4 November 2021

Plodding

Three miles of plodding on Sunday gave me the opportunity to capture the images above and below. Above, Hood Brook tumbles from the moors near Sheepwash Bank. Archaeological evidence has shown that Neolithic people lived by this stream. Below the view from Coggers Lane to The Hope Valley.

Earlier today, I parked Clint in Church Warsop - a Nottinghamshire village that  grew upon the back of coal mining. I plodded for three hours, taking photographs in several map squares that I had not walked in before. As I approached William Wood Farm near Warsop Vale, I heard these three bovine beauties singing  "Baby Love" by The Supremes:-
A lovely sun-dappled path in Cuckney Hay Wood:-
St Augustine's Church in the tiny hamlet of Sookholme. It dates back to Norman times but like many other English churches, it underwent numerous changes and repairs in the  past thousand years.
A bridleway signpost with a view to the parish church in Church Warsop.
Autumnal mushrooms in Cuckney Hay Wood - I admit that I find it difficult to identify the majority of mushrooms. There are a lot coming through now as winter approaches and the days get shorter.

28 comments:

  1. I'm assuming there were trees on the moors in neolithic times, or is that a false assumption?

    I had to look it up because I'm always curious. I didn't realize England was a tundra after the ice age and the trees were not dissimilar from what grows in northern Alberta now. Fascinating.

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    1. Most of England was forested Pixie but now it is the least forested country in Europe. Even those moors that look "natural" had many trees on the them - especially in the valleys.

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  2. What is it about signposts? A farm gate, and those blue remembered hills?
    Hathersage and Bamford Moor.
    Names as evocative as any poem by Housman or Edward Thomas.

    Coggers Lane, the Neolithic waters of Hood Brook, Church Warsop and Warsop Vale, the little Norman church in Sookholme, the not so little presence of Saint Augustine, who visited these isles with his austere monks. The mushrooms in Cuckney Hay Wood.

    I like not these short days, high winds coming.
    Time, now, for mushrooms on toast, and a helping of those battered sausages you keep talking about. English breakfast. A pot of coffee, freshly squeezed orange juice.
    Cooper's Marmalade. Any newspaper except one of Rupert bloody Murdoch's.
    Life is but a dream.
    Haggerty


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    1. A most lovely response Colonel Haggerty. I also avoid anything tainted by the odious Murdoch. Almost as repulsive as Johnson.

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  3. Well, plodding along has given you some great photo opportunities.

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  4. Great Autumn photos YP.

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    1. Oh, you're still alive Northsider! I shall put away my black suit.

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  5. The sun-dappled path is so enticing! It looks like a beautiful walk, and I wonder whether the landscape was pretty much the same when the Neolithic people lived by the stream. Maybe the area was more wooded than now?

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    1. You are right about the trees. The landscape we see today is very different from what once was here.

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  6. Anonymous7:52 am

    The stream looks lovely.
    You should have picked the mushrooms and had a fry up to see if they are ok to eat.

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    1. If I had done that, this might have been my last post you silly beggar!

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  7. What a great collection of photos. I love the woodland path and those cows are beautiful creatures.

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  8. As with the footworn sunken woodland path, we're never the first to visit, enjoy, laugh, worry or live, in these places, no matter how new and fresh they seem when we discover them.

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    1. That is a very good point Tasker. I often think the same as I plod along. There are echoes everywhere.

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  9. Don't go using those mushrooms for Sunday lunch,YP. They might be magic mushrooms. Or deadly ones. I always admire those people who can forage for them and know what they are picking.

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    1. Such people are few and far between - to do it with total confidence.

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  10. As always, your pictures are amazing. The one of the Supreme Cows especially pleased me. What an incredible place you live in, how fortunate you are to have access to such areas to walk.

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  11. I love mushrooms but with poisonous ones around, the only ones I will pick from the wild and eat are morels which I have been identifying my entire life. I would like to spend time with a local mushroom expert to show me how to ID them, and possibly wait a day after they consume them before consuming them myself.

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    1. You are wise to be cautious Ed. I knew a mushroom expert here in Sheffield - Dr Patrick Harding and there are only a handful of mushrooms that he would happily pick and eat. He was very wary.

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  12. A lovely Autumn walk, I think the Neolithic people cleared most of the trees up on the moors, for short term farming, they had to keep moving on because of fertility. I like the mushroom photo, they are always exciting finds, must never eat them though!

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    1. I just ate one and I think I am Harry Potter riding on a magic carpet to Neverland with an entourage of fairies.

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  13. I like to listen to a bit of Mootown.

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  14. Bovine beauties they may be, but they don't look too friendly to me!
    As always excellent photos YP.

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  15. Wonderful photos all around! I've always heard the magic mushrooms grow in the cow patties, but I don't think it's that straightforward. I've seen various types growing there.

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  16. What gorgeous pictures; the colours are stunning. I especially love the first and the last.

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