Now that the UK lockdown has eased, and it’s easier to travel to some of the local beauty spots, I took the opportunity yesterday to make my first trip to Holy Island.
The wooden staithes – part of an old jetty – in front of Lindisfarne Castle on Holy Island are an iconic part of the seascape.
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.
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.
One day I sat in the 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.
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:
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.
Prior to Wednesday 13 May, when I was still doing my once-a-day exercise, I was still walking or cycling the same routes as I had the previous few weeks of the UK Lockdown. And, always attempting to see something new in the landscape to photograph – to offset that Groundhog Day feeling – I happened to see these chaps working on the pylons that pass through the Breamish Valley.
