Still on a catch up – this blog dates from the 21 June and the first day of summer, though the weather might have been trying to say otherwise!
Still being the Crocked Naturalist rather than the Lost Naturalist, getting anywhere that is more than a just a flat walk is somewhat rare. So the opportunity to take a strange bus journey up the side of a mountain to a slate mine in the Lake District, was not to be sniffed at, even on a day when the cloud was sitting on the mountain tops and Honister Pass looked mean and moody. With the clouds so low that they cut off the mountain tops, just like someone had taken a giant rubber and erased the tops off with a precisely drawn straight line, and the harsh scars of man’s many years of slate mining standing out stark and hard on this grey day. This greyness though, made the greens of the vegetation seem even brighter and fresher than they might normally do.
Honister Pass – 21 June 2013 (Copyright Carol Jones)
Travelling upwards, the track winds its way up through acid grasslands and rocky outcrops towards the entrance of the mine. At this altitude the rocky outcrops were splashed with colour, announcing the arrival of a short summer period. Brightest and most obvious are the splashes of green produced by clumps of Parsley Fern that stuck out at regular intervals from the cracks in the rock, and looked like a distinctive lacy edging. Amongst the Parsley Fern there was the occasionally Alpine Lady’s Mantle plant, which supported clusters of pale green flowers sitting on long stems, above groups of deeply divided leaves.
Travelling higher towards the entrance of the mine, the rocky outcrops and the grey background becomes dominant, with the green splashes of grasses and ferns seeming to become brighter, almost fluorescing in the gloom. Then against this grey background, there was the occasional splash of colour, particularly bright were the yellow flowered clumps of Roseroot, with amazingly bright flowers sitting above distinctive grey green foliage. Closing on the mine entrance my eye was caught by the occasional spot of white, sitting right on the edge of a long drop down into the valley below and just out of reach behind a piece of rickety wooden fencing. A sight that is set to tempt and tease a Lost Naturalist, and which took some ingenuity to identify as clumps of Mossy Saxifrage, involving some leaning and lots of staring, not to mention desperately trying not to fall over the fence and off of the edge of the mountain. Its just a pity that there wasn’t the time or opportunity to take suitable pictures, somehow I don’t think that the guide would appreciate the visitors crawling through a fence on to the edge of a long drop to take the ideal picture of a Mossy Saxifrage plant!! I know the boss would not appreciate the paperwork of a truly Lost Naturalist!!
lostnaturalist 