Fog

Ringinglow encased by fog this morning.  Dark shapes appearing out of nowhere.  Is it a person?  No, a tree.  Or maybe a sheep.

Jet black crows launch themselves off fence posts and disappear through the white curtain of cloud.

Clouds

Pale blue skies, torn with whisps of cirrus leaking through, hang like the inside of a painted dome, over my cycle to work this morning.

Meanwhile, thin cloud drapes the northern edges of the Hope Valley, the top of Win Hill just rising out of the white curtain.

The top lake at Redmires has been reduced to a pond, nestling in the shadow of the dam wall. The ducks and geese have gone, presumabably moved down to the middle reservoir.

Millstone

Millstone Edge was bathed in a red light this evening as I drove home and the bays and buttresses were a mottled pattern of pink and grey-green. A solitary Kestral hovered over the moor towards Higgar Tor and another above Callow Bank, which seems to be a favoured hunting ground.

Fog

Dew laden webs on the deck this morning herald the arrival of autumn and remind me of walking to school with my Mum, when I was 5 or 6, twirling the webs which hung from the trees and hedges onto a stick.

Ringinglow is engulfed in fog this morning and had I got close enough to them, I'm sure that the sheep would have smelled of wet wool.

Bleached

The tail of hurricane Katia was still whipping the long grasses this morning

The morning light was harsh and bleached the landscape like an over-exposed photograph.

Just heard about a new supernova in the Pinwheel galaxy at the tail end of the big dipper. It's reported to be star the size of the earth which exploded 21 million years ago (that means it's 21 million light years from earth.) I guess it'll be a while longer before we hear the bang. Only joking - that's only on Star Trek.

Windy

Across Ringinglow, the long grasses bend over as if to touch their roots while the sheep hunker down in hollows amongst the now faded heather. The grey skies are empty of birds save for a solitary kestral above Callow Bank and a rather suprised wood pigeon, blown sideways and groundwards before being picked up by another gust and relaunched into the air.

Sheep

The sheep were back this morning

Blue Tits

The cotoneaster along the back fence is bubbling with Blue and Great Tits this morning. I've noticed this before, that they seem to move through the gardens on the street as a swarm, clearing the bugs from bushes.

The hills look bigger in the mist

It was grey and misty this morning and as I drove the section of road after Burbage brook cattle grid round the head of Callow, the comparatively small summits of Win and Lose Hill and the skyline further west looked much bigger.  How different Derbyshire would be if the hills had an extra thousand feet on them!

The heather is starting to look very lacklustre now. I though it had lost some of its radiance last week and even allowing for the dull light, it is clear that its colour is on the wane. The Rose Bay Willow Herb is also all but finished. The hedge rows have been especially vibrant this summer but it now feels as though the 'salad days' are over.

Sheep

The sheep were brought down from the moors between Ringinglow and Stanage today.  I was driving into the office around 10 and noticed about large number running along side the car.  As I turned down towards Stanage, I looked in the mirror and saw them stampeding behind me.  It was quite a sight.  I wished I'd had a camera with me. 

So now the drive to and from the office will be sheep free for the next few months.  I'll miss them!