Dogs Just Want To Have Fun!

B Baggins is great friends with my friend P's dog Bertie and on Saturday afternoon we took them up on Blackamoor just as the snow was starting.

It was very cold and there was ice on parts of the track. I spotted this little ice bridge between the two rocks in the stream, you might need to enlarge the photo to see it.

None of the photos are very good because the dogs were way ahead, it was snowing and I was snapping as we walked. B Baggins hasn't featured much lately though so I decided to post them anyway.

There were big chunky icicles along the river bank.

The ice cold water didn't seem to bother Bertie and B Baggins, P and I skipped across the stepping stones though.

Bracken fronds encased in ice.

Heading for home! Bertie is a lurcher and very fast indeed - you can just see him disappearing round the bend in the lane:)

Boxing Day Morning

Bilbo Baggins and I went up on Blackamoor this morning, this is our usual morning walk these days. It was windy but very mild and, being early we had it entirely to ourselves.

The Blacka Dyke was dancing past the moss covered rocks about twenty feet below the path we were on, I love this part of the stream, it always seems a magical place to me.

A little further up the hill and set back from the path behind elders and silver birches is this holly bush which is still covered with berries.I left it untouched when I was gathering my holly and I suspect most people didn't even notice it:)

At the top of the hill is this beautiful weeping silver birch, it is beautiful at all seasons of the year but I love it best in winter with the delicate tracery of its branches outlined against the sky. I have better photos of it taken in different weather conditions but this is how it looked today.

B Baggins again, he's never far away from me on all my walks and I don't take his photograph as often as I should - he's pretty fit for a dog who will be nine years old in March.

This fragile looking lichen in the palest of greens is almost like a flower.

I have no idea of the age of this wonderful beech tree but I think it must be very old, it's a wonderful and huge tree with a canopy that spreads over a wide area.
I should think that what is in the photo is less than half of its full height.

There is still a surprising amount of fungi around and this little patch of warm yellow nestling at the foot of dead tree caught my eye. I have absolutely no idea what it is - any suggestions?

As I walked back up the lane to my car there was a thunder of hooves as William, Holly and Melissa galloped up the field to say 'Hello'. I was so busy talking to them that I never thought to take a photo! As I turned away and walked to my car I suddenly saw this gorse bush covered in flowers, a lovely spot of colour on what was quite a dull morning but definitely not a dull walk.

A Winter Walk

B Baggins and I went down Shorts Lane and onto Blackamoor this morning, there were grey skies and a cold wind blowing. I saw the farmer ploughing this field in the autumn and now it has a new crop growing - barley I suspect if it's the same as last year.

I don't think the farmer will be very pleased to see these little heaps of soil! Moldy Warp the Mole has been busy by the looks of it. Does anyone else love the Little Grey Rabbit books by Alison Uttley - Moldy Warp is one of the characters from these delightful stories. I have only ever seen one mole and that was a dead one kindly deposited on the back porch by my wonderful old cat Raffles - now long gone across the Rainbow Bridge. It was totally undamaged and must have died of shock I think. It was a lovely little creature with the most beautiful fur. I was very sad about it's death and after I'd told him off Raffles was very sad too! I apologize for the poor quality of the photograph, I tried several times and this is the best of a very bad lot.

These old moss covered dry stone walls give me pleasure every time I walk past them. It's sad that so many of them are poorly maintained these days. Dry stone walling as a country craft is definitely reviving but it's very expensive to employ someone to repair walls. In the old days the farm labourers would have had the skill to do such jobs in the winter months. My dad had this skill along with several others including being able to use a sickle. Judging by the rabbits that came home in his capacious pockets I suspect he had some skill as a poacher too!

B Baggins investigating the various scents in the grass verge, apart from other dogs there are horses,foxes,rabbits and badgers around here. There's a large badger sett close by and in the early summer I'm going to go at dusk without B Baggins and see if I can watch them for a while.

Even in the depths of winter, when everything looks lifeless at first glance, there are signs of life if you look for them, these are fresh young nettle leaves emerging in a sheltered spot protected by a high bank from the icy winds that come whistling down off the moors.

After the snow melt and a couple of nights of heavy rain Blacka Dyke is looking pretty lively, it sounded as though it was having fun as it raced merrily along.

This stone plaque has appeared very recently and will weather nicely into its surroundings I think. Although we have Alderman Graves to thank for giving Blackamoor to the people of Sheffield he hadn't actually owned it for very long. It was bought from the Duke of Rutland in 1927 when the Longshaw Estate was sold.

Thick stems of ivy twisting round the branch of this tree. This doesn't, contrary to common belief, strangle the tree. Ivy has its own root system and simply uses trees for support in the same way that a climbing rose does. I speak with the authority of the Royal Horticultural Society behind me:) Ivy has great value for wildlife. As ground cover in woodland it greatly lessens the effect of frost, enabling birds and woodland creatures to forage in leaf litter during bitter spells. Growing on trees, it provides hiding, roosting, hibernating and nesting places for various animals, birds and insects (including butterflies), especially during the winter months and in areas where there are few other evergreens.

Even in this wintry landscape there is some colour, the reddish brown of the dead bracken fronds adds some warmth to the scene and the green of the moss cheers things up too.

This is where I often cross over Blacka Dyke via the stepping stones and climb up to Lenny Hill, from there you can take several routes depending on how far you want to walk. Today though I stayed on this side of the river and walked further up into the woodland area. No photos though as this is also where my camera instructed me to 'Change Batteries' and I hadn't brought any spares!

Winter Wonderland

This was the sight that greeted me when I looked out of the window this morning. I knew it was going to snow during the night but I wasn't expecting this!

B Baggins and I set out for our morning walk regardless and we were rewarded by some really beautiful scenes. The snow was several inches deep so walking was quite hard work so we just went a short walk to some fields near home. It's a very ordinary field really but the snow transformed it into something truly beautiful. Thank you for all the concern re me and falling over - hopefully a combination of my trusty hazel staff and my Yak Traks will see me safely through! As for staying in Diane - one dog plus no DH = 3 walks a day for B Baggins and me I'm afraid!

Happily someone else had been there before us so that made it a bit easier to walk round - not that B Baggins has any trouble getting around in it, he absolutely loves the snow.

A magical entrance to the realm of the ice fairies.

Behind the high wall is Grove House built in the mid 1800s on the site of one of Totley's old water powered mills which was used for scythe making.

The dam that powered the mill was here, you can't see it in the photograph but Old Hay Brook runs along the line of the trees.

The kissing gate that leads onto an old pack horse bridge.

Well done chaps - home and breakfast!

A Morning Walk

Just a short post to get me back into the swing of blogging again. I've been really busy catching up on a huge pile of letters, doing some Christmas baking for the freezer, trying to make a bit of impact on the disaster that is my garden and a good many other items from my  'to do' list. I'm back on track again and will hopefully be putting in more regular appearances from now on. These photos are from a walk on Blackamoor on Wednesday morning, there had been quite a hard frost which  B Baggins loves, it seems to give him an extra injection of energy. I know how he feels, I love bright,frosty mornings.

There are still little splashes of colour here and there from various berries, these rosehips looked lovely in the sunlight.

A moss covered dry stone wall - always a favourite of mine, they seem so atmospheric somehow.

Even in late November there are flowers to be found, this is the flower of the ivy which appears between September and November and provides a valuable source of nectar for bees, butterflies and insects late in the year. Each little flower will become a black berry and will provide another source of food for birds all through the cold winter months.

The Blacka Dyke tumbling downthrough the woodland to join up eventually with Old Hay Brook and then on to become part of the River Sheaf which is one of Sheffield's five major rivers.

Another bit of stone wall with frosted moss, dead leaves and bracken. These have their own quiet beauty.

The moon setting in the western sky above the beautiful autumn colours of the moors.

The frost accentuates every detail of the bracken fronds and leaves especially the thistle which looks really beautiful. Winter brings out a beauty in some things which isn't as obvious in the summer.

More frost rimed leaves, I must admit that I never tire of looking at the work of Jack Frost:) It's now late on Friday afternoon and B Baggins and I have just come back from walking up on Blackamoor with my friend J and her dog Martha. We've been higher up than the area where these photos were taken and everywhere was white with frost and the boggy pools of water were frozen hard even in mid-afternoon. I banged one of them hard with my hazel staff and it didn't even crack! No staying in where it's warm for me tonight though, DH and I are off to see 'Improbable Fiction' the latest offering from our local amateur dramatic society.

Seen On A Lammas Walk

Today is August 1st known as Lughnasagh or Lammas. It's also my 38th wedding anniversary as it happens:) The wheel is turning yet again and this is the beginning of the harvest season. It is the midpoint between Beltaine and Samhain and although people think of August as being summer it is actually the first month of autumn. A walk in the country will produce many signs of this as I found when B Baggins and I went out this morning. Above are rose hips beginning to ripen, the hedgerows are going to look wonderful in a few weeks time as the wild fruit harvest is going to be prolific once again - a sign of another hard winter ahead?



The acorns are beginning to form on the oak trees. These too are going to be abundant which is good news for squirrels,mice,voles, deer and several kinds of birds especially jays.Like squirrels the jays collect and store the nuts ready for the winter. Several of these photographs will look better if you click and enlarge them - especially one near the end with a sort of brown blob in the centre!


This barn was built from bricks left over from the building of Totley Tunnel in the 1890s. The tunnel runs under the moors from Totley to Grindleford and at 3.5miles it is the longest under land tunnel in the UK - at least it was until the very recently opened tunnel near London was built. The bricks used to line the Tunnel were nearly all made locally at Totley brickworks and it was built by men using explosives and shovels to tunnel through the earth. However I digress!



Rowan berries - always the first to ripen. There are a lot of them around here as they are one of the few trees that can survive the harsh moorland environment.


Holly berries - still green as yet and regrettably in a privately owned field so unavailable for use at Yule! I must check the place where I usually get my holly.....


This sheep is one of two pet sheep and she always comes to say 'hello' as we pass. She'd like to get closer to B Baggins and he'd like to get closer to her too! Regrettably he's a sheep chaser so I have to be very careful where I let him off the lead round here.



These are alder cones and they will eventually turn a dark brown. The alder tree is native to the British Isles and grows near rivers and lakes and in boggy ground. Its wood doesn't rot in wet conditions and indeed becomes as hard as stone when left immersed in water and because of this it was used in the construction of bridges, particularly the long heavy piles driven into the ground or sometimes under water to support it. This quality for long endurance under water also made it valuable for pumps, troughs and sluices.



The soft colours and lush growth are typical of this time of the year. The woods and hedgerows are quiet during late July and August as this is the period when the exhausted bedraggled adult birds rest after the hard work of raising their young. They are moulting now and will eventually reappear with strong, pristine new feathers which will help to see them through the cold winter months.



These are the seeds of Sweet Cicely which grows wild in a good many places round here. The whole plant smells of aniseed and I love to bruise the leaves as I pass to release the scent. The leaves can be stewed with rhubarb or gooseberries and if you do this you can reduce the amount of sugar that you use. The seeds can be used in cookery too, in fact the entire plant can be used for various purposes. I have it growing in my garden and it's one of my favourite herbs partly because I love the name. Its Latin name is Myrrhis odorata.


A rather beautiful hoverfly on a pale lavender thistle flower.



All the many varieties of grasses are ripening now, this graceful, ethereal plant has the rather unromantic name of hairy brome, not a name guranteed to set the pulses racing!



Bindweed is a name to put fear into the hearts of all gardeners but its flowers are really very beautiful.


This is a real favourite of mine - the delicate purple flowers of Woody Nightshade along with the green berries that by September will be a spectacular transluscent scarlet. With the sun on them the berries positively glow and are one of the real beauties of autumn for me. It's a very poisonous plant though so never be tempted to try one of the berries!


You'll need to enlarge this photo to see someone showing considerable joie de vivre!


Who, me? Rolling about on the grass? Certainly not!


Remember the brick built barn? This is the stone built farmhouse that you can see just behind the barn in the earlier photo. Lower Bents farm dates back to at least the early 1600s and possibly a bit more than that, the earliest reference to it is 1621. These days it has a lovely cottage garden which I always enjoy seeing as I pass. I consider myself very fortunate to have so many beautiful and interesting places within walking distance of my house.