Easy Vistas

People at SRWT like this view. To help them see it better they have installed a new gate and can get to a bench they recently placed on the inside of the western boundary wall. One big advantage of this view is that they do not have to walk very far to get to it. In fact if they unlock the padlocked post on the track by the car park they can actually drive right up to it along the track, as the grazier does when he comes to look at his stock. That could mean they can keep their office shoes on.

It's an attractive view  in a number of ways. In the foreground the bog in summer is occupied by white cotton grass in flower. Behind the open space is a wooded area dominated by birch, young oak, alder and beech. In the distance are farmed fields. I can remember from my childhood being taken to the top of the highest viewpoints and being thrilled to see picked out in sunlight miniature villages and model farmland with tiny patches of tree fringed green fields each one a different shape and none of them a lot bigger than the others. On a good day there are fine cloud formations above the distant horizons. All is easy on the eye.
 
Yet it's ironic that SRWT favours this view so much and uses it on its publicity. More than ten years ago they tried to ruin it by applying strong poison to many of the nearby trees; I counted  getting on for a hundred of them. These were left for dead while still standing, an utterly depressing sight in spring and summer when they were conspicuous as skeletons while all around the greenery was flourishing. By now there has been substantial visual recovery though chain saw man still practices his insensitive trade in winter. The trust's managers were also indifferent to the need to remove the power line that defaced the central part of the view.They considered it was not their job to concern themselves with aesthetic matters. Only after FoBM and I pushed for it was this removed. SRWT of course never thanked us but one should be grateful that they at least by their actions acknowledge the improvement. One should also point out that if SWT had been here many years before they came this view would have looked very different, much bleaker and with far fewer trees. That may yet be its fate if they pursue their fundamentalist approach any further.

The new gate they have installed is an aluminium one which means that it reflects the sunlight clashing with the naturalness of the surroundings. This is how it looks, glinting in the sun, as seen from Blacka Hill.

This is not the first time that this spot has had inappropriate treatment. Early on in their tenure SWT erected an astonishingly ugly wooden structure here, meant to be for making compost. It never worked - in fact little effort was made, but the walls and uprights were conspicuous from a fair distance, leading to requests for battlements to complete the fortress effect. Eventually after several years the facility was decommissioned, the structure fell into ruin and was finally removed. The legacy of this is now with us in the form of a large colony of very tall stinging nettles which even come over the wall to be companiable with anyone sitting on the new bench.

This whole area with just a few scattered trees is looking as well as it could this summer. The failure to get the cows onto the moor for whatever reason, means that some more natural effects have been allowed to establish.

Flowering grasses waving in the breeze are better looking than what remains after the crop and crap management has had its way.