Reading back through my various postings this year it quickly becomes apparent quite how kind the weather has been to us of late. Virtually every weekend has seen blue sky and sunshine so it was almost inevitable that last Saturday, having arranged to meet friends for a walk, our luck Read more…
With my January Patchwork Challenge scores submitted (and very healthy they looked too) it was straight back out on the first of this month to try and nudge that tally along a little further. Almost straight away we hit pay-dirt with a male Sparrowhawk crossing the fields beneath Gopa Hill. Read more…
If you watched this weeks Winterwatch then Chris Packham’s film on the joys of looking for animal and bird prints in snow may have roused your interest. It certainly did mine as this is already something we do on a regular basis, or at least as regular as can be Read more…
Start: SN 84136 15182 End: SN 84019 15337 Distance: 4miles Overall Altitude Gain: 854ft Terrain: Relatively steep, dangerous drops, open countryside with no signposts once on the hill Difficulty: Medium – navigation difficult in bad weather Introduction More snow last week meant that we just had to get back out Read more…
Following our outing to Pen Y Fan we headed off to Leeds for the final few days of December where, as hoped for, there were still significant amounts of snow. Much of it however was patchy with one hillside completely barren only for its neighbour to be under a good Read more…
It’s hard to believe but yesterday was my last opportunity of 2014 to get out onto the patch in an attempt to push my current Patchwork Challenge score a little higher. Despite a less than attentive year I had still somehow managed to draw level with my previous comparative species Read more…
Presents unwrapped, enough food eaten to keep me going until March and far too many hours of television watched. Yes Christmas is over for another year and I hope it’s been a good one for you all and that Santa was as generous as he was for me (I must Read more…
The closest we got to a white Christmas this year were several hail showers which although undeniably wintry could never make up for the real thing. Fortunately a glance northwards revealed the snow topped peaks of the Brecon Beacons so it’s not hard to guess where we ended up on Read more…
Our final big walk of the Peak District trip was to be on Kinder Scout, something of a legendary location to walkers here in the UK. Back in the early part of the twentieth century much of the open land of England and Wales was privately owned and access refused Read more…
After our exertions on Bleaklow the day before, a nice gentle walk around the upper reservoirs of the Derwent valley seemed like an ideal choice for Saturday. Well that was the plan anyway until I decided that an eleven mile circuit of both the Derwent and Howden was exactly what Read more…