A walk on the Wares

[puddleshark]

A walk across the Wares, the area of rough clifftop pasture near Langton Matravers, in search of Autumn Lady's Tresses orchids. Saw none, though the short-grazed banks of the old quarries there should be the perfect habitat. Maybe it has been too dry for them this year.

Also failed to photograph the swallows and sand martins swooping over the fields of tall yellow grass. They were just too fast for me.




The Wares, looking very, very, very parched. In the distance, on the skyline, the old coastguard cottages on St Aldhelm's Head.


Photography fail: swallow.

As a photography mission, it was a failure, but I have to say today's walk was lovely. Once the early morning chill lifted, the sun was warm, pleasantly warm, not fierce. I took the high narrow path that runs across the top of the Wares, snaking through fields and scrub, and if there were no orchids, the Knapweed and the Scabious were in flower, and Wall butterflies were living up their name, basking on the dry stone walls beside the path.


Wall (Lasiommata megera).






A good crop of haws on the hawthorn this year...


...and sloes on the blackthorn. I think the drought has stressed the trees into producing a bumper crop.




Tattered blue butterfly.


Knapweed.


Carline Thistle.



Sat for a while on the cliffs, looking out to sea. Just visible in the hazy distance, the MV Barfleur on her way to Cherbourg.


Yachts, and a fishing boat collecting lobster pots. So many boats out today. It may be the last good weekend for sailing this summer. The tail end of Hurricane Erin is supposed to be coming in midweek, and the weather due to turn wild.


Back at Spyway Barn, a pop-up café with a notice promising that it opened at 10am. It didn't. I had promised myself cake on the way back, but that part of the mission too was a failure.

Comments

[heleninwales]

That blue butterfly is so pretty!

Re season of mellow fruitfulness, while out on a recent walk I noticed a hawthorn with more berries than I've ever seen before. We've also had a bumper crop of blackberries in our back garden. I do hope you get some rain courtesy of Hurricane Erin.

[puddleshark]

There's a bumper crop of blackberries here too, but a lot of them are too small and wizened to look appetizing.

The Met Office website is forecasting rain next week... but they've been doing that all summer, and every time it has passed north of us. Fingers crossed we finally see some.

[kaishin108]

I love those dry walls! That is sad about not getting cake. Bad Pop-Up!

[puddleshark]

The dry stone walls on National Trust land are always a work of art. A lot of farmers just let them fall down these days, and replace them with barbed wire.

It's always a disappointment when I've planned a walk to include a cake stop, and the cake never happens...