Glory of the globe

This is a sight that can't be seen in many places in England: a huge stand of globe flowers (Trollius europaeus) here growing on deeper soils over limestone pavement on Scar Close, with Ingleborough looming in the cloud above.

It was one of those days that only come round once a year, a day which certainly should not be spent in work, a day when I can give thanks for another year spent on this beautiful planet. So I treated myself to a visit to Scar Close, one of my all-time favourite botanical hotspots. And somehow I have never been before at precisely this stage in the season when the globe flowers are flowering in all their glory.

Scar Close is a magical place, an upland expanse of limestone pavement that has not been grazed for decades. The pavement is more massive than is usual, with fewer fissures (grikes) cutting the limestone. There are islands of heather and other lime avoiding plants on patches of glacial till. These are eroding at their margins, and as the soil becomes shallower, then the lime loving plants become more abundant. As well as the globe flowers, the birds eye primroses were flowering well today; while hidden deep in the grikes I came across several plants of baneberry, a very scarce plant of the northern limestones. I could go on........

When I was wandering about here and elsewhere on the flanks of the limestone mountain that I so often see and photograph from the low hill of Arnside Knott 20 miles away, I picked up several new bird species for the year: redstart, pied flycatcher and spotted flycatcher.

I stopped off at Leighton Moss on the way home, and there were two little gulls dipping and veering in flight to catch insects over the water seen from the causeway.

Thank you to all my friends and family for the cards and pressies. What a lovely day.