Saturday 2 November 2013

More From Borrowdale

Blease Fell, Blencathra
The sun was shinning fitfully today, so knowing that bad weather was on the way in the next few days, I decided to make a move.  I drove over to Borrowdale, stopping on the A66 to take these two pics of Blencathra .

Blencathra
I drove through Keswick and on to the Borrowdale road pulling in for my first stop at Big wood. Big wood is on the left hand side of the road and Derwentwater is on the left, as you leave Keswick. The wood itself starts by the side of the road, on fairly level ground to start with, then on to steep ground, and eventually up into the gullies and west facing crags of Walla Crag, (an easy height to remember, 1234 feet)

A view in Big Wood from the drive,
unfortunately nearly all the land in Borrowdale belongs to the National Trust, and they now charge people for every car-park and pull-in all round the lake. Now for none members of the trust wanting to do a drive round, and just pull in for the occasional photo this could become quite costly at a minimum charge of £1 for 30 mins.

Ashness Bridge and Skiddaw in the distance

Ashness bridge.
Looking over Derwentwater, with just a glimpse of Bassenthwaite lake beyond.

The lake is very high at the moment after all the rain, and the reed beds and the island are swamped. The Ladore landing can be seen, and it was just off these landings that the Great-crested Grebe built its nest earlier in the year,(pictures in an earlier post)


I spent a bit of time wandering through Ashness woods, the Bracken in places is looking very good, having turned to various shades of brown and gold, with just a hint of the summer green hanging on.

One of the many small streams that make there way down to the lake.
Birch Polypore, a young bracket fungus on Silver Birch.

And lastly the web of a spider that I think belongs to the Amaurobios family of spiders .The spider hides in the crack on the trunk of this tree, till an unsuspecting victim lands on the web. There is also quite  bit of other life in this shot, mosses and lichens

4 comments:

  1. HI Gordon Lovely shots of the countryside and also I love the fungi and cobweb shots.

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  2. Thank you once again Margaret for your kind comments, I am glade I made the move as it is raining and dull today.
    All the best, Gordon.

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  3. Oh wow, I can see why the Derwent River in Tasmania, Australia was possibly named that. The mountain in the photo with the caption "looking over Derwentwater…" looks just like Mt Wellington.

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  4. Thank you Amanda, Its always good to hear from downunder, I'll have to google-earth Mt Wellington to see Skiddaw's twin ;-)
    All th e best Gordon.

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A big thank you to everyone for looking in and leaving their comments, much appreciated, Gordon.