The Cheddar Gorge Outing

 While visiting my sister in Bristol with my stepfather for Christmas, we decided to finally escape the endless eating - by me, mostly - and escape into the countryside, where while it was still raining heavily as it did all trip, we would have a change of scene from wet Bristol pavements. 

The beach not appealing on a day when the sea and the land were virtually the same thing, we headed inland for Cheddar Gorge, a famous natural formation to the south of the city comprising of a narrow road surrounded by towering crags and the site of the earliest complete human skeleton found in the UK.

Despite the appalling weather, it was amazing how many waterproofed figures were walking up and down the gorge. There were cyclists too, serious types of expensive road bikes grinding their way up the climb through the gorge as the rain hosed them down. 

Evidence of human activity was everywhere - rubbish and more disgustingly human waste at the various stopping points. My sister and stepfather collected a box of the the former and thankfully not the latter. 

It's really upsetting that supposedly outdoor loving types would do this. 

The gorge indeed is spectacular, looming cliffs of slate and limestone, where apparently peregrines and ravens fly, although they were too smart to be doing it on such a rotten day and were probably laughing at the brightly coloured humans scurrying about from their lofty eyries. 

The village is surface pretty, but as with so many similar places it's largely filled with tourist tat  - genuine cheddar cheese on sale, no doubt at about £5 per gram. We couldn't find a cafe open to shelter from the weather in as we trundled up and down the village. 

Still, it was a fun little jaunt, and I'd like to come again in warmer months when there might be some flora and fauna to see. I'd love to see a raven for the first time!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 01.01.23

Running Like a Mime Artist

The weather today and yesterday has been very very strange for any time of the year, let alone October. Temperatures have been in the  mid-twenties yet there have been hot 50 mile an hour winds blasting through the trees and ruining the composure of Ewalina's larger pot plants.

Despite Storm Callum having a good time out there, I decided it was still too nice to not go for a run so I picked a route that  would enable me to have a tailwind on the run back home.

Of course this meant I would have to run into the wind for the first half, and this resulted in some fairly comical struggles, with teenage girls openly laughing at me as I ran past making running style shapes, but actually travelling at less than walking pace.

I've no doubt I looked like Marcel Marceau doing a particularly bad "walking in the wind" mime routine, feeling like I had to almost swim strokes through the air to get anywhere.

It did get better, when I turned out of the headwind under wide open skies, but I was already totally knackered and came home very slowly indeed.

I cared not. It was 8km outside.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 13.10.18

Light Light Light

I've had a really really hot and muggy 5km run this evening, a beautiful evening at that, without a cloud in the sky hardly.

It was hard going, but worth it to see the world in a softer light without worrying about a cricket ball flying around.

Enjoy the lights.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 24.05.17

Kirkcudbright After all these Years

It's been around 25 years since I visited this town in which I was brought up, hometown of John Paul Jones, naval scourge of the British during the American Civil War aboard his good ship Bonhomme Richard, and a town famed for its artists.

We were staying just out of town, up a hill from the Auchencairn road next to a wood from which tawny owls called at night and supposedly red kites patrolled. Alas I never had a certain view of one. The beef cattle on the farm surrounding looked to have had their calving season, while the bull responsible lived alone behind his electrified fence eyeing up any passing tourists.

Sadly the iconic belted galloway cattle of the area had been decimated by the 2001 Foot and Mouth outbreak, and were not numerous around the town. They seem to be commonest on rare breed farms now.

To walk to the pub at night involved a highly amusing trek down a steep and utterly unlit lane full of neck break potential. Luckily the owners of our cottage left a complentary key ring LED torch that was to prove utterly invaluable getting down, and then more particularly getting back up the hill after a few rums in the Masonic Arms.

This walk back was an eerie one with the call of the owls, and also the cries of buzzards, curlew, oystercatchers and peewits all to be heard, carrying for miles in the still air. The stars were unbelievable in this dark location, the milky way stretching horizon to horizon with the densest part, in Scutum, looking like a thick patch of cloud. The Andromeda galaxy filled the entire field of view in my 10x50s and was easily visible to the naked eye, and the Triangulum spiral was easy to see too.

The surrounding landscape was stunning. As you can see.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 16.10.15

Sunset from the cottage

Across to the Gatehouse hills

The local bull

Sun sinking into the hills

Local cockerel

Manxman bay in the Dee estuary

Ross Island, where a lighthouse keeper was murdered, beyond the estuary

Gatehouse hills again

The cottage complex

Kirkcudbright town, with Dee in background

Unadulterated Autumn

Today has been such a split day, it's been crazy.

This morning, the world was blanketed in a thick, cold haze that reduced visiblity to less than a hundred metres, and had my hands turning purple when I rode to my local cafe this morning.

Two hours later, the mist suddenly dissolved, and the sky became blue to the edge of the universe virtually instantaneously. A sky so clear has been a rare sight this whole year, there wasn't a single cloud to be seen for the entire afternoon. Visibility was miles from atop Beacon Hill.

Tonight will surely be cold and clear. A night for astronomy while clad in my warmest clothes.

I present you with these pictures, all unfiltered and uncropped just to give you a genuine idea of the colours on view today, especially during my 10km run this afternoon. It was lovely.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 01.10.15

Morning mist

Hazy River

Bees and butterflies enjoying this plant on the park late season

The last bastion of municipal colour

Mallards now out of eclipse

Dappled Clay Lane

I got a lot of nettle stings along here

Crab apples?

Haws

Hips

Elderberries

Ash keys against the sun

Pretty late season flower on the Beacon Hill Park

The industrial distance

Down the hill

October dazzle

Shimmering water