New Development

Will the building going up behind Fairthorn as seen from the hills turn out to be another ghastly mistake? It certainly looks to be huge. Perhaps it's the one with its own squash court being built for an estate agent . I'm sure an experienced and successful estate agent will know his way around the Planning Department. Given their record on Fairthorn nothing would surprise me.

The latest letter I received from the Head of Planning says he doesn't consider that Fairthorn sets a precedent but only after saying that there are strong similarities between that building and others close by which justify it!

Utter Failure

Have you ever tried to photograph a dragonfly on the wing? I must have taken 20 shots guessing there might be one reasonable one not too blurred as it flew off. Result: completely absent from each one.

There were three beautiful ones dancing over the unsavoury looking pool on Moss Road enlivened by the warm September sun. Not a place I expected to find much of interest or beauty.

First Glimpse

One of those magical moments, the first sight of a hind with its young calf. making all those mornings walking in rain and mud and fighting off midges worthwhile. Seen this morning through a haze caused by fine driving rain as the sun forced its way through. We have been frustrated for many weeks, in fact all the summer, feeling sure there was at least one hind safely concealed in the most inaccesible parts hiding in the bracken. Meanwhile stags had all but disappeared from Blacka. The most striking thing is the size of the young deer already. The hind has kept it well hidden all these weeks until it's deemed strong enough to cope with the more open world. At first, at a distance I wondered if it was two hinds, but the body language of the hind and the shyness of the calf behind her told the story.

I would guess the birth took place fairly early in the year. Another walker says she has seen a stag and hind in another part of Blacka also this morning. The autumnal weather may be bringing more of them back.

Early Appearance

Everything seems to be early this year. The bilberries, the blackberries, the bracken appearing and then the bracken dying back. The waxcaps, magic mushrooms and other fungi are already to be found on the pastures. The first determined magic mushroom hunters were seen more than a week ago well before the start of the new student year.

Shy Visitor

For some reason the red deer that have been a feature on Blacka in recent years have not been around during my morning walks since early June. Sometimes there have been odd hoof prints seen but that's all. Why they should abscond I don't know. I've wondered if they've taken against the imported cattle in some way but decided that it's more likely they've moved away from the midges towards more elevated and breezier regions. It was no surprise that when I did eventually see a stag, as I did this morning, it would be the characteristic sight of antlers waving above the bracken.

Now this fellow's headgear is interesting and suggests an older and more mature beast. The right antler has three good long points on the crown but the left one unusually branches into two lower down. It would have been intereting to get a closer look but he didn't like my presence despite my being more than a hundred yards away. He moved off quite smartly. Although it's disappointing when you don't see them, in a way it's reassuring that they are truly wild and making their own minds up what they do and where they go.

Unfavourably Red

It's maybe only in land condemned as unfavourable by the controllers of landscape that we get such surprises. But I can't think of anywhere else where this red effect dominates as it does here in the first days of September.

Rowan has grown unchecked by grazing livestock, has enjoyed the opportunity to spread as it wishes and rewards us with creamy blossom in May and red berries in late summer.

This is not a permanent feature, just a stage on the way to something else. It could be called overgrown or unmanaged by those who only value natural life to the extent that it has been influenced and managed by man. The gorge of Blacka Dike is full of it and seems as close to wildness as we can hope for in this country - and is wonderful.

Benefactor

What would Sheffield be like if J G Graves had not existed or if he had been less munificent? Blacka was just one of his gifts to the people of Sheffield. Ecclesall Woods and Graves Park, visible from Blacka, were also bought by him for the people to enjoy.

We can also now see a huge tall building reaching for the sky in the centre of the city some 5 miles away. Just a hundred yards from there and not visible from Blacka is a genuinely worthwhile example of good architecture, the Graves Art Gallery and Central Library, possibly the only distinguished building in the city. At present there is a small exhibition within the art gallery devoted to Graves himself. He made his money from a mail order business, The Universal Supply Warehouse and spent a great deal of it as a benefactor. His business was a kind of Amazon of the day in Sheffield.

He was also a lover of beautiful things of various sorts leaving his collection of art work to the gallery he funded. The exhibition devoted to him is only small but definitely worth a visit.