August Mornings

The early hours have often been the best times to feast on the delights of the wilder land on Blacka. But for much of August 2010 it's been somewhat different. A dull, damp and midge-infested start has given way eventually to warmer and brighter afternoons*. To persuade the occasional visitor who may never venture out from October through to May that those are grand times especially in the mornings becomes a harder case to argue. Not all years are like this though and the late rising motorist who only visits the Peak District in the summer holidays eventually must get lucky: the views of sun on the heather have been unusually vivid this August.

Yet, still it's on Blacka that the purple has been most effective for it has been complemented by rich greens from leaves and bracken and reds from rowan berries and the top reddening leaves of bilberry, the combination visually being infinitely preferable to a monoculture usually seen from a distance through the car windows. This morning as we persisted through the midges we were rewarded by meeting a single, shy young stag with very simple antlers but with a sheen on his coat that was a grand advertisement for the wild outdoor life. Where else do you see this combination of tree, shrub and native mammal in stunning colour even at the dullest part of the day?

*Cricket followers will have noticed that batsmen have been in trouble with the morning atmosphere during this summer's matches while tail enders in the afternoon have often prospered.