Skip to main content

Deepdale Nature Reserve

We had a wonderful wander down Deepdale Nature Reserve today, British natural woodland at its best...- ostensibly looking for an esoteric crag - well there's a surprise.  We had a map and a guide book but managed to completely over shoot where we thought we were going and ended up sat on top of a different but still very nice rock with a rather grand almost 360 degree view of Teesdale.   It was fairly obvious why it was called Deepdale as we walked along the valley deepened into a definitive gorge and then we climbed up the path into the top of the valley for amazing views.


The walk from Barnard Castle down through the nature reserve was very splendid. It was perfect weather for a stroll through the woods - the colours were amazing, bright blue skies with the odd white cloud, greenery bursting out, moss, trees, new leaves, flowers everywhere... Birds singing, a heady scent of wild garlic, swathes of bluebells, dappled sun light over the amazing verdant greenery, gentle streams running and some amazing limestone pavement stream beds almost empty of water in spite of all the rain we have had! - so very different from our last walks along the river in the snow.... 

limestone stream bed
It almost goes without saying it was another of Dr Freds misleading walks, what with massive fallen trees to clamber over or under and land slides to bypass, streams to ford, it wasn't quite the straight forward affair promised but we found some rocks and I spent a happy half hour sketching in the sun before heading back along a track giving us amazing panoramic vistas across the country - right back to our house if we had had binoculars which as usual we had forgotten!!!  We had to make do with more local scenery, lots of chunky little lambs, a large number of moody looking cows and some very beautiful horses tethered in various enclosures. 

fine specimen of animal and the house in the background was stunning


Labels:

Comments

  1. Unknown16 May 2018 at 21:20

    Hmmm... chunky lambs - they are getting a bit choppy now ;/ Yes - Deepdale... spotted that on the map, and Cat Castle which is also in that neck of the woods... so much to explore :) xx

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Autumnal Garden Days

I love these (rare) warm sunny late summer days and there is all sorts of lovely things  going on in my garden... I counted 12 red admiral butterflies whizzing around the over grown ivy which I had been about to hack down but then left until the flutterbies have finished with it... The late blooms add a dash of colour and the daisy strewn lawn is littered with autumnal leaves, debris from my brief half an hour of slash and burn and the stone wall is covered in glorious soft moss all shiny and tactile with a few late nasturtiums loitering. I've hacked out the brambles for this year, sadly I missed the fruit as we were away, ditto the strawberries, we never seem to get the fruit before the birds so I've made space and moved the plants that were getting swamped and so not performing to their potential - hopefully next year they will literally blossom now they have light and room to flourish.
Post a Comment
Read more

Total Eclipse Spain 2026

Eclipse day!!!!  Most of the photos on here were taken by friends...my phone died...  I dont use names on here but you know who you are thank you....  This will be Dr Freds 8th eclipse and my 6th... I have 100% clear viewing and its continued that way. Our friends have this amazing house tucked away on the side of a hill - fortuitously right on the centre line of the 2026 eclipse.  And... to make it even better they have a roof terrace which gave us an almost perfect elevation to see the total eclipse in all its glory.   Dr Fred wasnt sure at first - he worried that as totality was so close to sunset we might not be high enough before the sun disappeared under the ridge.  So, the evenings leading up to the night of the actual event, required a lot of balancing on the roof with spirit levels at various degrees and exact timings for exact positioning of the sun and considerable maths.... yes it was complicated but it p...
5 comments
Read more

Alesund

Our final destination stop was Alesund. This is a very pretty town in southern Norway built on a peninsula. All the houses are painted pretty colours and a lot of the architecture is all very Art Nouveau based. This is because the town itself was completely burnt to the ground In 1904 by a fire for which they never found the original cause. The whole town had to be rebuilt and this became a huge National Effort and a lot of prominent and up and coming architects flocked to the town to stick there 20 pence in. Consequently the town is very heavily Art Nouveau which was very fashionable at the time. There is this wonderful Museum just off the harbour which is a very beautiful Art Nouveau house. It has amazing panelling, doors, wallpaper, and it's all furnished with beautiful art Nouveau Furniture. It also house a collection of of enameled Art Nouveau Trinkets,boxes, spoons, jewellery, very very beautiful.   There is an interesting collection of old books and paintings a...
1 comment
Read more