Wet Woodland

The melted snow in these woods is not the only cause of the flood. Most of this water originates on Houndkirk Moor. Just above here is the A625 and the particular section is regularly flooded causing potential problems for traffic.

Houndkirk is of course a treeless area. There seems no plan to plant trees; all signs are that it's valued as a sheep habitat.

Very close by SWT has been felling trees. No comment necessary.

Tree Magic

When snow falls on treeless moorland - a landscape designed by man to provide the over-privileged classes with birds to shoot - the result visually is some minor temporary relief from the relentless monotony of what is essentially a static industrial scenery.

If nature has been allowed to reclaim the land - something easily done by the simple stratagem of humans going off and doing something else somewhere else - the snow falls on on trees and the result is visual delight.

There are those who, astonishingly, claim to see beauty in grouse moors. All I can say is that they must have never seen woodland at a high level or, more likely, that they have some kind of vested interest in the destructive denuding of land which should be covered in trees: sheep farmers, grouse shooters, chimerical loggers or feeble-minded consumers of the propaganda put out by such parties.

There is so little woodland at this height that places like Blacka should have a much greater profile. Here, when lower land is without snow and other land at an equal high level or even higher has been left treeless, Blacka's trees give us views of such variety of beauty, different at every turn, that one wonders why so few people are out sampling the pleasures close to their doorsteps. Perhaps they are poring over their holiday brochures at the kitchen table and planning long distance flights to an exotic paradise (in company with scores of other travellers).

Meanwhile here are treasures. The fresh whites change minute by minute with the colours provided by the rising sun. The sculptured forms of each individual tree are revealed afresh in high contrast.

Further off across the clearing a roebuck can just be seen dancing away through the birch, oak and alder that have so far survived the philistine axe.

Beckoning 2

Postscript to this.

Two days later:

And a little further on ......

Life Force

Beckoning?

Who would not want to walk along this path?

The sun has just risen and contrary to forecasts of cloud cover all is clear with gold and amber predominant.

Nevertheless plenty of mud will need to be negotiated to arrive here. More seriously some strength of character will be needed to remain calm in the face of nearby evidence of the unbe****inglievably philistine management destruction of trees further along. That on top of the barbed wire menace.

Just how long can one suppress one's contempt?

(Serbo-Croat courtesy of Baltimore.)

Alder Fungus

On Cue

Putting in a well-timed appearance.

Looking east, Lincoln Cathedral. Cloud overhead and absence of glare.

Resourceful

Epiphitic rhododendron reaching high.

Hard not to admire it.

Berries

 

They are there to be found but it may be a bit late to harvest, prepare, cook and have ready for tomorrow's dinner.

Ideas

Things  that people do to get public funding

https://amp.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/dec/18/tasmania-corruption-watchdog-clears-40m-fox-eradication-suspected-of-fabricating-poo?__twitter_impression=true

Boot Friendly

Revealed

Barely visible a minute earlier, the rising sun revealed these two. Colouring of animals and surroundings only at this time of day.

Handsome without vanity?

Eight Fifteen

08.14

0815

A bit later ........

Waiting

Down there and up here

Wherever you look the destroyers of trees are at it. Dore is down below Blacka. There it's the highways managers who are just obeying orders. Up on Blacka it's the "nature reserve" managers who are sticking obdurately and blindly to their ill-conceived management plan.

Silence of the trees
Legacy of ill thought plans
Asphalt rules the land#ChatsworthLimes #Haiku #SaveSheffTrees https://t.co/Y9QWhlE9AP

— ♻Michael J Keane ♻ (@KeaneMJ) December 5, 2017

Loaded onto the truck @SAVEDORETREES beautiful wood from such beautiful trees : hold your head in shame @sccstreetsahead @SheffCouncil this is not what Chatsworth Rd residents wanted. pic.twitter.com/PqJwSeFb2B

— Susan Unwin (@sj_unwin) December 4, 2017

Getting Closer

Where would we be without tree surgeons? These may be next in their sites. Close by SWT's tree surgeons have recently demolished a similar birch leaving an empty space to the right.

The strategy is to go slowly, not making their intentions too obvious to casual visitors; a step or two at a time. Complaints might thus be avoided if people don't realise what's going on, i.e. that most of the trees are ultimately to be removed to make way for their preferred landscape type, that of a grouse moor. After all why should nature take precedence over what is human designed even if that sector of humanity originates in the privileged landowners of the 18th and 19th centuries ?

No guarantee of safety for this either:

Procession

One of those days when the daws put aside their excitability and agree to process perfectly behaved  along the same route and at the same height. Thousands rather than hundreds clear above and just visible as tiny specks  in the distance.

Tree Pieces

Sycamore.

Larch

Peak District Failure

The recent post on absence of birds of prey on Blacka was written before seeing this article. It's depressing to see confirmed that there are so many people around in Derbyshire and South Yorkshire who see wildlife as only valued as something to shoot at. And it really is worth asking what on earth the PDNPA has been doing when it's failed to protect wildlife over the years.
 

Years of 'partnership working' has failed to help raptor population recovery on grouse moors in @peakdistrict National Park. It's time to stop pretending that it ever will. https://t.co/WzG1J7pdjc #peakdistrict #Derbyshire #NationalPark pic.twitter.com/MhCCcYEYji

— Ruth Tingay (@RuthTingay) December 2, 2017