With an air temperature of 13 degrees and white fluffy clouds in the sky we escaped the confines of the house for another expedition, this time to the north of Carlisle.
Our destination was to be the Kingmoor North Nature Reserve on the side of the former 14 Maintainance Unit (14MU) depot.
This is a part of the nature reserve we have not yet visited and will be subject to quite a bit of disruption in the next few years as the Northern Relief road bulldozes through.
We parked the car near to the Parcelforce depot and set off on our walk, eager to get our noses into some new smells.
Sheltered from the slight cool breeze by the high hedges we soon became warm under the strong sunshine.
Our walk was on firm dry ground ideal for buggies and wheelchairs, although it was a bit narrow in places.
Signs of autumn were all around and mum spotted many oak trees with ripening acorns.
Green acorn growth was turning to a rich golden brown in the late summer sunshine.
The last few days of cooler weather had certainly had an impact on some of the trees and bushes.
Lush green vegetation was making way for golden brown colours and the path was covered with the first falling leaves.
All along the edge of the path you could smell that we were not the first to pass this way.
Evidence of other animals included the occasional mole hill, the flattened grass and well worn route leading under a fence and the footprint left in the soft verge.
I spotted a few of the smells however Charlie is the expert and he scurried down many a small track to investigate.
Mum was not too bothered with the smells but was interested in the assorted berries still available to the sides of the path.
Elderberries, brambles, rosehips and hawthorn berries were all to be found and like yesterday mum started collecting.
She did say that we should not eat any of them as they could be bad for us.
Overhead mum spotted a big bird circling as if looking for lunch.
We kept to the undergrowth so to be out of sight and hoped that maybe a mouse would make a better Sunday dinner.
Could it be an eagle, a buzzard or maybe a big hawk?
The bright sky silhouetted the gigantic wingspan against the sky so we could not get a good view and we didn’t want to get any closer to it.
When dad looked at the photographs when we got back home it seems as if the underside of the wings is white and the tail feathers are like those of a hawk.
Our path emerged by the side of the entrance to the Kingmoor Park Industrial Estate but not before we had past some large concrete posts with the letters MOD on them.
This area was the site of the former 14MU military base and dad wondered if these were left over from that time.
Maybe they had been the outer boundary markers to the base or maybe MOD stands for something else like ‘Mind Out Dachshunds’.
With the path ending by the side of the busy road we decided it was best to return to the car via the path we had just come along.
It is always interesting how you spot somethings when walking along a path oneway however spot different things when travelling in the opposite direction.
This was the story when mum spotted this big red toadstool, or fungi.
With a bright coloured top it looked quite scary so we kept our distance whilst dad, careful not to touch it in case it was nasty, took the photograph.
Given that this path was well made and fairly flat, mum and dad discussed if it may have once been a railway line. They did not know however from where to where… The research continues.
The woodland felt very ancient and indeed we could have been in Middle Earth, especially as a Medieval ring, known as the Kingmoor or Greymoor Ring had been found here in the 19th Century, which is thought to have inspired the Lord of The Ring Stories. However, mum said that the only ‘tricksy Hobbits’ in the wood would be us two….still, we kept a keen eye open for Gollum and Orcs.
Enough for now as we need a bit of a sleep after our expedition
Buster and Charlie.
Other articles of interest
Kingmoor Nature Reserve visited, Carlisle