Thursday walk with Pete - 28th March 2019 - Back o' t' Fell Road - Lindale
A brief post mainly for my own record on this pleasant little used road out of Lindale.
CLICK FIRST PHOTO TO SEE OTHERS AS SLIDESHOW
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| Zoom to Whitbarrow |
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| This area has been constructed as a series of lakes/ponds and not shown on my present OS map - purpose unknown |
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| Curious growth on tree branch. Original photo against light was just silhouette, now lightened in Photoshop. Any identificstion or info welcome. |
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| Every year some particular plant, shrub or tree seems to be favoured - this year it seems to be the blackthorn. |
Might the growth on the branch be a gall caused by an insect?
ReplyDeleteLakes and ponds - I noticed that much of the low lying ground on either side of the A590 was flooded last week - the area you show is similarly low lying - being inlets from the bay until relatively recently - so maybe it is flooding whose drainage has been hindered by the spring tides - or have you discounted that already ?
ReplyDeleteThe Crow - I think you are right Martha. I had heard of a gall before but never knew much about how they were formed. The first two paragraphs of Wikipedia's entry give a good description for anybody who wants to know more. Apparently they are formed by insects injecting fluids and interfering with the cell structure of the tree. Apparently there are tree specific versions - unfortunately I didn't note what kind of tree it was.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gall
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gimmer - the terrain is about 9 metres above sea level. The fairly substantial River Winster runs through. The water features look man made to me, probably being fed by water diverted from the river. There are other access points and I may go and have another look one summer evening.
I agree that from your images, it does look like that - cannot find anything in the Local Plan about such a feature !
ReplyDeleteFurther up, just off the road to Witherslack, there is (or was - I don't know about 'now') a small house with a well-known, small but lovely and peaceful garden, where once was a small nursery garden, Blea Crag (Nurseries) - where the owner let people wander around for a small contribution to a local (birdlife ?) charity: it is more or less at the furthest reaches of the old spring tide line and one can still look uninterruptedly straight down to the sea (ignoring roads and railways !) - as the tidal range in this part of the Bay is over 10M above datum, one can see why it used to flood and why flood waters can back up after a wet winter/spring and why your 'area' could also still flood! I await the unfolding of the mystery.