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" Rannerdale Bluebells - 2 -"

Date & start time: Saturday 14th May 2016,  5.30 pm start.

Location of Start : Cinderdale car park, Crummock Water, Cumbria, Uk ( NY 163 194 )

Places visited : Above Rannerdale then dropping down to the valley.

Walk details :    1.8 mls,  500 feet of ascent, 1.5 hours.

Highest point : Above the out take wall, High Rannerdale.

Walked with : Ann and the dogs, Harry and Dylan.

Weather : Warm and sunny but in our eyes on the way back making some photos difficult.

© Crown copyright. All rights reserved. Licence number PU 100034184.

 

A couple of  short visits culminating in an evening walk at prime bluebell time. 

It has been a good showing this year for this unusual display of these late spring flowers

as further south they are normally a woodland species.

A while back I called over and saw that purple sheen starting to develop.

After a week of lovely sunshine and warmer day time temperatures the blooms must be improving.

Sure enough, the flower heads are starting to show

but with the sunny weather has been a lack of rainfall.  Only the overnight dew has been aiding the plants growth.

Some are leading the way, like this bunch near the path.

Fortunately the dreaded bracken is a long way off and shouldn't overwhelm the young flowers.

11th May and no sign of flowers on the Rannerdale side either . . .
. . . but an outing to Rannerdale always makes a nice dog walk.

- - - o o o - - -

Over the next few days we had some more moisture

and the flowers in Lanthwaite Woods were growing to full potential.

From the Scale Hill car park to the lake and back . . .
. . . and there are several nice areas of woodland flowers.

- - - o o o - - -

It is Saturday 14th May 2016, the weather's fine and the local reports are good

so we return to Cinderdale car park once again for an evening walk with the dogs.

Having taken the last parking spot in the car park and seeing the other one was full too

we decided to take a more circuitous route to Rannerdale in order to avoid the crowds.

We took the Lad Hows path a short way up the fellside and crossed over Cinderdale Beck

as it cascades down from the slopes of Grasmoor.

With the road far below we cut across on the high ground, heading for the top wall of the Rannerdale Farm fields.

The five days of sunshine has made all the difference

and the blue/purple flowers are now starting to colour the fellside rather nicely.

Dylan looks down on the scene below . . .
. . . he probably sees people and sheep, we see flowers.

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Then we notice the car park over at Hause Point is full as well.

There's still plenty of folk about even though it is past six in the evening.

Looking down to the flat area below the narrow part of the valley.

On this top route most tracks seem to be sheep orientated,

the flowers just over the wall provide a superb display.

Looking ahead to the conical outline of Whiteless Pike.

I'm always amazed why no flowers grow on the other side of the wall ?

We climb over the wall where the old ladder stile used to be . . . it is still there but lying rotten in the grass.

The ones most folk fail to find . . . right at the back of the rise.
Rannerdale, or more correctly Squat Beck valley.

Working our way down through the flowers . . . using the sheep tracks where the flowers have not grown.

One photographer is even wild camping, presumably aiming for early morning as well as late evening shots.

The Rannerdale Beck as it scours its way down into the valley.

The undercutting of the bank has spread a lot of gravel in recent years.

Paths down through the bluebells are well used today.

An old tree adds foreground to the lower display of  flowers.

That bank on the inside of the bend was also scoured by the river . . . now it is blue again.

In time with the bluebells, the yellow gorse bushes reach their full potential about now.

This week the open bank has changed colour.

Looking up at Whiteless Pike from the terrace path.

Up close . . .
. . . and personal.

A quick detour while Ann walks the terrace.

I cross the stream and check out the flowers which have now spread all over the lower northern slopes of Rannerdale Knotts.

The soil underneath the well-used human paths is too compacted to allow the plants to push through

so neither bluebells or bracken grow there.

The tree to the right is famous for its crop of crab apples later in the season.

The lovely evening light and clarity of the air shows Grasmoor to good effect.

Back over the river and into the shadow of the trees.

The mountain ash has a fine group of daffodils growing at its base, difficult to see in the darker conditions.

It always surprises me that there are sheep within the wall boundaries

but they seem to be carefully mowing the grass in between the flowers and cause little if any damage.

Back out of the valley and making our way back to the car.

Four yearling Herdwicks graze along with two others whose pedigree is a little more hidden to all but the farmer.

- - - o o o - - -

 

Technical note: Pictures taken with either Ann's Canon Sureshot SX220, or my Canon 1100D Digital SLR.

Resized in Photoshop, and built up on a Dreamweaver web builder.

This site best viewed with . . . a different route and different views.

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Previous walk - 13th May 2016 - 3 Peaks challenge - Esk Hause

Previous bluebell walk here - 6th May 2016 - Rannerdale Bluebells - 1 -

A previous time up here - 6th May 2012 Rannerdale Bluebells 2012