A Place in its Own Right

To me the pastures at the top of Blacka Moor are nearly always a disappointment as landscape feature. Everything is there for it to be a grand place to walk but the presence of so many sheep for so much of the year just defines the place as the field where the sheep graze. So when sheep are absent for these few weeks it has a chance to become characterised as a place in its own right.



The conservation grazing practice is at fault in this. Bureaucrats at DEFRA decide the requisite numbers of sheep and the seasonal patterns. Nothing is informal or left to chance. And the wailing, bleating woolly mowers are always there. So make the best of the few weeks respite.