Parkhouse Hill

With the promise of rain to arrive a little later in the day on Sunday, I was under pressure to get out much earlier than usual!  This was the view from the bathroom window when I got out of the shower at 8.15, a lovely start to the day.

I didn't manage to get out until 10am as I am often indecisive and couldn't decide where to walk. There's just too much choice here!  I left the house with half a plan - to park somewhere near Glutton Bridge, walk up Parkhouse Hill and then see how the weather looked and decide the rest of the route at that point.

I parked just off the road below and then set off back down the lane on foot..

There were fieldfares in the fields here and I saw a couple of ravens too.

I left the road and followed this little dale down to Glutton Grange

That's Parkhouse Hill below...

Approaching the bottom of it now...

This is a view from part way up, looking over to Chrome Hill in the middle of the photograph.

And these are the views from the top...

This one was taken standing right on the little rocky summit.  Chrome hill is the next hill along, the ascent of which begins after crossing the lane down there.

Before I reach the lane, I have to descend Parkhouse Hill of course.

 Not the easiest hill to walk down, this is looking back up to the summit. A large portion of the downward route was slippery mud or very slippery limestone!

For this patch I had to go down sitting down, it was just to slippery to step down. This is looking back up - wet limestone is quite lethal!

Almost at the bottom now!

The initial plan had involved walking up Chrome Hill too, it's been a while since I last did so, but that one takes a bit longer and the cloud was rolling in and a few raindrops falling. I decided not to bother this time and instead followed the lane to the right, heading for Dowel Dale.

This is a final view of Parkhouse Hill as I was heading away from it.

And a view of Chrome Hill. It's pronounced 'croom' and also known as the dragon's back.

I met a kestrel as I followed the road through Dowel Dale.

Fog was slowly rolling in all around me as I walked.

I left the lane to head across High Edge. Visibility was poor by now, but it didn't matter - whichever way I wandered across it, I'd have reached the road where I had begun.

It's an interesting landscape here (I think) with limestone poking out of the grass, almost like a bit of limestone pavement, and there's a cairn too. It's not so easy to see on a day like this though, nor are the fine views that would usually be had up here!

A very enjoyable walk which was around 5 miles again - I seem to be stuck in a 5 mile rut at the moment but I think that's just because of a lack of time really, and shorter days. I do need to make an effort to do some longer walks. Hopefully I'll be able to this year - unlike last year when my horrible leg problems somewhat ruined walking opportunities!

52 Weeks Wild #4

A collection of my wild moments from the past week. I've not had the best of weeks - out of usual routines, a couple of long days and then unexpected and worrying news at a hospital appointment, but I have managed to appreciate a few small moments outdoors.

Last Sunday I walked along the High Peak Trail to Minninglow, taking a five and a half mile route I've walked before.

It's been another largely grey and misty week but there was a bit of sunshine on Tuesday.

Wednesday was a lovely day but I was at work all day, until 6ish so didn't get to enjoy it at all! Thursday and Friday were both bitterly cold days with freezing fog on the hills.

Yesterday I took part in the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch and these are my results...

Last year's results can be seen in this post.

Today I squeezed in another walk before the rain arrived and I'll write a little about that in my next post.

52 Weeks Wild #3

A collection of my wild moments from the past week, starting with a few scenes from last Sunday's walk in Wolfscote Dale.  I have already given a whole post to this walk but I'm including a few pictures here to complete the week...

The past week has been so damp and grey here. On Monday it was grey and misty everywhere with  thicker fog on the hills. I saw a sparrowhawk on my way to school (I've seen quite a few lately)...

I had a few minutes to spare after taking my grandmother shopping, and before heading to school on Tuesday morning, so I stopped on my way and spent a few minutes wandering amongst beech and birch trees...

A typical scene around here this week!

The weather forecast said Friday would be another damp, dull, grey day (though less foggy) so I was very surprised to see blue sky, colour and sunshine. It lasted all day and was a crisp, beautiful winters day.

It was back to the grey and misty on Saturday, and very cold too, for my monthly day volunteering at Forest School with Derbyshire Wildlife Trust.  We learned about predators, prey and a little about tracking too. We played a game called Prey & Predators, in which we divided into two teams, one laying a trail and hiding and one tracking and finding, which was good fun. At the start of each session we also did a little woodland mapping. Each family group collected two sticks and we put them together to form a 'cartwheel' then each group walked away from their section of the wheel, stopping every 8 paces to collect something to bring back to the wheel to represent that area. Each team collected 5 or 6 items then we returned and laid them out, in order of finding, from the centre of wheel.

The middle of the wheel represents our group circle and the map is very rough depiction of our woodland area so we could see which direction to walk in if we needed to find grass, or ferns, or blackberries (at the right time of year) and so on. This led to a discussion about habitats and from there we moved on to the prey and predators activities.

We had a lot of new families joining us today which was good - hopefully we'll see many of them again at future Forest School sessions.