30 Days Wild 2019 – Day Twenty-two.

Day 22: Today, David and I, (with Riley in tow), drove to Warrington’s Moore Nature Reserve, situated between the River Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal. This 200 acre site boasts miles of woodland paths, meadows and wetlands. We walked 3.5 miles around the reserve but could have stayed longer. We saw speckled wood butterflies, a great crested grebe and damselflies.

Map

Azure Damselfly

Grebe Hide

Great Crested Grebe

Speckled Wood

Christine and Riley

Cinnabar Moth

Stitchwort

David and Riley

Have you visited this nature reserve? Which is your favourite reserve?

Thanks for reading, and stay wild!

Christine x

2019 Wild Swim Season – #1 High Dam

I found it difficult to chose the first wild swim of 2019. I’m like a child in a sweet shop, there are just so many possibilities! I’ve spent so many hours recently trawling the internet looking for swims/walks.

This weekend David and I planned on visiting The Lake District for the first swim/walk of the season. I don’t know what made me decide on High Dam near Windermere but SwimmingTheLakes’ fantastic blog post on High Dam settled it for me.

High Dam Swim

High Dam is a man made tarn. Built in the 1800’s to provide hydro energy to power a 32 foot diameter water wheel at the nearby Stott Park Bobbin Mill. The mill produced up to a quarter of a million wooden bobbins to aid Lancashire’s spinning and weaving industries at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution.

Though the weather decided to be stubbornly gray on the day, we headed up the M6 and arrived at 9am at the High Dam National Trust car park, just north of Finsthwaite. From this car park (we paid £2.50 for 2 hours) we enjoyed a bird song filled short walk through a woodland stuffed with bluebells and ferns. In parts the path was rough and steep but at only 2 miles it was a relatively easy walk for us.

The route took us passed a smaller tarn, Low Dam before drawing close to High. High Dam reminded me of Glencoe Loachan near Glencoe, (which we visited last year). Perhaps it was the cloudy weather conditions that made me think of this similarity?

High Dam

Glencoe Lochan

We walked around the perimeter of the tarn, looking for good access points to the water. I didn’t want to scramble over rocks or wade into ankle height water for meters. We found a promontory with decent access and I quickly stripped to my tankini. I had worked up a sweat on the walk and didn’t feel too cold. I occasionally feel nervous entering the water but on this occasion I waded in! I was so elated to be swimming again! Terrence registered a comfy 15-16°C. I managed to swim for around 20 minutes without feeling cold. Actually, I found it hard to get out of the water. The peaceful solitude of the tarn struck me. Nature seemed very prevalent. As I swam, a curious wagtail watched me from a rock, the song of a cuckoo echoed across the tarn, whilst great tits flittered among trees and a heron flew overhead.

Have you been to High Dam? If so what were your impressions?

Thanks for reading,

Christine x

30 Days Wild 2018 – Day Twenty-seven

Day 27: At the weekend a post on the Facebook 30 Days Wild page caught my eye. The post was all about species with a link to The Wildlife Trusts Wildlife Explorer. I noticed that ferns and horsetails were in their own species category, so I decided to look more closely at the ferns in the yarden.

We seem to have only one species of fern growing which I’ve ID’d as bracken! I think of bracken in woodland and heath-land, but apparently we have at least three bracken plants flourishing in the yarden.

Bracken

Bracken Spores

They are ancient plants, far older than the dinosaurs, and can grow up to 1.5 meters.

Bracken spreads by underground rhizomes or horizontal stems but can germinate from spores (sporangia) carried on the wind. I noticed spores on the underside of the fronds and found them fascinating. I read that this bracken is fertile (due to the presence of spores) as not all have them.

Bracken is deciduous and dies back during winter and turns the landscape a tinge of brown. The plant is highly toxic to animals and should not be eaten. I read many scare stories associated with bracken online, that they harbour ticks and are carcinogenic.

What’s your thoughts on this ancient plant?

Thanks for reading, and stay wild!

Christine x

30 Days Wild 2018 – Day Twenty-four

Day 24: Today we visited Brereton Heath Local Nature Reserve, Congleton. This small nature reserve has a lake and a one mile circular walk through woodland, heath and grassland, which is popular with dog walkers. There is also a visitor centre. The car park charge was £2 for up to three hours, or £3 for all day. I was slightly saddened that nature sightings weren’t very high but there were butterflies and damsels fluttering over the many spotted orchids in a wildflower meadow.

We did spot a striking broad bodied chaser, a species neither of us had seen before.

Spotted Orchid

Brereton Heath

Comma butterfly

Azure Damselfly

Broad Bodied Chaser

Brereton Heath

Have you visited Brereton Heath Local Nature Reserve? Have something like it near you?

Thanks for reading and stay wild!

Christine x

30 Days Wild 2018 – Day Two.

Day 2: and Saturday was a complete wash out! With a shopping trip planned to Cheshire Oaks for dry bags for future wild swims. I decided to incorporate a visit to a local nature reserve Dibbinsdale. However on emerging from the Queensway Tunnel the rain was falling in rods! I was not dressed for rain! I stood in ballet shoes with no coat! But we decided to take a short visit to the reserve none the less. We plan to revisit on a drier day. 🙂

Dibbinsdale Nature Reserve, Wirral, boasts 74 acres of woodland, wetlands and meadows, with three miles of walking paths. On our short walk we rescued a bumblebee who was struggling in the rain and snapped shots of comfrey and meadow cranesbill. The river Dibbin runs through the reserve and looked inviting for a paddle come sunnier days.

Christine

Comfrey

David

Wet Bumblebee

Cranesbill

Do you have a favourite local nature reserve?

Thanks for reading and stay wild!

Christine x

Walking Riley at Pennington Flash

Yet again, David and I have had a simply wonderful bank holiday weekend! 😀 Our plans were fitted around the changeable weather on Saturday, were we spent time visiting family. With better weather forecast for Sunday, we headed up to the Lake District for a spectacular day out (post to follow)! Monday, the hottest day of the year (so far), dawned bright with not a cloud in the sky. Our plan was a visit to the very popular Pennington Flash, with Riley in tow.

Pennington Flash

Christine and Riley at Pennington Flash

At only 40 minutes drive from Liverpool, Pennington Flash is a local nature reserve in Leigh. Boasting a 70 hectare lake, bird hides, bridle paths and even a golf course! Pennington Flash seems to have it all.

View from a hide

On recommendation (as it gets very busy), we arrived early, paid £1.20 (which is for all day parking) and took a leisurely 3.5 mile walk around fens, woodland and meadows. Riley seemed to enjoy himself, even taking a short dip in the flash (a term for a lake derived from mining subsidence).

Woodland Walk

Riley taking a paddle

Of the numerous wildlife sightings, the highlights were, lapwings (which were too far for me to photograph), a yellow iris, my first sightings of damselflies, (too fast for me to photograph) and striking common blue butterflies.

Iris

Common Blue

I enjoyed the walk as much as Riley and hope to revisit in future. Perhaps a more detailed visit is in store for 30 Days Wild?

Have you visited Pennington Flash? If so, what were your impressions?

Thanks for reading,

Christine x

Sunday Sevens #40

Happy New Year!

I know it’s a bit late but I thought I would do a quick Sunday Sevens, devised by Natalie at Threads and bobbins.

This first week of 2018 has been all about the #walk1000miles challenge. David and I had a few extra days off work so we utilised it by going on two walks!

• A New Years Day walk to Gisburn Forest, in the Forest of Bowland.

Forest Walk

Stocks Reservoir

Coal Tit by David Evans

Forest Walk

• A short walk around the paths at Bod Petryal in Clocaenog Forest.

Forest Walk

David looking wet

Fungus on tree by David Evans

My total miles for the week has been a very reasonable 34 miles. If you have signed up for the challenge, how are you doing?

A Year in Books:

I spent most evenings this week reading and finishing A Parliament of Rooks by Karen Perkins. Unfortunately I did not enjoy the book as I had hoped. It seemed that every new chapter, the characters were cracking open a bottle of alcohol and the end was rather disappointing. There didn’t seem a reason why the protagonists were being ‘haunted.’ It wasn’t a very satisfying ending if you ask me. Have you read this book? Perhaps you enjoyed it more than I did?

A Parliament of Rooks

Hellebore Flower

Yarden:

We may be in the grip of winter but there are many signs of spring. The hellebore in the yarden has been blooming since mid December. I think the flower heads are so pretty!

Future planning:

Looking ahead to summer and The Wildlife Trust’s 30 Days Wild, I’ve recently purchased an illuminated mini beast centre to help in my exploration of the insect world this June. I’ve not tested it yet but the solar powered light looks bright enough to attract some moths. Hopefully!

Illuminated Mini Beast Centre

Enchanted Forest Plate

Busy buying:

While doing the weekly shop I could not help but buy this beautiful new dinner set from Asda. It was only £15! The design is of an enchanted woodland and indeed the pattern is imaginary! The martens have antlers and the foxes have crow wings!

And finally:

Today has been a gorgeous, bright winters day here in the NW, so David and I took a leisurely 1.6 mile walk around Festival Gardens.

Ice

Japanese Gardens

The 45 minute walk

David in the woods

That was my week, how was yours?

Thanks for reading,

Christine x

The Vivian Quarry Trail

It’s taken me a while to get round to writing about our most recent day out. As a treat for my birthday David and I planned another walk. My intention was to take a stroll around the Vivian Quarry overlooking Llyn Peris and then embark on another Welsh wild swim at Padarn. However it was only the walk we achieved, I couldn’t find a suitable, peaceful site to swim from at Padarn.

Map

After an early start, we arrived at the car park for the Llanberis Lake Railway around 10am. Parking was a very reasonable £4 for all day. From here there are a number of walking trails you can take around Padarn Country Park. After a quick pit-stop, David and I headed towards the Vivian Trail which would take us past old barracks towards a viewpoint overlooking the Vivian Quarry and Llyn Peris.

Dinorwig Power Station

The Vivian Quarry is part of the larger Dinorwic Quarry which was the second largest slate mine in it’s time. It has now become the back drop to the Dinorwic Hydroelectric Power Station. Tours of this engineering feat can be booked from here.

Our walk took us through woodland, the path creeping steadily upwards past disused quarry buildings and old barrack houses where the quarry-men would live in spartan conditions.

Quarry Barracks

Barracks and Llyn Peris

We spent a good four hours walking the path and taking pictures. I definitely see another visit to the area in future as there are many more paths yet to be explored. We returned to the car and went looking for a suitable place in which to have a birthday swim at Llyn Padarn.

Llyn Padarn

Unfortunately all the beaches were full with canoeists so I forgoed a swim, until next time!

Have you visited Llanberis? What are your memories of the area?

Thanks for reading,

Christine x

RSPB – Leighton Moss

Itching to go out walking again, I was looking for ideas for places to go to this weekend. I don’t know why but sightings of bearded tits at RSPB Leighton Moss popped up on my Facebook wall. So I decided to look at their website and planned on taking a few hours walking along their trails of woodland and reed-bed habitats.

Leighton Moss is the largest reed-bed in the NW of England. They have breeding bitterns and is the only home to bearded tits in the region.

We visited after a 1.5h drive, on a cloudy mid-September afternoon. Unfortunately too late to see the bearded tits on the grit feeders. However we did manage to see plenty of other wildlife, predominantly garden and woodland birds.

Among the many feeding stations we passed, we managed to spot hungry blue, great and long tail tits. A friendly robin sang to us for food but we had none. There were many chaffinches having squabbles, but the stars of the day (for us) was a small marsh tit and surprisingly bold nuthatches!

Marsh Tit

Nuthatch

We also saw goldcrests flittering about the trees, but they were so fast that David couldn’t get a picture! Maybe, one day!

Leighton Moss has many walking trails to choose from. David and I did them all save the salt-marshes as they were not on the main reserve. For the three hours we were there, we put in a reasonable four miles of walking.

Woodland walk

reed-bed walk

We stopped for lunch at a bench on the Causeway path, and watched as house martins swooped overhead and red and blue dragonflies darted about. Even the odd speckled wood butterfly made an appearance.

Of the many hides on the reserve I was very impressed with Lilian’s hide. It looked newly made and was very spacious, with bowed windows looking out towards the reed-beds and comfy seating. David snapped a good photo from here of a grey heron.

From Lilian’s Hide

Lilian’s Hide

Grey Heron

Not far from Lilian’s hide is the nine metres tall skytower, which gives unparalleled views over the reed-bed towards Morecambe Bay.

The path leading from Grisedale hide offered us two wildlife experiences. The first was on noticing something moving inconspicuously in the reeds, we looked a little closer to find a tiny field vole. He was so cute!

Field Vole

Further along the path we were surprised by a sudden splash of water! We did not see what made the noise but there are otters residing in the area. I’d like to think we startled one as we made our way along the path.

Overall, I enjoyed our visit to Leighton Moss. At first the £7 per person admission fee for non members seems a little steep but there is free car parking, a shop and cafe in the visitor centre, with the reserve open from dawn to dusk. So £7 for the whole day is good value for money especially as you can walk around the paths as many times as you like and rest a while in the hides.

Membership at £4 a month would be viable if we visited these places more often, but alas only every now and again do we visit an RSPB site. Perhaps that is something to be rectified in the future?

Have you visited Leighton Moss reserve? What were your impressions?

Thanks for reading,

Christine x

Tomorrow Isn’t Promised

Recently I have been thinking of my own mortality. It’s not a topic many people want to discuss. Whilst contemplating the end of life, the phrase tomorrow isn’t promised, cropped up. This made me think of being mindful. To live life in the present. It is a mantra I have been trying to follow every day this year; to take each day as it comes and not to think too much of the future. However much we may plan, life has a way of throwing spanners in the works! So enjoy today and be thankful for the people we share our life with and of the places we see along the way. Life is like a journey. It’s not the destination that matters, but our route along the way!

So as a little recap of the year so far, here’s some of the people and places that have made my journey through 2017 a joy!

I am thankful to have David in my life. He is quietly strong, someone who you can depend upon and a wonderful friend. I love you with all my heart! We have been on many walks this year. Lake District walks to Thirlmere, Dodd Wood and a walk through the bluebells at Rannerdale.

David and I atThirlmere

David and I at Dodd

David and I with the Rannerdale Bluebells

Thurstaston Beach

Strawberry picking

The path – Lunt Meadows

We have shared walks along hot, sunny beaches, picked our own strawberries and visited nature reserves. I couldn’t think of anyone I’d rather be on these walks than with you, David!

On many of our local walks, to Liverpool Festival Gardens, Sefton Park and Crosby Beach, we have taken bubbly, lively Riley with us.

Riley at Sefton park

Christine, Riley and Anthony Gormley

Riley and David at Festival Gardens

If I have to mention Riley, I have to mention Artie and Evie and my wonderful aviary of foreign finches.

Owl Finches

Evie

Artie

Rainbow -Gouldian

My mum has been a constant support over the years and I thank her for her love. We shared a special afternoon tea at Jam, Liverpool in March.

Mum and I

Music has such a big place in my heart, and the music of Hans Zimmer is right up there with the symphonies of Mahler and Rachmaninov. In 2017 I luckily saw Hans’ World Tour visit Liverpool. To say his music is electrifying is an understatement, just listen to his Dark Knight medley from his live concerts!

Hans Zimmer and Tina Guo

Blea Tarn

A new passion of mine has become wild swimming. This year I have had seven wonderful swims. Blea Tarn was not disappointing.

Work takes up a lot of my time but working with Sue and her guide dog Kallie often doesn’t feel like work. It feels like muddling through a day with a friend. Sue has become a wonderful confidante.

Sue and Kallie

Sharon and Hugo

I have tried to read and follow as many blogs as I can. There is one blogger who has become an online friend (we shall have to meet in person one day, with our dogs) and that is Sharon from her wonderful blog sunshine and celandines. I have enjoyed our many online chats on the culture/holidays and walks we both blog about!

I love street art. So when there is a new Wild in Art animal trail or a mural, I try and visit. Birmingham’s Big Sleuth was entertaining and Paul Curtis’s For all Liverpool’s Liverbirds mural was a must for any Liverbird to visit!

David and Spock

For all Liverpool’s Liverbirds

I have tried to notice the smaller things in nature this year. It really does make you more appreciative of life. Feeling the warm sun on your skin to foraging for berries. Seeing a bird of prey being harried by a family of swallows or seeing a snowdrop during the coldest of days makes your heart swell. These small events make life’s worries and trivialities disappear or seem easily overcomable (if that’s really a word!)

Large Skipper

Toad

Peacock butterfly

Red Tailed Bumblebee

There’s four month’s left of 2017, but for now I want to live for today and feel blessed with the memories of the places I have seen, with the people I hold dear.

Thank you for reading,

Live life in the moment

Christine x