Test and Trace Advice: Northumbria Police
We have received the following advice from Northumbria Police today.
Contrails
What are contrails?
Contrails (a word blended from ‘condensation trails’) are the wispy, cloud-like white lines that zig-zag across the sky in the wake of jets engines. They are made up of water droplets and/or ice crystals.
Fire Risk Breamish Valley!
Fire risk in Breamish Valley
Following the UK Government’s recent easing of the coronavirus lockdown restrictions, there have been reports of visitors to Breamish Valley not following guidance on social distancing, dropping litter and lighting barbecues. Consequently, Northumberland National Park Authority has issued instructions that, during the current hot spell, no barbecues should be lit anywhere along the Breamish Valley. To this end, a mobile roadside information panel was installed on the road into Breamish Valley just after passing through Brandon Village and shortly after the footbridge.
Beanley’s Wood
Beanley’s wood stacked
wood stack
log pile
logs
chunks
timber
lengths
Chocolate Shadows
Chocolate shadows?
What colour are shadows, actually?
When I was a kid, and the only cameras available used actual film – no such thing as digital cameras then, oh no – you had to shoot in bright light. Well, not strictly true – but if you didn’t have the means to buy an expensive camera and an expensive film that could be used in low light, well, you simply had to shoot in bright light. That’s why so many of us have old black and white photos in our family collections that appear to be over-exposed, burned out or with far too much contrast between the blacks and the whites. Too much contrast and you loose the detail: those subtle textures and structures that lurk in the shadows.
In Beanley Wood
In Beanley Wood where I sat down
One day I sat in the wood…
Across the River
Across the River Breamish
The river moves, but it follows a path. When it tires of one journey, it rubs through some rock to forge a new way. Hard work, but that’s its nature.
Kekla Magoon
Cotton Grass
Cotton grass at Beanley Wood
I’d mentioned recently that the dominant yellows of early Spring were now being accompanied by reds, blues and whites in the valley. Well, other than the currently flowering hawthorn, if you want to see carpets of white you may need to climb a little higher and onto the heath land.
Stonechat
Stonechat at Harthope
Yipee! Since the UK Government’s easing of the ‘once-a-day exercise’ guidance I took the opportunity to make a visit to our sister valley: Harthope Valley. And, like the Breamish Valley, it currently looks stunning with the drifting mounds of yellow gorse:
The Red, White and Blue
Red, white and blue in the Dene
Early Spring in the Breamish Valley seems to be dominated by yellow: great stretches of coconut-smelling gorse follow the course of the River Breamish and now it’s showing up in the flower heads of the oil seed rape in the fields around us.
But other colours are now beginning to participate: reds, whites and blues in particular are now easy to spot.