Slieau Curn

Footsore and weary again

Tuesday 9th October 2012

 

    Dorothy and Trevor were back at the weekend, refreshed and invigorated after their trip to Wales and England.  We decided to repeat one of our regular walks up Slieau Curn on Tuesday, starting from Dorothy's house so that we could drop off some raspberry plants for her.  Now, instead of having an aching back from too much gardening I am footsore and weary again.

 

    The sun was shining when we set off at nine o'clock,  the temperature was eight degrees and there was very little wind.  Ideal walking weather.  The sun was so low in the sky that we decided to do the flat part of the walk first so that we wouldn't be looking directly into the sun on our way up the hill.   There wasn't much of interest on the first part of the walk along the old railway line.  Dorothy checked on a field where we saw some old rusty farm equipment in March but was disappointed to see that the farmer had been tidying up - or the long grass and brambles had been doing the job for him - because there was nothing photogenic in sight.   I did see a "new " flower for 2012, an evening primrose (Oenothera Spp.).  They are not native wild flowers although they are included in most British wild flower books. "Common evening primrose was thought to be a mainland European species but probably arrived there from North America in the 17th century and then spread to Britain in the 19th century."  I am not sure whether this is the common variety, the large flowered variety or a hybrid.

. . . and on the way up the Baltic Road I took a close-up photo of some red campion (Silene dioica).  It is supposed to flower from May to September but I doubt whether there is any month of the year when there is no campion flowering on the Island.  Even in midwinter we see the odd flower on a straggly plant growing on a sheltered bank.

    Near the top of the climb we turned off the stony road into the little gully between Slieau Curn and the knoll and stopped to take photos . . .  and for a short rest and refreshments.  Danny was most interested in the people with food.  You can see Kirk Michael, where we started our climb, by the coast.  The condensation trails in the sky must be pointing towards Belfast airport.  A lot of planes fly over the Island and the trails can be pretty when they turn pink as the sun sets.  But they must be annoying if you are trying to film some historic drama.

    The little path through the gulley is a short cut to the next proper path round the east side of Slieau Curn and down towards Ballacobb.  The wooden fence (in the photo above) is an attempt to keep the off road bikers from using this route and churning up the vegetation.  Once we reached the official footpath it was downhill nearly all the way  . . . with Slieau Curn on our left and Glen Dhoo below on the right.

    The camera may not lie but it can certainly distort.  I started playing with the zoom and took this photo of our route down from the stile at the edge of the moors to Ballaugh Church.  It doesn't look far with the foreshortening effect caused by the zoom but it took us very nearly an hour to reach Dorothy's house which is amongst the houses to the right of the church.

    Before following the others, I took a photo of Jurby church (also using the zoom).   I liked the effect of the patchwork of various coloured fields.   Some were bright green - some, recently mowed, were beige - and others which had just been ploughed were the colour of milky cocoa.  There have been doubts over the future of Jurby church because of dwindling congregations and structural problems.  The tower is showing signs of breaking away from the body of the church although it isn't considered dangerous yet.  Efforts are being made to find additional uses for the church as a venue for concerts and art exhibitions.  It would be sad to lose the building.

    The road down through the farmland wasn't too bad except for a couple of impressive puddles.  The first one would have qualified for a "puddle of the year" award".  It is a year round hazard and we managed to edge our way round it in spring but either the puddle was bigger this time or the gorse near the bend in the road had grown and was overhanging more.  If we didn't want to get our feet wet, the only solution seemed to be a bit of trespassing.  We turned off through a gate into field of sheep (carrying Danny) and were delighted to find another gate just beyond the puddle so that we could rejoin the road without having to climb over the fence.

 

    We managed to walk around the edge of the second puddle.  I have included these photos because I was interested to see how different the same scene looks  from different angles and using different lenses.  It is hard to believe that it is the same puddle.  I was trying to catch up to the others and took the first photo of them, using the zoom.  The second was taken by Tim, using a normal lens and looking back as I reached the puddle.

    As we approached the end of the road we passed this sign . . .  and just after I took the photograph the postman came racing past in his little red van.  Obviously not a cat-lover. 

 

    The last stretch was back along the railway line to Ballaugh.  Another first sighting for 2012.  A couple of small patches of common toadflax (linaria vulgaris).  I thought this might be another American export because I saw a lot growing near Yellowstone Park years ago - but the reverse is true.  It was introduced to the USA from Europe and is now classified as a noxious weed in some of the states.