Ethereal But Crooked

The light was again special, this time illuminating the town of Chesterfield with its crooked church.

Change for the Better and for the Worse

To sit and listen to people telling us that we must accept, even embrace, change from those with no sense of irony is the kind of thing that makes attending meetings purgatory. It starts off bewildering but finally seems simply laughable. You get the impression that many people may be unaware of the irony.

At the Re-visioning Parks event we were treated to a talk from Parks Department the gist of which is that we must accept change. Yet this comes from people who, in their role in the Sheffield Moors Partnership, produced the most conservative and unadventurous 'master plan' imaginable. All calls for a more exciting and innovative approach were brushed aside foundering on their reliance on the agenda of the grouse moor lobby and the lure of grants and farm subsidies. Yet the officer talking to us last Thursday was blithely telling us about his old granny getting older and so her garden became some kind of obscure metaphor for what the public have to accept, namely 'change'. It rubbed in the salt to find he ran over his allotted time so much that the schedule did not allow time for proper questioning.

Here on Blacka Moor we have had change over a hundred years, change that is natural and wholly worthwhile bringing with it a regeneration of an exploited land area and the recolonisation of native wildlife that everyone surely must welcome. So we thought. Yet we were wrong.  The return of native wildlife served only to have them label the place as being in 'unfavourable condition', i.e. too much nature and not enough management.

Wildlife management, if there's any place for it at all, should be all about helping along natural change not stonewalling in the hope that nature will go away.

Who does not love the change to bracken in the autumn? - genuinely unmanaged and at its best as the sun rises.

Wrap Up

Cold mornings to come? It's not actually the first frost up here but may presage a number of others. For those facing their first winter it's worth being prepared with ample covering as is the youngster with mum. He  looks male. Their neck covering tends to be thicker and darker while the hinds have a creamier look.

Light, Ethereal Light

Glowing skies to the east invoking another world. And when you zoom in you're looking straight at one of the loveliest sights in the country, the west front of Lincoln Cathedral.

Sadly from 40 miles away the amazing detail is not obvious. But what's life without imagination?

A little earlier with sunrise about 7:35 we are truly privileged to watch the migrating birds as they wing westwards.

Earlier still the full moon through the trees. What more can you ask for?

All Change

The woods are the place to see change. From season to season and within seasons week by week. Trees do not only provide homes for an enormous number of smaller living species but unmanaged woodland also gives shelter to some of our larger mammals and is itself a constantly changing spectacle responding to light  and weather conditions in ways that managed grassland and moorland cannot. It's not only bright sunlight that reveals beauty here.

Dull mornings like today provide enough material for a William Morris design catalogue.

This reminds me of the presentation at the recent Re-visioning Parks event at which those of us who relish the experiences of natural change were told that we should be embracing "change". Now don't we know just what is happening when we are lectured on the need for change. They want us to dance to their tune or quietly accept someone's agenda. The question should always be asked - who is it that will benefit most from top-down change of that sort?

Stillness

It's not often dead still on Blacka. It was today. And warm was a better word than mild after you've been walking uphill for ten minutes The woods hang on to colour effects around the beeches with the small trees giving vital diversity.

The tree creeper's not a bird table regular here but is often in the area just keeping a distance.

One of those unshowy quiet birds, but with  attractive wing markings.

It was so still one of the deer was struck into a motionless pose as if in sympathy with the conditions. Closest yet to a Thomas Hood day.

Peaceful Assembly

Rivalry is probably over and peace breaks out. All were gathered together  as if for a family reunion. They soon made off, though, when this uninvited guest came along.

First all the hinds attended by young, then the ten point stag. Bringing up the rear was the old fellow still showing his trade mark bits of vegetation around the antlers.