Sunday 14th September, 2014
On Monday we walked in Ballaglass Glen. It wasn't looking its best but - on the plus side - the paths were dry instead of boggy. The water level in the river was unusually low although there were a few nicely splashy bits . . .
. . . and some interesting reflections on the still water above the top footbridge.
The main disappointment was coming across this sign on the lower path along the north side of the river.
We climbed up to the higher path and decided to walk up to the top bridge near the tram station and then walk back down the path on the other side of the river - hoping to get an interesting photo of the fallen tree devastation. Unfortunately the whole of the path along the south side was closed! Another case of 'elf 'n safety gone mad?
We cut the walk short and returned to the car along the track past the three ancient horse chestnuts.
We just did our regular Skyhill walk on Tuesday. Not very exciting, but I did see something red on an old log at the side of a mountain bike ramp. A solitary autumn leaf? No, it turned out to be a tatty example of another variety of fungus - possibly related to the "orange peel" fungus that we saw in Ballaugh Glen in October 2013. It was the right colour for "Scarlet Elf Cup" but too flat.
There were two more "not particularly welcome" signs of summer's approaching end this week. I had an "I cannot believe it!" moment when I saw that the first mince pies were already on display in the Co-op on Tuesday - and Tim pointed out the first condensation on the windows on Wednesday morning.
The light winds from the east wind are back. I notice that the weather forecasters prefer the word "haze" to my description last week of "light smog". Perhaps it is more politically correct.
One good thing about the current spell of settled weather is that the butterflies are still around. They are not as numerous as they were last month but on Wednesday afternoon I saw four different ones on the single sedum spectabile plant behind the kitchen. They seem to prefer this plant to the others at the edge of the lawn near the plum tree.
The red admiral, comma and speckled wood arrived first and were later joined by the peacock. I also saw a second comma on the less favoured sedums.
By Friday it was getting more and more "hazy" every day. In the morning North Barrule was barely visible from Ramsey. Just six days ago we climbed up through Brookdale and enjoyed a lovely view all the way to the Scottish coast. And, it may get worse before it gets better. The forecasts for the next five days indicate winds from the east and no rain.
Last week This week
In the afternoon we walked up through Brookdale again in search of more fungi. We were inspired by an email from Dorothy which included a very fine photo of Fly Agaric in Ohio Plantation - as well as some amazing damselfly and dragonfly photos.
It was another mildly disappointing outing as far as photography was concerned - but good exercise because we walked all the way up to the top gate. Apart from a scattering of small tufty toadstools which I mentally filed under "looks a bit like honey fungus" we saw almost no fungi. There wasn't a single fly agaric in the areas where we have seen them in previous years. Perhaps there hasn't been enough rain. Apart from a trickle in the streams on Skyhill and a murky puddle in the pond in Brookdale, both plantations are dust dry.
We eventually spotted one almost interesting toadstool half obscured by moss on a steep bank near the top of the track.
Brookdale may have lacked fungi but I have never seen as many speckled woods on a walk. We even saw a couple of red admirals which was surprising because they usually prefer gardens. As I said to Tim "There are speckled woods all the way up!" They seem to favour the edge of plantations and now the larches have been felled there is a wonderful mix of sun and shade in Brookdale for them.
On Saturday we had a quick dash up Skyhill. I will never be a true photographer because I miss so many opportunities.
We came across a disconsolate unaccompanied dog at the gate into the plantation. It was inside the gate with its head through the bars. If I had been a true photographer, my first reaction would have been to take a cute sad dog photo - but instead I worried about reuniting the dog with its owner. We had come across the dog before and I knew that it was incredibly nervous. There was no way that it would let us get close enough to catch it. All we could do was look for the owner. We closed the gate after going through and the dog went back to wait at the gate as soon as we were a safe distance away.
We started up the hill as fast as possible. Part of the way up the track we came across a young boy with a dog lead and no dog - so I told him where we had seen the dog. I was still a bit worried but when we returned there was no sign of the dog or anyone looking for it. So I suppose they both got home safely.
We saw a group of three really tatty fly agaric near a damp ditch on the way down to the gate. They were in the same area where I photographed the first one last week. This photo is not really worth including but I might as well as we went to a lot of trouble to find some more.
Then just before we left the plantation we came across some more even smaller "looks a bit like honey fungus" growing on a log.
Brookdale Skyhill
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