icefall

the water in Kit Hill quarry has frozen solid but no dogs were allowed to try it out given recent tragic events. It is so cold that an icefall has formed on the quarry face. (OK, the blue is cheating)

New Year 2

the first view from Kit Hill below is towards Plymouth. The English Channel is the thin sliver of bright light at the top right.
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The second view is of Brentor sitting in front of the main mass of Dartmoor. It is usually much more difficult to pick out from the background.
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Brentor is the little pimple like hill (plus church) to be seen just below the russet brown line of Dartmoor on the far horizon . It is a strange place (see link) with many legends (see link)

the New Year

It has been unusually cold for this part of the world recently. From the Saturday before Christmas until the middle of last week the roads were covered with sheet ice and many people couldn't even get out of their houses. Car travel was almost impossible without 4 wheel drive. After a brief milder spell, it has turned very cold again. The air is very calm and clear. The views from Kit Hill were spectacular and the quarry was frozen over for the first time in Spot's experience, who can be seen assessing the situation very gingerly (and no, he wasn't allowed to walk on to the ice) .

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squall over Dartmoor

and still it rains, the ewes must be soaked. Dartmoor is on the far horizon, Hingston Down to the right.

and the view

It was a very clear day, and this photo shows the Tamar valley (very flattened by the perspective), and in view are the villages of Luckett, Sydenham Damerel, Milton Abbot, Horsebridge, Townlake and Tutwell, and in the far distance the hills of Dartmoor looking towards Okehampton.

more orchids

nearby and for the first time on Kit Hill, we found some orchids. They look like southern marsh orchids (having no spots on the leaves and two sepals that look like bird's wings) but these orchids often hybridise with heath spotted and common spotted orchid. However, they were by a marsh!

egg and bacon

bird's foot trefoil, showing why it is sometimes called eggs and bacon, and below a vigorous clump of eyebright, possibly nemorosa anglica (but who can tell??), growing in the marshes at the entrance to Kit Hill quarry.

at the rock face

intricate and mysterious imagery from the quarry at Kit Hill. It looks like a natural (wild) version of a Japanese garden, or vice versa

view from Kit Hill

Kelly Bray mine workings (now a world heritage site) in foreground, and Linkinhorne parish church in background, and Bodmin moor in far distance.

crab apples

crab apple blossom, growing on Kit Hill where today I heard a cuckoo for the first time this year. Early purple orchids are growing in abundance on the road to Launceston, and the swallows and martins are building their nests. Once again, and with some relief, one can feel the strong pulse of the deepest rhythms of Nature.

and the rest of Cornwall

looking west from the very top of Kit Hill. Pensilva and St Cleer hardly visible in the background, Callington in the middle ground, the pack in the foreground.

quarry, Kit Hill

Yesterday morning (Saturday) was a fine, cold morning with ice under foot and fascinating colours in the rocks.

King crow

slightly smaller than a rook and with a darker beak, this crow posed very nicely in front of the view from Kit Hill

Monks Cross

dawn over Monks Cross (and a local accident black spot) near Kit Hill. As always at dawn the rooks are doing their morning sun worshipping rituals without which, of course, the sun would stay put.

Saturday 12/01/08 before the fire storm began.

Kit Hill quarry

there has been very little to photograph recently and for various reasons I haven't been out as much, so I am going to trawl through my archives for photos taken at the same time of year (within a week) to keep the blog changing at least until November when it will have been up for two years. Last year at this time the woods were full of mushrooms, this year there are very few as yet. Kit Hill quarry has always provided me with a wealth of image material because of the wonderful interplay between the colours in the rocks, the wildflowers and the restless surface of the water creating natural impressionist paintings. My favourite image is of swallows dipping into the water when it is absolutely still and squeaking with ?excitement/pleasure, but I have yet to capture it to my satisfaction. Next year maybe. I like that sense that things will return in the great cycle of life even as the autumnal gloom descends.

autumn mornings II

on Kit Hill, looking northwards down the spoil pile towards Stoke Climsland.

autumn mornings

early morning, a misty day with the sun rising over Hingston down, Dartmoor on the horizon.

Kit Hill quarry

It was a very still day.

And please note you can get a guided tour to see the heath fritillary in June (16/06) (see previous post with excellent pictures)

Kit Hill early bird

I think this is a pipit, but I am not sure which type (tree or meadow), or it could be a lark. As it chose to pose on a tree above the misty Sherwell Valley and it is singing its heart out I think it must be a tree pipit.

cornwall lanes No 329

the foxgloves seem very early this year, and provide a natural counter balance to Kit Hill