Summer nature notes, local observations while the world started to open
An unexpected house move nearly coincided with the equinox and like that, a year in one place and my first year of taking notes of daily observations outdoors passed.
I’m glad to have a record of our days spent along the river valley, a record of 365 seasons.
20.6.20 A drive to one of our favorite local spots. We stayed on the east side of the river and doubled back on ourselves for the walk back to the car. Avoiding what felt like hoards of people on the west side. Sun warm, filtering through beech leaves and pine needles. Daisies and little wild flowers and ferns catching our eyes every two minutes. Lunch by the river, a family of goosanders paddling and sliding their way over rocks upstream. Such a sweet day.
22.6.20 Warm air is one thing, but a warm strong breeze on bare skin, hair caught in my mouth is summer.
24.6.20 SO HOT. No walk, just sitting. Melting in the glorious heat.
25.6.20 I wish I could photosynthesis. I think Robin Wall Kimmerer wrote about that once. Wind blowing in the leaves of the birch and goat willow at the back of the garden. Walk along the river at sunset, second flush of red campion. River still, the current out of view. Completely still until a fish jumps and ripples the surface.
27.6.20 A new walk today, linking public and permissive paths along the Devil’s Water. The water dark and stained, I love the streams that roll into the larger river valleys here. Couldn’t keep my bearings today, the water kept flowing in the direction opposite to what I expected. Bracken, foxgloves, beech leaves sticking in my mind. Legs scratched by brambles and stung by nettles.
30.6.20 After all the off-and-on rain over the past week, the river is full and murky. Willow branches caught in the current. Oxeye daisies the bloom of the day. A cluster of red oak leaes and a golden bracken frond. Why have they turned so soon? Perigee today. Stepped out to see her, but too much cloud cover.
1.7.20 The smallest swallows, they must be this year’s fledglings. So quick, so playful, so urgent! Flying low to the water, sometimes in a straight line, pulled along on an invisible thread.
2.7.20 Sky so flat. Things in the distance black and white.
5.7.20 An amble in a new woods, a new valley today. Slid down a muddy slope and plonked into a small burn. Jeans got to be a mess, nettles stuck my knee and brambles scraped my ankles. Felt like a kid.
6.7.20 Rain/sun/rain/sun. I love these kind of days. Downpour in the woods at lunchtime. Rain barely touching us, the leaf cover is so thick. Such a sound to hear heavy rain on them. River getting high again.
7.7.20 Not enough time outside today but a beautiful campfire tonight. We burned birch and set up our camp chairs to make it feel like the real thing. Wispy clouds and the screech of swifts overhead.
10.7.20 I have been so grateful the past few days for broken cloudy skies. Today the sky flitted between dark, heavy downpour and bright sun cutting over puffy white clouds. First walk up the hill into the woods since the episode with the cow last month. Thistle blooming.
21.7.20 Feel like I’ve hardly been out the past week or so. Blooms at the very tips of foxgloves, poppy pods round orbs, hazeluts coming in, fireweed in full bloom along the roadside.
23.7.20 Walk in the rain smells like garlic - did something go trompsing through the old wild garlic stems? First sighting of the new moon, big and warm setting above the ash trees.
25.7.20 The rowan berries are here already. Orangey-red against the deep summer green of their leaves. First yellow birch leaves falling too. Are the seasons preparing for autumn already? Campfire in the evening and swifts screaming. I wonder how many more nights we’ll hear them before they fly south?
3.8.20 Getting lazy with my writing. In the sun, then rain of Lossiemouth. On the drive up, stopping to stretch with face masks and hand gel. Into the mountains soon but gusts with rain forecast for tomorrow. Walk at low tide on the beach last night. Sun glinting through folds of seaweed.
5.8.20 Into the hills today, an early start. Cloudy but warm. Strong winds providing a thorough buffeting! Up Meall a’ Bhuachaille, the slopes covered in blooming heather. So gorgeous against the tufts of cotton grass whipping in the wind. Across to Creagan Gorm and over to Craiggowrie, then down the slope into the woods. The colors on the slope were incredible, three purples and pinks from the heather, black peaty soil, almost neon green from the sphagnum moss, orangey yellow from an unknown flower and tufts of white cotton grass. Out of the woods, repacked our bags with camping grear and hiked back to where we started the day. Wild camping spot on a mound, tent cushioned by scrubby heather. Midges came later, fighting to find a way into the mesh.
6.8.20 Midges by the thousands in the early morning, fading as the sun got higher in the sky. Rainfly covered in dew and midges that stuck to it. A short walk in the woods today. Air stifling hot with no wind. No day for the hills.
7.8.20 Early start for a circuit of the Chalamain Gap. Beautiful trail, warm air with broken cloud and a strong breeze. Perfect to be able to hike in shorts. Strong wind on bare skin but with no chill, it was glorious! Clambered over boulders of granite through Chalamain Gap, then a drop down into the Lairig Ghru, slopes of the plateau and Braeriach rising steeply up from it. We followed the A’llt Druidh to the upper reaches of Rothiemurchus, a sight to see a scattering of Scots pines gradually turn into a forest, walking under their boughs. A long walk through the woods back to where we started, legs felt strong, the fresh air and wild an antidote to lockdown.
8.8.20 There are a view swifts still flying, hunting in the sky at dusk. I wonder if they’ll still be at home?
16.8.20 Back some since the 9th, the swifts have gone until next spring. Got news this week we have to leave this place, so currently in a jumble of trying to find a new home, want to enjoy this one as much as possible for the next month or two.
17.8.20 Out to the middle of nowhere. Quiet. Hawk overhead, moss the queen of holding last night’s rain. Blooming heather on the roadside.
19.8.20 Fireweed blowing away.
22.8.20 Rhododendron collection day, into the woods. Burdock burrs stick to skin, the last few foxglove blooms at the top of seed stalks. Beech trees fringed in yellow, seasons always fluxing but so apparent at this stage.
26.8.20 Sky is still heavy and rain is still pouring. River is the highest I’ve seen it in a while.
28.8.20 Heady sickly sweet smell of Himalayan balsam. River still high.
29.8.20 Campfire at dusk. An owl screeched and flew directly across our line of sight, behind the goat willow and birch. The clicky tap tap tap of a hedghog walking on pavement.
30.8.20 Out for a walk in new woodland that will become familiar when we move there next month! The place in the middle of nowhere we visited on the 17th. Squirrels using the tree stumps as picnic tables, fireweed exploded its seeds but no wind! Giant tufts of fluff instead!
31.8.20 It’s been a cold at night and the mornings are fresh. Morning and evening light has a beautiful warm glow to it, but is still bright. Transition season.
1.9.20 Another beautiful autumnal morning. How good it would have felt to stay outside!
4.9.20 Intermingling of rowan and elder berries.
5.9.20 A long day spent in the hills, up high, gusts of wind taking my breath and knotting my hair. Fluffy, sturdy little sheep; a gusty ridge, a tarn from afar and up close; to be out, up high. Feels so fresh, so good to use my legs.
8.9.20 A morning walk along the river, low golden light trickling through the trees. Quiet.
9.9.20 Rhododendron campfire at dusk. Bats flitting overhead and an owl making strange sounds in the distance. Cool air, cozied up in my downie.
10.9.20 Calm, fresh morning, a walk along the river again. Mind fitting between lots, trying to focus on dew and light and shadows and the warmth of the sun. Last quarter moon, hovering above the house mid-morning.
12.9.20 An early start to walk the Dovetail Round in the Lakes today. Bracken in that beautiful in-between stage. The green of the knobbly corries glows when it catches the sun. These hills are gorgeous, it feels good to be getting to know them.
13.9.20 A day mostly indoors, packing. But enjoying the dappled warm light filtered through the goat willow so much. It hits the east wall of the living room and it feels like we’ve come full circle from when we arrived here about this time last year.
17.9.20 Blue sky, sun felt golden all day, filtering through ever more yellow leaves. Wasps swarming on the ivy buds, a butterfly too. New moon.
18.9.20 Another gorgeous golden day - feeling continuously surprised at how different the light is so suddenly. Leaves suspended on threads of spider silk, brambles the richest of purples, burdock has long been dry and brown. Found a lower jaw bone of some animal - sharp canine teeth.
22.9.20 These last days of summer have gone by in a blur of moving boxes. Three days to go and then a new adventure awaits. Watched the equinox at 2:30 from the doorstep. Have never watched the transitiion from lightest to darkest half of year like that before. A nice memory to have just before we leave this home and start somewhere wild and new.
