Aye Gill Pike - CCG-VC65 Botanical Surveying

Mike Canaway organised a botanical surveying day for the VC 65 botanical surveyors and Craven Conservation  Group - He described it as a good place for Polytrichum strictum hummocks,  Rushes, Blanket bog and good views.

It lived up to his description.

The group assemble on 19 August on the A 684 two miles east of Sedbergh

We bypass some bog pimpernel (not in our scheduled grid tetrad) and walk up and up and up and up
and up and up and up
and up and up and up

Mike shows us some Polytrichum strictum (as if we can't see five hundred thousand other hummocks ourselves)
It mostly seems to be growing with Sphagnum capillifolium ( a Red Bogmoss).

He pointed out that it is rare and declining in much of England - but there is plenty in the Pennines, the Lake District and Wales and Scotland

Beside a wall I get side-tracked into Leafy Liversorts:

 Lophozia ventricosa.. ..have to look the others up) .. and then I find a new plant for our list:

A baby Mountain Ash tree:

Potential Sorbus aucuparia

 At lunch, held on a stony ridge, (flags/gritsone) I amuse myself by photographing a lichen.. though I now think it is only  a Parmelia saxatilis that happens to be fruiting.

But the summit is reached and what splendid views!

With binoculars, or with a digital zoom camera we could see the white radar station on Dunn Fell - distant peak on the right and Cross Fell  on the left

To celebrate I play my tin whistle - but the wind is louder than the whistle

We look up Garsdale to Garsdale Head and Dandry Mire viaduct.

That's the same picture in wide angle.. taken from a bog pool.

Pat and Helen admire the view

And I photo the lichens on the cairn behind them. Lecanora handelii - see close up below

I think it is Lecanora handelii because the soralia (powdery areas) are at the edges of the squamules/areoles, not in the middle of them.

More on Lichens: Pseudevernia furfuracea was also growing on the cairn.

In the Sphagnum near the summit we saw quite a lot of Lichnomphalia ericetroum ( umbellifera ) This is a little white toadstool with a depressed cap.  L umbellifera grows from dark green lichen granules up to .25mm diameter.

There were patches of Cladonia uncialis and Cladonia portentosa

on drier bits of peat.

As far as higher plants go, we must have doubled our score during the last hour as we returned, skirting a little lower than the summit and joyfully running to patches of Marsh Thistle

On the way down it started raining. We stop to look at a Drinker Moth that has just laid some eggs.

It was on a grass stalk, but it crawled onto my hand and
I left it on some heather.. probably shouldn't have done
as I went home and read that the
caterpillars eat grasses, not heather.

We arrived home safely, in the pouring rain, pleased to have been out walking in the sun in the morning

Leaflet part 8: how to write a biodiversity leaflet - asking people to print their own

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p://www.greenchristian.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/wildlife-leaflet-1-triptych.pdfBack to Part 1:  (Intro)   14 Oct 2014.

Back to Part 2: A leaflet that people will pick up
Back to Part 3: A leaflet that people will READ
Back to Part 4: A leaflet so that people will ACT
Back to Part 5: It's now divided into TWO leaflets
Back to Part 6: A better template - more space and fewer font sizes
Back to Part 7: Making posters from the leaflet and testing it out at our House group

Leaflet part 8: how to write a biodiversity leaflet - asking people to print their own

It is now mid August 2015.

September 1st is an important day for many reasons:

Start of Creation time (Creation Time: 1 Sept - Second Sunday in October)

The Pope has just declared it is should be for Catholics a World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation 

There is a "Pray and Fast for the Climate" Movement encouraging churches to have fasts or services or both on the 1st of each month leading up to the COP21 talks on climates in Paris this December.

This was an incentive for me to get the leaflet used.
I send news emails on behalf of Green Christian to its members once or twice a month, so this upcoming 1st Sept seemed a good opportunity. So last night off the email went, some  with the pdf leaflet attached, and some where it was given as a link: -inviting members for their comments.    http://www.greenchristian.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/wildlife-leaflet-1-triptych.pdf     

Here is the current page with the downloadable leaflets: 

http://www.greenchristian.org.uk/archives/5955

This morning I received a comment from one person: (Thank you Sheila)

"I like the Wildlife and Biodiversity leaflet but when I printed out the triptych I found that I lost some of the text on the left-hand side (both pages) so I can't really make use of it in this form."

May people have ink jet printers that insist on having a left hand or top margin.  Will this prevent lots of people from printing triptych leaflets?

1st Sept: Settle Walks for Creation

The Pope has declared 1 Sept as a World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation. So let's join with others round the world to be thankful for our wonderful world and to learn to appreciate it more.

And for those of us who are not Catholics there are lots of other reasons to celebrate Care of our world - not least because "The world is loaned to us - we look after it for future generations - "

Indeed we are joining in with other people in the  Peoples Pilgrimages around the world as people take part in pilgrimages leading up to the UN COP21 talks on climate Change in Paris in December

And if you go outside you will find reasons to celebrate.  Even in a city you may find a tree or a patch of waste ground with Plants growing through the pavement. Can you give names to those plants?

If you live near Settle, come on both walks. (If you are a visitor come early so you can enjoy going round Settle Market place in the morning and have coffee at St John's Methodist Church, or Settle Parish Church, or the Friends Meeting House where you can buy Tradecraft Goods. Then have lunch at the Parish Church.

The first walk starting at 2pm is very gentle - and is wheelchair accessible..(indeed, I hope Althea will be a co-leader) . but we'll visit several eco-sites including the Parish Church garden beside the Settle Carlisle Railway,  the famous Settle Hydro "Reverse Archimedes Screw", a pleasant walk beside the River Ribble, via Queens Rock to Lay of the Land (Settle Garden Centre).


The second, starting at 5.45 pm requires strong shoes. We will walk up Castleberg.. from where you can see nearly all the world... Well Settle anyway, and Waddington/Newton Moor Mast:
We'll make sure those who want to return to Settle by 7.15 can do so to attend any evening meetings that may be on.

See the walk we did on 23 July

Hope you can come

Walk for Creation - July 2015 - Settle

Click on the poster on the right for details of the upcoming walks on 1st September 2015 

Below is an account of our walk on 23 July

On 23 July Churches Together in Settle held a "Walk for Creation".  

We stopped at three points en route and held a period of silence looking at the view, then discussed various aspects of what we saw:- with relation to 

1. Biodiversity

2. Climate change 

3. Waste 

4. Justice 

5. Peace 

6. God, Jesus, or relationships between people

(The leaders' preparation sheet can be downloaded here)

We met at Limestone View and the first "stop" was their garden. I was delighted to see the vibrant "Wildflower mix" that had been sown there

For the second and third stops we split into a "Long walk" and a "Short walk" group

The Long walk group walked along Watery Lane where the following were in flower:

Meadowsweet

Silverweed

Meadow Crane's-bill ..supporting a bee

The Shorter walk group carried spare chairs with us and stopped at the Allotments

We discussed waste and recycling,  wildlife and the beauty of nature and God's love.

Example of recycling

More examples of recycling - can you spot them?

The short walk group then stopped at a bench
at the old peoples bungalows above Limestone View

We held the plenary session at the Cafe at Limestone View

We hope to hold another on 1st September, starting at Holy Ascension Church. Maybe one in the afternoon, visiting Settle's Archimedes Screw turbine, and one in the evening - more strenuous up Castleberg and but this is not fixed yet.. Look out for details.

Malham Methodist Chapel 150th Anniversary celebrations 6 Sept 2015

5pm:  Cream teas at the chapel

5.30pm:The big picture 

6pm Service - Preacher Rev David Emison