May

Just returned this morning from a walk along the Loweswater terrace path and met this sheep on the road up from Maggie’s Bridge, she did make me smile as she jumped agilely onto the wall!

I heard the first cuckoo on Thursday 22 April which was quite early, I usually note it more towards the end of the month. There are swallows and house martins about looking for nest sites and I have also seen the goosanders who I noted flying around last year: one of them tried to get into the hole in the tree where the jackdaws nest and was very speedily evicted.

The weather has been interesting over the past month with some beautiful still days, great for reflections but frost almost every night so no good for planting out in the garden.

It also didn’t rain for quite a while so my little local walking group (Now we are Six) took advantage of it being drier underfoot and went on what is usually a very boggy walk over the back of Gavel to Banna Crag and Floutern Kop returning via Hen Comb. Our boots remained clean and dry!

I went on a favourite walk around Drigg (south of Sellafield) last Wednesday. It is a lovely walk across rough pasture to the Esk estuary and then returning across the sand dunes to the beach. There had been a lot of snow on the high fells, (perhaps you saw the footage of people skiing on Helvellyn), and the Scafell range in the distance was white but the sky and sea were blue, some nice fluffy clouds as well – beautiful.

Those of you who know Foulsyke may be interested to hear that the Rivers Trust, working together with the local farmer, are going to create a wetland area and series of ponds for wildlife in the field behind leading up to the woods, this will also allow for water storage during floods. It will be fascinating to watch the project develop.

Finally a photo of the Kirkstile with its beer garden open!