived at my planned lunch and walk stop just before midday. One of the many bits of paper I had gathered was about the beautiful and interesting Luxulyan valley, in North Cornwall. As I pulled into the village, I had needed to find just two things: a loo and coffee, preferably in that order.

No difficulty in finding either. For the second, just yards/metres away from where I was able to park my car, was a Memorial Hall,

where a ‘Plant swap and butties’ event going on. (I was later to find out more about Captain Agar-Robartes, a local MP, who had been killed in 1915 while trying to rescue a wounded comrade, during WWI.) There they were very happy to serve me a coffee for £1.

I didn’t stay inside to drink it. The room was small and noisy, and a dozen apparent locals were sitting around, not a mask between them, and one of them was holding forth on political matters in an extremely loud voice. I sat outside on this rather beautiful bench, which took me straight back to my week in Huissen, singing with an international choir in commemoration of the Battle of Arnhem.

Three people passed by in the road, and two of them said hello. Friendly place, Luxulyan.

From my reading, I knew there was a beautiful walk along the valley, and was delighted to find a description of one in a ‘Short walks in Cornwall’ booklet I had just bought.

I set off,

and soon came across this well,

which pleased me for itself, and because it confirmed I had taken the right direction from the church.

The walk soon left the country lanes for footpaths through the woods, alongside leats for much of the time..

In due course I arrived at the Treffry Viaduct, wondering what it (had) carried. I now know that ‘firstly it carried the mine trucks over the valley and secondly it carried the water used to power the water wheel at Carmears. ‘

Overall, I don’t think I have ever said ‘Wow’ so frequently during a walk, not just for the viaduct, but also for the huge blocks of granite and the wonderful views…..

I had said to myself that I would stop to eat my sandwich at the first available place to sit after 1 pm. At 12.58 this came into view, the first bench I had seen (and indeed the last on this walk). I decided not to obsess over two 2 minutes!

The view as I ate.

Whwn I set off again, there were several temptations to wander off either side of the path but I resisted them.

The gap to the left where the 9-metre diameter water wheel had been was unmistakeable. It wound wagons up the incline

From here the water ran to drive it, a tiny trickle today. The Carmears incline was to haul crushed minerals up the slope.

Looking back at the furthest point, (I’ve come from the left and must return on the right) except that the instruction was to continue for a short while down to a bridge over the incline.

This was the turning point of the walk.

During my week in Cornwall I saw many, many butterflies, and perhaps 80 per cent of them were red admirals.

There were several ruined buildings on my route.

But this is the top of the wheel machinery.

Not only were stone sleeper supports visible all along the incline, but also the occasional rail support

and even rail.

But not every butterfly I saw was a Red admiral. Here a Speckled wood.

The walk continues to follow the track, as far as the viaduct.

‘At the end of the viaduct turn left and go up some wooden steps to enter a field.’

And then it all went wrong. I could find no wooden post at which to turn right. But I did find a stile and hoped it was the right one. It was, later confirmed. But I should not have been able to take these next three photos.

When I had what I reckoned from the map was about 20 minutes to go to get back to the church, I realised that something was wrong:  no longer did the terrain fit the description. I tried take a common sense approach, knowing that my car was north, (the sun was out) but it proved impossible. Long story short, it was with mixed feelings that I found myself back at the end of the viaduct, pleased to know exactly where I was, but unsure how not to make the same error again. I had literally gone round in a circle. I climbed the steps again, nervous of how to escape the vicious circle!

I took the stile again, and decided to ignore what I had previously taken to be a junction at which I was to turn right, and – phew – this worked. A much more obvious junction soon appeared, and all went smoothly from then on. I was very pleased to see this waymark, indicating, as I hoped, the church from which I had started off.

Interesting stiles in Cornwall…

The ice cream I bought at the village shop was well-deserved, I thought.

The M and S food hall on the outskirts of Hayle, 50 minutes away, was my next planned stop, and from there it was only 20 minutes or so to my BnB. Or should have been. Traffic was incredibly slow through the town, through which I was forced to take an unexpected diversion, for reasons which will become clear in my next post. I went out for a very short wander on foot around 7.30, but likewise the theme of that is more appropriate to my next post…

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A Spring walk …

25 Thursday Apr 2019

Posted by Musiewild in Countryside views, Photography, Plants, Wildlife

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

Alexander Hood, Brown-banded carder bee, Butleigh, Buzzard, comfrey, Compton Dundon, Cow parsley, cowslip, Dandelion, Dundon Hill, English bluebell, Glastonbury, Glastonbury Tor, Greater Hawks-beard, Herb Robert, Hood Monument, Pendulous sedge, Polden Way, primrose, ransom, Samuel Hood, speckled wood, vetch, wild garlic, Wych elm

… in the Compton Dundon, Somerset, area.

A friendly dog – which didn’t bark! The Hood Monument right.
I was going Butleigh-wards. And when I turned round from taking this photo…
… I was concerned I might have delightful but unwanted company, but he returned home.
Well, I like dandelions.
Cow parsley
A dandeliony thing, Greater hawks-beard I think.
Comfrey
Hart’s tongue fern (TH)
Pendulous sedge. It’s very pretty, but it’s wicked in my garden, seeding itself everywhere. And it seemed, sadly, to have done so on this walk. There was far too much of it, everywhere, in my view.
Nearing the (physical) high point of the afternoon.
I was tempted to go off at a tangent but didn’t.
The Hood Monument
The top of the monument reflects the activity of Samuel Hood, 1724-1816, local boy made good. His younger brother, Alexander, was also an Admiral, but I know of no monument to him.
In memory of
Sir Samuel Hood
Knight of the most Honourable Order of the Bath
and nominated Grand Cross thereof
Knight of St Ferdinand and of Merit
Knight Grand Cross of the Sword
Vice Admiral of the White
and Commander-in-Chief of His Majesty’s Fleet
in the East Indies
View from the plinth, looking north. If it weren’t for the trees on the left, I could have seen my house. (It would be possible to see my house if one were allowed to climb to the top of the Monument, as I can see the latter from my front window.)
Wych elm, I think
Continuing downwards, I came to my kind of stile
Glastonbury and its Tor.

I had a choice at this point, to walk along a very busy road, or to enter a wood, where three years ago I had found carpets of bluebells.

There were no bluebells where I expected to find them. Either my memory was faulty or they had been stripped out. Or they had been suppressed by the acres of sedge that seemed to be everywhere. After a long while I did find some, but not in the swathes that I expected.

But happily they were English bluebells, with not a Spanish bluebell in sight, then or for the rest of my walk.

The wood felt magical and I found myself envious of the owner.

Impossible not to be aware of a great low-flying bird across my path. It settled in a tree to my left.

A buzzard!
Just look at that beak and those talons!

Then it flew off, to a much higher and much further tree, not yet covered in foliage.

Only on examining and enlarging my photos was I able to see that the tree, a cherry of some sort presumably, had blossom, a nice contrast with the fierceness of the bird.
My Ordnance Survey map indicated that this was, (in Gothic lettering so it was ancient), the ‘New Ditch’.
This inadvertent sculpture pleased me.
There are still many primroses around.
The steps are part of the Polden Way, quite recently established, but mine was the bridleway to the right
It looked easy and smooth
From the path I could just see an inaccessible mass of white flowers in green. As I suspected, they did turn out, thanks to the zoom on the camera, to be wild garlic, aka ransoms.
What promised to be a smooth and easy path was not always. Those ruts are 18 ins (45 cm) deep!
I was not tempted to swing from this beautiful tree, but zoomed in on a yellow sheen on the field.
It was a sheen of cowslips.
Herb Robert
The trouble with butterflies is that they flit about so. This was the best I could do to catch the Speckled wood.
All afternoon there had just been the odd sample of vetch, but towards the end I came across a bankful of the plant, with a co-operative bee.
And, as I only noticed once home, an ant as well. (Brown-banded Carder bee)
Nearly back to my car, this is the back of the local hostelry, with Dundon Hill behind. It has a Gothic lettering fort on it.

A very pleasant afternoon. And other than on the first road, I didn’t meet a soul.

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Madeira Revisited 5

25 Monday Jun 2018

Posted by Musiewild in Cats, Countryside views, Photography, Plants, Travel

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Cabo Girao, Châo da Ribeira, Encumeada, Fireworks, Funchal, Indian red admiral, laurel forest, laurisilva, levada, Madeira, Madeiran saxifrage, roseate tern, Sao Vicente, speckled wood

Madeira Revisited 5. I don’t know what the weather was like on the southern coast of the island on the Saturday, but for some of our varied experiences elsewhere on the Saturday it was cold and/or damp, though things did get better from time to time. There were several elements to this long day.  We were first taken to Cabo Girâo, the highest sea cliff in ‘Europe’. (Being Portuguese, Madeira counts as Europe, though geologically it is part of the African plate.) I had been here before, and ‘thrilled’ once more to standing on a glass platform with nothing below that.

madeira-3-05

Photo taken on previous visit

Then we moved on to Encumeada in the middle of the island (1007 metres/3303 feet), where the chill was really felt, especially as some of us had decided that we did not need to carry or wear as much weather protection as previously.  We had been warned, so had only ourselves to blame!  Anyway, we had a mile-long walk along a levada, the borders of which were not entirely by natural vegetation but included some attractive planting.  P1320149001P1320157001P1320164001P1320167001P1320168001P1320170001At the end of our walk was a tunnel, through which the levada continued, and along which we had been intended to walk, but I was glad that that thought had been abandoned – it would have meant uncomfortable bending over for 800 metres.  P1320171001I did venture a very little way into it, and if this photo is viewed on a big enough screen, the light at the end of the tunnel can just be seen.

P1320173001

(Photo artificially over-exposed. It was really much darker than this.)

 

P1320175001

For some reason this cockerel was hanging around.

Back the mile to our minibuses, and we moved on to Sâo Vicente on the north coast.  P1320178001My memory of this place in November 2016 was of a meal taken in a revolving restaurant.  This time our stop was for coffee, and then for a very short exploration of the local geology.  I nipped off at one point to buy some cherries from a stall, and when I rejoined the group they were all staring at the beach.  I could see a tern or to. P1320192001P1320201001And I liked these contrasting grey textures. P1320206001 Only on looking more closely did I see that some of the stones were in fact terns, roseate terns I was informed. P1320208001From here we were taken just a very short distance westwards, and deposited to walk along the old coastal road (closed to traffic) for about a mile.

P1320213001

I really would not have cared to have driven along that old road!

I really enjoyed this walk.  It was easy walking (as had the levada been), the sun was now out, and the plants growing on the vertical cliff wall were spectacular.  P1320215001P1320218001P1320220001P1320221001P1320222001P1320231001P1320235001P1320236001P1320241001P1320242001Two of us were ahead of the others, so we were the first to venture in to this tunnel, which we could see was dripping wet for the first and last several metres.  P1320243001P1320244001It was fun, once emerged from it, to see the others noticing the ‘hazard’ and then venturing in.  P1320252001P1320263001

P1320264001

Indian/Macaronesian Red Admiral

P1320272001

Speckled wood

P1320280001P1320281001From here we were taken via Seixal to Châo da Ribeira, where there were picnic benches. The sun had gone in again, and it was again a little chilly.  We were joined by 5 feral cats and a kitten, all very wary, but won over by gifts of ham and cheese.   P1320287001P1320296001From here we went for a short walk in the laurisilva, laurel forest, of which Madeira has the one of the few surviving remnants in ‘Europe’.  It once flourished around the Mediterranean, but the Ice Ages did for it nearly everywhere there. Our botanist leader was very excited at being in this rich and rare spot.  P1320317001Lunch had been late, and we were running later.  We made just one more stop on the way back to the hotel, to see the rare Madeiran saxifrage.  Here it is: P1320324001and here are some of us looking at it.  P1320331001Another lovely dinner in a Funchal restaurant, another fitness session back up to the hotel. Then watching a fireworks display taking place back down in the harbour, an event which the town of Funchal lays on every Saturday evening in June.P1320366001P1320355001P1320382001P1320356001P1320361001

 

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