Energising

Yesterday, I needed to get out for a walk. I drove fifteen minutes west and parked Clint on Ringinglow Road in the lee of Higger Tor. From that one vehicle parking space I took the picture shown above. You can see the spire of Hathersage Church as you look beyond it to The Hope Valley.

I was on the edge of Hathersage Moor where I followed the path to Over Owler Tor - an outcrop of the base rock which is millstone grit. There I sneakily snapped the picture shown above of a couple sitting on top of the tor. Perhaps he is asking her to marry him.

There are two or three curious rock formations at Over Owler Tor like the one shown above. Beyond it you can see Higger Tor - a rocky plateau that was once used as a hill fort in the mists of time and long before Romans occupied our land. The swathes of bracken you can see are now brown for the winter but a vibrant green in the late spring and summer.

An iron grey cloud rose in the west as I headed along another moorland path towards the big sheepfold on the edge of the moor. I saw four deer grazing amidst the bracken. They looked at me warily but were too far away to photograph successfully.

My camera zoomed across to Overstones Farm below Stanage Edge. I have taken many pictures of that scenic farm from different viewpoints, in different seasons and in different light and weather conditions.

The walk was over in less than two hours but it was energising to get out there under the sky in that October light amongst the bracken and the rocks where many have gone before...