A WALK IN JUNE

  A Walk in June

A short track leads from one village to another near home. It gives access to numerous fields, nearly all of which are improved grassland, mostly at present nearly knee-deep Ryegrass.

 The hedges at the side of the track have mostly grown tall but in places are flailed down, giving views to the south.

This old track is paved with granite stone.

 

A granite marker stone, giving one mile to Stoke Climsland is 176 years old. Noting that, we were sobered to realize that we can account for nearly half that time!

 

 

 The warm air was full of tiny down blowing off the willows in seed. A Blackcap sang his rich warble; a Wren rattled  occasionally and a Chaffinch sang. Otherwise, apart from a speckled young Robin and a foraging hen Blackbird, we saw no birds. Butterflies were restricted to three Speckled Woods and a Red Admiral. This sparsity perhaps at least partly reflects the comparative desert of the large adjacent area of improved grassland.

 

Most of the bordering fields are tall Ryegrass, almost a monoculture, probably to be cut for silage, a relatively poor habitat for wildlife.

 

There is an occasional field of semi-improved grass, more colourful with buttercups and an assortment of flowers. The view opens up to the countryside to the South West.

The Inuit people in the arctic are said to have many words to describe snow. We, in a green countryside, only have one word, 'green' to describe the infinitely varied shades of green, although we qualify it with another noun used adjectivally like 'olive green' or 'lime green' or just qualified with an adjective such as dark green, spring green, grey-green.....

We are especially conscious of the varied shades in fresh young leaves at this time of the year.

How should we describe the green of the youngest shoots on a Hawthorn?

The scales on these unfurling fronds give this fern its name : Golden-scale Male Fern.

This fern, Green Male Fern, is a straightforward green from the start.

Young Oak leaves, a bronze-green, compared with the 'normal' green of the surrounding Ivy and Elder leaves.

The overgrown hedges at the sides of most of the track have Oak, Hazel, Sycamore, Willow and at this time of the year a froth of white Rowan and Hawthorn blossom.

 

 

     Fragrant Hawthorn blossom.

Puddles from the very wet May have dried up in the last couple of days of warm sun.

But we had to turn back at this point where the culvert under the track is permanently blocked. There is standing water right up to the hedge on the right, and the innocent-looking ground on the left is in fact ankle-deep sloshy mud.

We wanted to follow the track through to the road. Drenching drizzle put us off on the next day, but the next after that was fine and sunny again. Beyond this puddle the map shows the track forks. We approached from the far end where the  right-hand fork meets the road.

The beginning of the right-hand fork, just leaving the road. The banks seemed more flowery and we disturbed a few day-flying moths.

Common Carpet on left, Silver-ground Carpet below.

These moths are frequently disturbed in the daytime, although less often, sadly, these days.

They usually hide under the leaves in the hedge when they settle so I have cheated. These pictures are of these species caught at night in the moth trap.

No sooner had the spring flowers appeared than we are now seeing the summer ones

 

The last of the true wild Bluebells. Patches of Ramsons or Wild Garlic were fruiting now, and their leaves turning yellow. They'll be gone without trace in a couple of weeks.

 

The first of the Honeysuckle.

And Foxgloves already! And the upright spikes of Wall Pennywort.

 

 

 

However, we didn't get far down this right-hand fork when we were stopped again, retraced our steps and drove back to the village to go up the left-hand fork.

This is where the left-hand fork joins the road. We followed a small stream in this section. It ran across the track and made a deep gully on the left. The land-use changed alongside this section, with fields of wheat and then a flock of sheep grazing.

The ewes have been sheared and the lamb said 'Baa' as we looked at each other through the gate.

The gateposts along here are very fine: expertly split. Not surprising considering the proximity to the granite quarries on Kit Hill.

The track became narrow with steep banks and we hustled up to where it widened where the two forks divided off the main track. A tractor carrying a load of rubbish to burn on his tip chased us up to the top. He stopped and we had a long chat about the area and its past history. He said his father had dug out the track we'd just come up.

This boundary stone is on the main track near the fork. The farmer told us it's where the boundaries of the three parishes meet: Stoke Climsland, South Hill and Callington.

Speckled Woods were flying again.

There was a lot of Spindle up this end of the track. It's flowers are modest compared with its flamboyant pink and orange seed pods later on. Very characteristically, Spindle bark is green until it is several years old.