What a topsy turvy weekend that has been due to the weather. Both Saturday and Sunday mornings it rained, so we had to wait until the weekend was almost over to get out for an expedition.
The bright green flag was flying over the car park as we arrived in the late afternoon sunshine at Kingmoor nature reserve in the north of Carlisle.
Looking as if it still had the original packing creases visible, the flag is in recognition of the high standard of the free to enter green space.
It is the sixth time that the Kingmore Nature Reserve has achieved the national title.
The other eight sites in the city to win include: Bitts Park; Chance’s Park; Carlisle Cemetery grounds; Hammond’s Pond; Rickerby Park; Talkin Tarn Country Park and Stanwix Churchyard.
The scheme was set up in 1996.
Leaving the car park behind we headed into the forest in search of sniffs and beasties.
Although the centre of the wood is quite dark, and the ground a little moist in places, the sunshine occasionally manages to get through.
The light reflected off many red berries high in the trees illuminating them as if they were jewels. Mum wondered if the old tale may be true that says – if the summer trees are laden with fruit then it is going to be a bad winter.
Only time will tell if mum was correct or not.
Moving our sniffers back down to ground level, we were surprised to meet the wooden character in this picture to the right.
Standing only a metre or so from the ground, the face sort of made us jump a little. He seemed all alone in a clearing alongside a few other carvings of woodland beasties.
We felt a little sad but started to wonder if he came alive at night to protect the wood from nasty things.
Large beastie
As we exited the dark wood near to the superstores and industrial units, we were buzzed by a number of very large ‘dragonflies’.
Measuring about 10cm, 5 inches, long they were the biggest insects we had ever seen.
Their bodies were green and brown and almost disappeared against the shrubbery due to their camouflage.
They kept themselves to themselves and flitted between sunlit branches as we passed by.
Fresh plums
It is that time of year when our walks start to get punctuated by regular stops for berry picking.
Apples, brambles, elderberries and sloes have, over the years, all been gathered and squirrelled away for the winter by mum and dad.
Today the plastic bags were taken out of the pockets to take advantage of a tree laden down with red and yellow plums.
We took a moment to cool down in the plum trees shadow whilst they picked a few kilos of fruit. Just enough they said for a fresh fruit crumble for tea.
Bags filled, this sort of ended our walk for the day to avoid damage to the fruit or risk to the thin handles snapping on the bags.
Heading back the way we had come, Charlie just couldn’t miss out on the chance to get dirty as he headed straight into a bush of sticky seeds. They stuck all over his ears and paws.
Oh well, another bath and brush awaited us when we got home.
Until next time, licks and sniffs
Buster and Charlie