Winds of Change

To this lake today. The waves rushing across it make it look like the sea, though they are caused by the wind rather than tides. There is a lot of wind here. The lake is up on a plateau in the hills of North Wales. All around it is peaty soil with heather and sphagnum moss, forming tumps which, in different stages of drying out after recent warm weather, take on a beautiful succession of colours from green to yellow-green, dusky pink and rusty orange. Subdued and subtle colours  - at a distance a myriad shades of tinted straw - but close up, and interspersed with the heather, like the hues of another world.

I love to be in these empty landscapes, though ruined cottages and the remains of old lead mines show that they were not always quite so empty. There are wind turbines barely visible on the horizon, also showing that the land is being utilised in this way again. Concrete and tarmac are being laid across the peat where before there were just tracks and rubble roads. Pylons are being built to carry away the power generated.

I have mixed feelings about this. Green energy is of course a good thing, though some question how green this technology really is. And the peat too is a carbon store and this carbon is released when the peat is excavated or dries out through draining. Should I regret the loss of this wild landscape and the special things that are here? Or should I welcome the alternative ways of producing energy? If only I could be sure that it would help to avoid climate change my regret would at least be tinged with hope. But the more I find out about the technology and the impact of putting it in such places, the less I am sure.

A Lake in the Hills

I walked to this lake at the weekend. It sits in a hollow in the hills. The weather was a bit cooler than it has been as it had rained overnight and the morning was misty. But there were flowers everywhere and the feel of Summer which has come early. At the shallow end of the lake reeds were still standing from last year:

There was also some new green shoots of this year's reeds breaking the water surface, though they can't be seen in the picture. Further out in the centre of the lake  the big globes of yellow water lilies were opening:

In my flower identification book it says they should flower in June or July so that is an indication of just how early things are coming on. Over in the boggy ground at the other end of the lake, beneath the willows, I found some bog bean in flower, fluffy pink-white stars and three big leaves to each one.

As I sat eating my lunch I watched a heron fly over the lake, do a loop around once, then fly away over the ridge of the hills behind me. I also heard the call of another bird coming from the other side of the reeds, but couldn't identify it.

By the afternoon the warmer weather was returning and I took notes on what trees were in leaf. Oaks were out, and sycamore and beech, and on the hawthorns the flowers were about to open - May blossom in April!  But the ash trees were still bare. According to the traditional rhyme that means we are in for a splash rather than  a soak. But whatever the Summer brings I will be joyful.

Frog

I went out with the local walking group. I don't go out with them very often because I prefer to walk on my own.I like to stop and look at things rather than just walk on. It's hard when others are talking to listen to Nature.But they were going to a lake in the mountains that I had not been to before so I decided to join them.

The day was cold but clear and bright with a white frost over everything. Weather like this is unusual in Britain. The frost was thicker as we went up to the mountains. There were 'flowers' of frost coating the grass, everything glittering white in the sunshine.

The lake was covered in ice and as we did stop there for a break I moved off alone and stood by the edge for a bit. When I looked down I saw a shiny brown frog with legs spread out as if it was about to jump. But it was still. I touched it. It was completely frozen.

Later I thought that I should have taken a picture of it to put on here. I'll have to remember that for another time.