Stanton Moor, Derbyshire
Another lovely summers day…very hot as is the current norm! So we waited to the cooler evening temperatures arrived and headed for the moors where we hoped the extra height might just give us a cooling breeze.
Being August it was also time for the Heather to start to bloom. The hot dry summer has taken its toll in many ways. Here on Stanton Moor the grasses were both brittle and bright yellow in the low evening sun. The Bilberry were short and looked as if most fruits had shrivelled up…as for the Heather, well the best that can be said on this moor is that it was doing its best.
There were still patches where the massed grouping gave you swaths of purple colour but on closer inspection the flower buds were either small or shrivelled some never reaching the blossom stage. Not sure that if we do get some rain soon that it will improve matters this season.
One thing which was very noticeable….. this August the Heather was not giving off its distinctive waxy aroma, the distinctive smell of the heather just wasn’t there. Nor were there the usual Bees that normal seeking out the pollen.
There is also a small flock of Herdwick, there usual task is to help graze the vegetation and keep it under natural control. Normally they go around in a social flock, all grazing together and leisurely moving round the moor.. find one you find them all. Not this time they were spread across the moor in groups of 2 or 3 and they were constantly moving, noses to the ground…obviously doing there very best to seek out what nutrition they could get from the tinder dry moor.
The weather will change ‘eventually’ ….. till it does evening walks are perhaps the best option for enjoying this summer warmth.
7th August
(C) David Oakes 2018
DAVID OAKES - IMAGES. 
I’ll second that! 🙂 (But tomorrow we are alerted to a spot of rain over here. I don’t believe it before my hair is getting wet! 🙂
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Agree… I believe the change in the weather when it really shows up and I will get wet and blown away (litterally). Till then we can ‘enjoy'(according one weather person) blue skies, beautiful sunshine and nice warm evenings… For some that will be so. For most people and animals and NATURE herself it’s high time for rain, lower temperatures and soms clouds. I have photos of clouds. To remember me what they look like. We will ‘enjoy’ 32º in the West today and 38º in the South East but that may even be higher…. (or is it might?)
It’s so lovely seeing the puple heather but after reading your story it’s miracle they are in bloom. Ours is dead. All over the country where we have heather it’s dead or dying. Also our wild boars are dying. And many more. Not just here I guess.
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