Showing posts with label Photography. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Photography. Show all posts
I'm used to finding insects and bugs in my tent, but look what jumped out of it on Sunday.
The last time I used my Vango Trek 200 it got very muddy, so I decided to pitch it in the garden to get it cleaned up. My four year old son gave me a hand to wash it and we left it to dry while the young man used it as a den for the rest of the day.
Later that night I went to take it down, unzipped the door, picked up the bag and whaaaa.... A brown thing, the size of my hand jumped out from under it. Once my heart stopped jumping I looked down to see a regal looking Common Toad, who must have followed the bugs into the tent in the hope of a tasty feast. "Wow Dad, Look" said my son son as he knelt down for a closer look. "Shhh... Don't frighten him, he must be looking for his Mammy". The wee fellow stayed around for a while, took a rest behind the tubs of coriander before jumping away again in search of his next meal.
The common toad is a solitary soul and not really so "common" these days. I hope this one comes round to our house again sometime soon.
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The new exhibition of Nick Clements is a great opportunity to cross the Channel.
The Royal College of Art is a place where we can meet this Thursday, before we make a detour by the Brooklands circuit.
See you there!
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The new exhibition of Nick Clements is a great opportunity to cross the Channel.
The Royal College of Art is a place where we can meet this Thursday, before we make a detour by the Brooklands circuit.
See you there!
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The new exhibition of Nick Clements is a great opportunity to cross the Channel.
The Royal College of Art is a place where we can meet this Thursday, before we make a detour by the Brooklands circuit.
See you there!
.
The new exhibition of Nick Clements is a great opportunity to cross the Channel.
The Royal College of Art is a place where we can meet this Thursday, before we make a detour by the Brooklands circuit.
See you there!
.
We've been out exploring again today, and despite the fact we were less than 2 miles from home, we could have been in a different place completely. Clints Quarry is a genuine hidden gem, situated between two main commuter routes that 1000s of nuclear workers travel every day, Despite its location and size, I wonder how many of them are even aware of its existence. We've never seen anybody else there on our visits.
Clints Quarry has been the site of quarrying for over 450 years. In the 1600's it was the source of agricultural lime for use on farm land around Egremont. In the 1800's both limestone and iron ore mining were increased to supply the emerging steel industry in Egremont and nearby Cleator and Cleator Moor. The name "Clints" is taken from the blocks of lime stone left in the quarry basin, which were traditionally known as "Clints" or "Clintz". Quarrying ceased in the 1930s and nature slowly recolonised the remains turning it into a self-enclosed wildlife haven. During the 1970s, the exposed rock faces were popular with climbing clubs as was the nearby Clints Scar, but the landowners weren't happy with their intrusion and made the climbers unwelcome, even going as far as pouring slurry down the cliff faces. In the early 1980s, the quarry was threatened with a landfill proposal, but in 1984, the Cumbria Wildlife Trust purchased the Quarry from Lord Egremont and British Steel to safeguard its future as a nature reserve and a Site Of Special Scientific Interest (ASSSI).
Our 4 year old loves the place almost as much as his Mam 'n' Dad and he had his usual hands-on education today - this time it was geology, history and nature. About 350 million years ago, Clints was under a tropical sea and today fossils of creatures such as coral can be seen in the quarry walls and in the boulders that line the quarry floor. The cliff faces at the head of the quarry also reveal the distinctive bands of silt and rock giving a natural timeline of the geological history of West Cumbria. The spoil heeps, screes and ponds have also been colonised by flowers, plants and wildlife, which make it a natural playground for our family.
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| Clints Quarry is situated between the busy A595 and A5086, just outside of Egremont. It covers over 9 hectares but it so well hidden that anyone driving by will be unaware of its existence. |
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| The exposed rock faces at the head of Clints Quarry are around 20m high. |
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| Tracks between the overgrown spoil heaps. |
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| Crystalised rocks on the quarry floor |
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| Moss growing on the limestone "clints". |
The quarry is filled with quaking grass, wild strawberries, oat grass, oxeye daises, the spectacular bee orchid with its unusually shaped flowers, and the vivid pink pyramidal orchid, a Cumbria rarity. On the rock face and between crevices grow many ferns including hart's tongue. In damper parts of quarry the pale pink common spotted orchid and the deeper pink northern marsh orchid are present. Sedges and rushes are common here, as are tufted hair grass and hemp agrimony. Bluebell, dog's mercury, enchanter's nightshade, early purple orchids and common twayblade orchids populate the woodland. Many mosses, fungi, lichens and moulds can be found growing on the trees, spoil heaps and rock faces.
The wildlife includes beetles and common blue, meadow brown and gatekeeper butterflies. Robins, goldcrests, long-tailed tits and sometimes treecreepers inhabit the quarry whilst kestrels and ravens nest on the quarry face. Stickleback, palmate newt and common frog can be found in the derelict concrete lined ponds and pools along with water beetles and "water-boatmen". It also gives me plenty of scope to take a few photos and get my boots muddy! Clints Quarry nature reserve is open at all times and is on the Egremont to Whitehaven cycleway (National Route 72). It lies on land seperating the main A595 and A5086 routes but is only accesible from a minor road just off the A5086.
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| Wild Strawberries are everywhere... but you have to look hard to find them. |
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| Moss covers the ancient tree roots and rocks. |
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| These derelict ponds are now filled with newts, sticklebacks, frogs and beetles... and they're very deep! |
...that is something my wife can often be heard telling the children, and she's not wrong! We had a few hours to waste one recent afternoon, so we took off to the beach at St Bees, less than 3 miles away and gave our four old son some practical lessons in science, geography and the arts. We showed him examples of surface tension, erosion, natural history, pond life, geology, how tides work and how to make big splashes with your wellies! Dad even got to take some photographs too. Who needs expensive holidays abroard when you've got locations like this right on your doorstep.
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| Erosion is a real problem at St Bees. Over 40m of cliff face collapsed recently and here's another recent landslip. |
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| L'aal boy walks on water.... (A beautiful photo of a beautiful boy - taken by my wife) |
The other day Tony brought some old bike related photos over with him. They were fantastic, the stories make me so jealous. He kindly let me borrow these ones to scan in.
Tony took them around 1976 in London, he and Phil Kaufman (pictured, moustache) were in a pub and a girl came up and said hey you like bikes... next thing they're pulling a 45 out of a garden.
Islington
Islington
Wandsworth
Wandsworth
Flood Street
Clapham
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