a-country-diary

I had a week off last week and spent most of it outside in the general region of where I live, the weather was fabulous and I mad a special point of spending every minute I could outside....one of my trips out was to the Prehistoric Copper Mines In Aldeley Edge Cheshire...not just a mine this is a beautiful park with rolling woodlands a hidden Garden called Hare Hill, a Wizards Walk and a natural habitat for a multitude of animals and insects...the Copper Mines stopped producing Copper in the 1960's and were shortly after taken over and the area became under the protection of the National Trust...it is still possible to go down the mines with the Derbyshire Caving Club twice a year and have an explore.

The woodland is predominately Scots Pine and Beech and this along with a sprinkling of oak, birch, rowan and holly help hold the fragile nature of the site together as the area is wholly made up of red sandstone and the many hundreds of years mining have taken its toll on the landscape with lots of areas under constant erosion by the elements...this aside the whole area brings back the wish to go and explore which is what I did with abandone.

I was amazed at the freedom you have to go and explore and was expecting not to be able to go in some of the caves, but they are there and freedom is what you have....there are Red Kites, rabbits, several species of songbirds including  wood warblers, redstarts, marsh tit, redpoll, woodcock, several types of finches and the bigger birds such as ravens, crows, magpies and pigeons, lots of rabbits and this is the time of the year to see the kits (babies)...not afraid like the parents you can get close and almost pick them up as they have not yet learned to be afraid....there are Bees, mining bees, honey bees and my favourites the dragonflies.

There are also three types of bats to be found living in the caves of the species, Pipistrelle, Daubentons, whiskered and long eared bats, as well as winter roosting they can be found living in the eves of local buildings during the warmer months...of course the insects are in abundance with a couple of rare species including the winter gnat which is a nationally scarce.....in the ponds you will find frogs newts and dragonflies as well as damselflies and more bitey bugs.

What a place!, one story that I was told by the national trust warden was that from time to time coins are unearthed especially Roman and several prehistoric axe heads have been found on the site, the largest being a small pot full of roman coins from the first centuary AD found in one of the roman shafts....what a find.

Wild mushrooms for the pot and lots of edible berries are to be found amongst the brambles and hedgerows and as I like to forage this was a nice bonus to the day.....I spent several hours trudging around taking in the whole area and have vowed to take my two girls with me this weekend for some more exploratory fun, with a picnic, my trusty Trangia cooker for the hot drinks and my suffering wife we will have another free day of fun in the countryside.

You can find details of this site and others at. www.DerbysCC.org.uk   go on have a fun, free day out in the countryside on me....all you pay for is the carpark.

Forget the Partridge, Pheasant, Grouse, Woodcock and Snipe...there is one other who's flesh is tender and sweet and can only be hunted for a few days a year at the beginning of spring...do not underestimate this Wiley little creature he is fast and has a nasty bite...watch those fingers...only found in Scotland it breads in small groups of no more than seven...the actual breading cycle of the Haggis has never been seen and therefore never filmed, but I am hoping I might get the chance to take part in an operation being put together by Simon King later this year.
It can be found in many parts of Scotland and each area has a different breed but technically they are the same, the North Argyll breed is a particularly ferocious strain and should be handled with care.  You will know you're in haggis territory when you hear their call, a loud clicking, chirping noise strangely akin to the call of the triffids from the popular sci-fi film...To look at, the haggis is slightly comical...a small pointed rat-like face, large round ears, a round fat body with the stubby little wings although it's flightless and a pair of powerful but scrawny, spindly legs.
The important thing to notice here is that one leg is slightly shorter than the other which enables them to sprint round the hills and mountains they frequent...THAT is the key to catching them....Normally two people will be on a haggis hunt. The technique is simple - one person chases them round the hill and the other hunter will run round the opposite direction...To start with the first hunter will jump up and down making whooping noises to scare the haggis and then chase it round the hill. When the haggis sees the second hunter coming towards it and turns round, because one leg is shorter than the other and it's facing the wrong direction it's now unbalanced, gravity comes into action, the haggis falls over and rolls down the hill and ends up dazed and confused at the bottom they are now relatively easy to catch.
Once prepared for cooking and this bit is particularly secret and closely guarded...the now prepared haggis is boiled in salted water for about an hour and can be served with Neaps (turnip) and Tatties (potato's)...haggis are good to eat all year and they are hallowed on New Years Eve, when the Scottish celebrate the new year.
If you see one try not to disturb it, make a note of where it was and come back at the beginning of April with some more fools and enjoy the hunt.

Its been a while since I last posted and for this I am truly sorry, however the weather has been terrible and no matter how hard I tried to get my legs out of bed they simply refused...but!, today I had a day off and had a trip over to Leeds to my Shoots to have a look over the land and assess what damage the weather has done.
Well it was going to be a heavy going sort of day so I kitted up in my Neoprene Wellies heavy coat and warm clothing...first impressions were that everything was fine but upon closer inspection it was not good...the area of the Badgers Sett was still partly under water and from what I could see they had not been near for weeks "note to diary to look out for sign's of new diggings" , the same area also has a family of Foxes who were still in situe, luckily for them they have the cover of the trees so their bit of land was reasonably dry....The squirrels had suffered  with many of their drays now languishing on the floor of the copses, more than likely due to the weight of snow and wrong choice of tree in the first place, but they are very willey and have several hidey holes so they will be fine...no sign's of any Deer and the Kites were a bit sparse as well, I would not be too upset if the cold has killed a few off as they were becoming a big problem with the Grouse and Pheasants, they just love those little chicks.
For me the biggest shock was the whole of 70 metres of ridge-line and hill side had collapsed and slipped forwards towards the brook in the big field (Lea) This would have meant the death of a few dozen Rabbits, their Kitts and if we are looking for someone to pass the blame to it is them who weakened the land in the first place....problem here is that the land is very sandy and crumbles easily and this will cause us a lot of problems with the lambing  this year as the slippage has obliterated the road from the high field to the farm...to be honest I have seen a lot of this type of slippage recently all over including one man made behind a new supermarket in Manchester and one hillside I reported to the police at the side of a very busy main road, this one was soon dug out and the threat of a possible major incident was averted.
The Brook had been diverted due to being frozen no doubt and had flowed over the track, it along with other water from the high field had left a mass of pebbles that had been originally part of the soil but had now been cleaned and left in piles...good catapult fodder... the land looked quite bare and the farmer has lost a lot of good soil from the fields as a result....problem with our brook is that we had some nice trout in there, not big ones just a nice size and a lot of proper crayfish, not these foreign invaders we have sen a lot of on the television recently....is was a healthy brook and along with the voles, ducks and other creatures made it a nice place to stop and have a "brew and butty" whilst recharging the batteries, usually made on my superb Trangia Swedish Army Stove...it is light enough to put in the pocket with fuel, tea and coffee stored safely inside, all you need is a small bottle of water in the other pocket to balance you out and hey presto you have your very own field kitchen and a brew is only five minutes away.
This took me nearly four hours to cover so it was time to go home...the other two farms will have to wait until Sunday and I will report them to you later....thanks for reading and bye for now.