Second Leg: Cannon Hall to Bretton Hall

Earlier in the week, I decided on a foray. After a while it was clear that once again, there wasn't much around so I turned it into a walk. Until now, the furthest I had walked along Woodlands Valley was to the Hagg farm turn-off. This time I continued along to Rowlee Farm , crossed the Snake and returned along the other side of the River Ashop. There was a lot of birch along this stretch and signs of plenty of fungi which has gone over. It was pretty muddy underfoot, but the forecast was again over-pessimistic and the weather was much better than it had predicted.

Yesterday, I completed the second leg of the Barnsley Boundary walk. It was one of the finest walks I had ever done! True, the weather was perfect - cold and bright - and the leaves were turning. There was not one bit of the walk that I did not like. The views were outstanding, and there was the bonus of the attractions of 2 country parks. It whetted my appetite for a visit to Yorkshire Sculpture Park - long on my "meaning to" list, but now promoted. I saw quite a few sculptures without leaving the route of the walk, but had neither the time nor the energy to make a detour to give the park the attention it deserved. The only thing that would have improved the walk was mushrooms, although a recently deceased pheasant on my path provided an alternative source of free food. I took lots of photos, but I've decided that I will only put one per post in my blog, as previous ones look messy and don't have the desired impact. I'll post the best of the rest on Flikr and try and put a link to it on this blog.

A new challenge.

Earlier in the week, I met up with K. Again, the weather was better than the forecast suggested it might be. After a wettish start and before a late afternoon downpour, we had the best of the day enjoying a fine afternoon by Rivelin Reservoir and Wyming Brook. The leaves are just starting to turn, so I've made a bin to collect leaves for leafmould - something I've been meaning to do for many years.
Having sent off for and received maps/guides for the Barnsley Boundary Walk and the Trans Pennine Trail, I decided I couldn't wait to get started on the next challenge. Not that I need much motivating at the moment with plenty of time on my hands, but as the prospect of work looms, I will need A project that doesn't require me to think where to go next. I regret not having chronicled the Sheffield Country Walk fully, and the Penistone line walk not at all, so I am resolving to record the Barnsley Boundary Walk in words and photos, at least. One of the challenges with linear walks (OK, the whole thing is circular, but each leg is end to end) is getting to and from either end of the walk. The first leg (Ingbirchworth to Cannon Hall) was a good indication of this. From the range of possibilities, I decided that the train to Penistone, and a 2 mile lead in was the best option. There looked to be some routes which avoided the main road, but not wanting to walk too far before starting the walk proper, I went for the shortest route. Fortunately, there was a pavement for the entire length, the road was not too busy at that time of day, and the views from the road more than compensated for the tarmac under foot. The bad news is that I relied on the walk description to find the start of the walk rather than look at the map. The Rose and Crown Pub was the landmark I was looking for. I sensed something was wrong when I passed the carved stone sign that marked the end of the village. It turned out the pub had been demolished to make way for a development of town houses. A sign of the times! It might be interesting to see how many remain unsold by the time I complete the circuit. That problem overcome, I had no futher problems finding my way on what proved to be a lovely walk with stunning views. The area has a timeless quality about it, townhouses notwithstanding. Ingbirchworth, Upper Denby and the tiny hamlet of Gunthwaite with its medieval barn have many old but beautifully maintained buildings, and are set in lovely rolling countryside. It was very wet under foot, but the stunning weather compensated for this. The homeward journey was more successful that the outward one. A bus from Cawthorne to Barnsley coincided with my arrival at the end of my route, as did a train from Barnsley to Sheffield. It was also a day of coincidences; I ran into a former work aquaintance in Penistone, and a former colleague returning from a conference in Leeds on the train home.

The great annual foray and bacon butty event

Lovely to have company on my most recent foray. The forecast for Saturday was grim, but the reality wasn't quite so bad. We'd expected rain, but in the end it was the cold that did for us. It's not easy picking mushrooms with your gloves on. Once again, there was an unusual distribution. There were a couple of parasols in the pasture on the way up, and lots of meadow waxcaps (butter mushrooms). There were also a number of field mushrooms, but not in the same quantity as we've found in previous years. The big surprise was the lack of nice edible mushrooms along the woodland edge. J. found a wonderful cep, but that was about it. K spotted this stunning Hygrocybe calyptriformis, and there were generally lots of waxcaps. As always, the bacon butties at Grindleford caff, which traditionally round off this event, were an absolute delight.

Wet and Windy!

After some fine Indian Summer weather, today was much more autumnal, but I didn't let it deter me. I went to GW again as I'd had an interesting haul last time. The walk I did was 4 sides of a square, and as I approached the third corner, I was mentally composing my blog ... "Zilch .." it was going to say. Then, a lovely large orange birch bolete sprang into view. All was not lost. As I turned the corner I saw a bay bolete, then another. And another. And another... they were mostly small or a bit chewed, but from having had an empty basket, I had quite a respectable collection. On returning home, a hot bath and a slab of home made plum cake were in order. It was a bit wet to get my camera out, so the picture is from my last visit to this location.

A quiet week.

Two outings this week yielded little. In LV there was nothing in the beechwoods, surprising when other beech woods have provided such a lot of good eating. I refuse to come home empty handed so I brought home crab apples and made jelly. There were some lovely brackets at the top of the valley. On Friday, I managed just enough for tea from LL: one nice badius, a couple of suillus and some field and wood mushrooms.

Here's hoping they are gathering their strength for a big show next week!

Even more treats!

Yesterday's foray produced even more fine specimens, including the Penny Bun I've been looking for to upload as my profile. More horns of plenty and hedgehogs and a very respectable number of chanterelles made it a very worththwhile trip to M.

A brief local foray on the previous evening resulted in a couple of very acceptable orange birch boletes.

Rich pickings

Found not only Trompettes de mort but autumn chanterelles, a few chantrelles and one very small cep at G.Woods today. Also collected some biberries and saw a beautiful dragonfly.

A new mushroom season!

I've been out mushrooming twice this week; I was interested to see what effect the very wet weather of August had had. On Tuesday, quite a lot of very large Hedgehog fungi at the car park yielded very little once cooked. the woodland edge provided quite a few badius - also quite watery, but delicious. Of other things, only one or two - 2 saffrons, 1 horse mushroom, a slippery jack and a butter mushroom. Yesterday, it was a long time before I found anything, but above the brook quite a few orange birch boletes - enough for tea. Very strangely, there were long stretches of nothing at all, then huge numbers of things - like russulas and deceivers,. It looks like the next few days will be dry and sunny, but their are signs that the weather might turn colder. I'm optimistic of rich pickings and fortunate to have the time to get out to search for them.

Long time no blog

Not sure why it's been so long. The summer has come and gone and I've trod the byways of Northumberland - maybe more of this later. As the mushroom season proper is approaching, - I hope - I want to catch up with the Sheffield country walk, so I can make a start on the highlights of the autumn's efforts. I'm now upto leg 9, so I've got a bit of catching up to do. I'll take it one leg at time, until I'm up to date. Leg 2 took me to Totley. Leg 3 took me into the real upland section of the walk. It was 9th of June, and a warn and pleasant late spring day. No indication of what was to come! The busride to the start of the walk was nice and easy, the start of the walk through small woodlands and country roads before a steep ascent across open pasture and up onto some moorland access land. Before too long, I was approaching Fox House, and the very familiar scenery of Longshaw, Burbage and Carl Walk. This section finished at Upper Burbage - not ideal as bus services are a bit sparse up here. I finished the walk by dropping down into Hathersage.

Sheffield Country Walk - section 2

The weather today was astonishingly changeable. I was very lucky not to get very wet. It was as if someone up there had suddenly realised that we'd missed out on March winds and April showers, so we should have them on a single day in May. Seconds after passing the cows, it started to rain. The rain lasted for less than a minute. I didn't turn round to see if the cows had stood up. The walk was not very different from leg 1: meadows, woodlands, country lanes. The bus stop - the terminus was right next to a pub, so it was perfect to have a quick drink outside in the sunshine before hopping on the bus to return home.

Sheffield Country Walk

Having done the Round Walk, the logical next step is the Country Walk. I travelled from home (north west) to Halfway (south east) on the Supertram. This left me a short walk to the start at Eckington Church. I was lucky enough to have the best weather of the week: quite breezy, but sunny and pleasantly warm out of the wind. This leg mainly follows the Moss valley, and is a very pleasant and easy stroll through woodlands with a bonus of 2 pubs en route (I only stopped at one).The bluebells were just getting past their best, but the blue haze of the massed swathes was still a delight. The wild garlic was in full bloom and the warmer than average spring meant that there were plenty of other things starting to flower: yellow archangel, tufted vetch and herb robert to name a few.

Ther were some fine views across the south of the city from the highest point near Troway.

How to retire

The current fashion for "How to..." guides has come to my attention, so I thought I would revitalise this neglected blog by trying out this genre.
Firstly, if you find yourself unexpectedly and unwillingly retired, a good strategy is to take some thinking and head-clearing time. I found that a 70 mile walk did the trick.
Secondly, if possible, do it in April. Take the time to explore where you live. Chances are, there will be places not too far away that you may not know. If you are lucky enough to live in or near Sheffield, I can recommend the Round Walk. At this time of year, the bluebells in the woodlands are sensational. You will also see masses of wild garlic, wood anemone, celandine, the vivid green of the trees coming into leaf, and hear and see a huge range of birds - herons, wrens, robins, dippers, kingfishers, grey wagtails, jays, to name a few, and rabbits and more squirrels than you can shake a stick at. I expect that if you are prepared to go early morning or late evening you might see foxes and badgers. Other highlights include an astonishing number of parks, a number of fine cafés, alpaca and rocking horses, rivers, railways, picnic tables and golf courses. What, no fungi? I hear you cry. Of course there are lots of the long-lived brackets - ganoderma, coriolus and piptoporus, and at this time of year, as you might expect, St George's mushrooms. I expect in autumn there will be lots more to see. So please return in Autumn, as I think, will I.

The mother of all fairy rings

It's been a while! A difficult time at work, and what the insurance people understatedly call an RTA, have meant that I haven't really felt inspired to commit my thoughts to blog. However, I think that failing to record this sighting would be a crime against mycology. It was on 26 October above Happy Valley near Aberdovey. It consisted of Lepiota Procera (Parasol mushrooms) and the evidence of abundant nettles and the remains of giant puffballs suggested that this was an old manure heap. Apart from this, there was a wide range of wax caps in the surrounding meadows. The walk itself was lovely. It was a sharp uphill climb, mainly on tracks, followed by a descent into the valley. Another climb took us up to the bearded lake, then a return walk along an almost traffic-free gated road proved to be the best part of the walk. The fairy ring was by this roadside, and following this, the autumn afternoon sun on our backs meant that we were able to stroll gently, and even sit for a while, enjoying the aerial displays of three buzzards level with us above the beautiful valley.

The rest of this short break to southern Snowdonia consisted of a thorough soaking by Lake Bala, courtesy of a sudden dramatic downpour during what was supposed to be a gentle stroll to break the journey, and for which we were toatally unprepared, a splendid walk near a small hamlet rejoicing in the name of Llanifhangel-y-pennant, the highlights of which were a waterfall near the start of the walk, and a nice cup of tea, a sit down and a slice of buttered bara brith in the community centre in Abergynolwyn, conveniently located at the halfway point of the walk, and a repeat of the precipice walk near Dolgellau, which has to provide some of the most stunning views for amazingly little effort. Thanks to our hosts Alex and Lorraine, and their stunningly located guesthouse, it was a great few days. The fact that somone decided to pull out in front of us on the way home and cause what became several weeks of stress, that I hope is now mainly over, almost made me forget what a lovely time we had. I'm glad I finally got round to recording it.

National treasures

There seems to be a lot of references to National Treasures recently. I don't have a problem with this concept, in fact, within reason I think it's quite jolly. Recent nominees for this epithet include David Attenborough, Bill Oddie, Michael Palin and Stephen Fry. This set me wondering what the criteria are for being a National Treasure. Based on the above selection, it seems to me they would include: being or having been a comic writer / performer /actor , and / or a wildlife presenter, and have been around for quite a long time.

Small but perfectly formed

Last weekend I made a return visit to the location I searched on 20 August, which I am going to call Manny. Whilst I didn't find a lot, what I did find was in very good condition: 2 small ceps, half a dozen bay boletes, large field mushrooms and meadow wax caps. The ceps went into a bake with some potatoes, an assortment were added to a ragout of home grown borlotti beans, tomatoes and onions, and the remainder were dried now that my dehydrator is now fully operational again. Speaking of which, the fruits I dried (oranges, mangoes, strawberries and plums) and dipped in chocolate (Grren and Black dark cooking chocolate) for Elaine's birthday, were very well received both by Elaine, and by the others in the office.

The best offer I had all week

One of my school visits last week provided a memorable experience worth reporting. As I entered, I was met my a boy whose responsibility it was to greet visitors to the school.
"Welcome to xxxx school," he said "how may I help?"
"I'm here to see Mrs xxx," I replied.
"Shall I show you to her office?" he asked.
"That's fine. I know it's just along the corridor here"
"Shall I fetch you a chair from the dining hall?" he offered.
"That's very kind of you, but I'm sure Mrs xxx will be along any second. She is expecting me."
Did this young man's solicitude know no bounds?
"Would you like some soup?" he enquired.


Mrs xxx was greatly amused by the story, and had no knowledge of or explanation for this offer, and no, I hadn't stumbled into some kind of hospitality wars between local schools, despite having been regaled with the highest quality chocolate biscuits at another school the previous day. However, perhaps there was a possibility of hors d'oeuvres on my next visit. At this point, one of Mrs xxx's colleagues entered the room.
"I've just had a lovely mug of soup", she said.

Normal service not yet resumed...

A bit of a gap in the hunting owing to a heavy cold / flu laying me low last weekend. The weather has been very mild - quite close in fact. I decided to have a short outing after work today, so went "Robin". There was not much to find. certainly nothing for tea. I wonder if the temperature needs to drop before there is any chance of a new flush.At least I now have my dehydrator back in action.

Loadsa mushrooms

A brilliant morning's foray at "Ed woods" this weekend. The woods were full of bay boletes and saffron milk caps, and a few slippery jacks. There were some fine field mushrooms, but nothing to speak of in the way of wax caps. A bonus on the way back was a large harvest of sloes. Rounding off the morning with a pint of tea and a bacon butty made it a perfect Saturday morning.

Don't call us....

This week’s mushrooming activity was moderately successful: enough for tea and a few for the dehydrator. So that I can remember where I found stuff without giving away my location secrets, I’ll give each place a code name. Yesterday was “William”. There was nothing at all in the meadows, but the woodland yielded some Badius and Edulis, and a few fine Saffron milk caps. Unfortunately, the dehydrator decided to throw a wobbler, so if I can’t get it fixed soon, I’ll have to go back to using the airing cupboard.
At work, the week started badly when we discovered that following a reorganisation (god knows why) the phone number that our “clients” use to contact us had been discontinued. At least it had been reinstated by the end of the week, but only after we had made a fuss about it. This set me to wondering why people feel the need to reorganise things; does the phrase “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” mean nothing to these people? I’m not against progress, far from it, but sometimes I can’t see any rhyme or reason behind changes. So perhaps I just need it explaining to me. Sainsbury’s please note.

Holland trumps Italy in tasteless Snowstorm contest

Now there's a sentence you thought you'd never read! There are lots more where that came from. For those beyond the magical world of QISS (don't even try to work out what it stands for!) there is an ongoing competition in the office for who can bring back the naffest snowstorm souvenir from their hols. The only rule is that they must cost no more than £2 / 3 Euros. Even if I say so myself, my Dutch boy and girl on a see-saw with a windmill in the background edged it over m'colleague's valiant two-sided submission of Vesuvius in its dormant and erupting states. The 4 days in the land of liquorice and bicycles was delightful. I devised a game for anyone visiting the country with a friend or partner. It involves spotting the most outrageous or unusual item being carried on a bike. Just to start you off, mine was a three piece suite, with a pair of crutches as a runner-up. Please do comment if you can offer any interesting sightings.
One of the high / lowlights of my stay was a visit to the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam; low, because it had been relocated (albeit temporarily) from its former site close to the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum to a building site round the back of the station,and all the fine impressionist and other modern masterpieces I remember from previous visits were no longer on display; high because one of the exhibitions there was unexpectedly splendid. I could not do it justice by trying to describe it. I'd urge anyone reading this to go and see it, or if this is not possible, at least look at the trailer and downloads on the website
http://www.stedelijk.nl/ . The exhibition is called "The Falling Eye" by Saskia Olde Wolbers, and for anyyone who likes vivid images and intriguing and captivating tales, it is a sheer delight. The image above is a still from one of the videos.