So its back to real time blogging for us now!
On one hand, in this continuing "Pandemic Situation", its hard to imagine the calendar has already clicked to March. On the other hand February seemed at times to be dragging interminably! The restrictions and a perspective that we would try to conduct our exercise from the front door have led to much local discovery over recent weeks which began with the continuation of a cold spell from the Christmas period and snow on the ground (a relatively rare occurrence in this particular part of Cumbria) and ended with warm early Spring sunshine yesterday.
Our local wanderings have involved a couple of visits to Wreay Woods a beautiful diverse area managed by the Cumbria Wildlife Trust on the banks of the River Petteril. We caught it for the first time on a cold, clear and snowy morning at the end of January.
Maz & I in Wreay Woods on a cold, bright & snowy January morning
In fact the Petteril valley which can be accessed in 10 minutes on foot from our front door has been a real blessing through lockdown its been a joy to observe the river as it runs its course through times of flood, when the flood plains work hard and also through drier spells when the energy of the water drops revealing more of the river's sandy banks and rocky bed. Its also provided a rich source of educational resources for home-schooling activities with grandchildren from bridges to impromptu flow rate experiments (aka pooh-sticks!)
Pooh Sticks on the bridge
Shapes & paper bridges at home!
A slightly different direction takes out to the far eastern edges of the city where the Eden approaches the urban environment as it passes under the M6. We visited on a Baltic cold day when the air temperature was still two degrees below freezing but the easterly wind gave a feel more like ten degrees below. Again this area is a haven for wildlife with an extensive array of birds observed albeit from a distance. We bumped into friends who told of us otter sightings in the area too. The walk that day was long and slightly disappointing in that a circular route out to the east is not possible.
River approaches city as the Eden passes under the M6
February, however, closed itself out with some very welcome early warm Spring sunshine and its encouraging to see our fruit trees coming into early bud. These gave us much enjoyment through Lockdown 1.0 in 2020 and last years' harvest was good!
Hopefully March will see a return to activities beyond the Carlisle city limits!
Early Spring signs of life from one of our pear trees
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