OK, so there I was standing in the bottom of the Crook Burn valley on Wednesday. Supposedly I was in a wide and gently sloping valley, but at that moment, it could have been almost anywhere, as the visibility had dropped to less than 20m in any direction and the surroundings where coated in a think layer of cloud.
Crook Burn Valley – 30 May 2012 (Copyright – Carol Jones)
But oh, what surprises awaited! What I had been led to expect to be the remnant of a long lost northern hay meadow, that may have been suffering from under grazing and scrub invasion, actually turned into the most amazing complex of valley wetlands that graded into drier grasslands on some of the steeper slopes. The valley floor and all the lower slopes were dominated by various wetland communities. They contained the typical Rush pasture of northern hay meadows, to areas of valley fen dominated by Sedges and Water Horsetail, to those areas that truly quaked and wobbled like a jelly, and also areas of tall herb fen carpeted by Meadowsweet through which water flushed.
Amongst the swirling mist that rose and sank, as the breeze moved it around, patches of Marsh Marigold almost glowed, as though they had been coated in a fluorescent element, and some of the flowers were unusual in being semi-doubles.
Marsh Marigolds – 30 May 2012 (Copyright – Carol Jones)
Out of the gloom there also loomed a number of Greater Tussock Sedges, and with the mist swirling, they could almost have been monsters escaped from a Dr Who program, especially as many of the leaves where coated with tiny drops of water. Plants weren’t the only items to be coated in droplets of water and amongst the areas of taller vegetation where a number of spiders webs that had been decorated with hundreds of droplets of water, all seemingly individually sculpted and placed.
Spiders Webs – 30 May 2012 (Copyright – Carol Jones)
Finally though, in what has generally become a highly agricultural area, the valley had one final secret to reveal and to me one of the highlights of the day, as it took me to one of my favourite places, the North Pennines, and this was a thriving colony of Globeflowers (Trollius europaeus), with their much paler lemon coloured blooms.
Globeflowers (Trollius europaeus) – 30 May 2012 (Copyright – Carol Jones)
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