Kit Hill dawn

 

Morning glory with Spot and Harriet

frost beard

The best example yet of this strange phenomenon. 

And the eerie light on a snowy Kit Hill this morning.

Kit Hill

It was a good to be alive sunny morning on Kit Hill today.

the call to jubilate

the beacon on Kit Hill casting a fiery light into the heavens

Kit Hill images - and a linnet

Kit Hill quarry provides a wonderful range of tones with only hints of green at the moment. It has warmed up so quickly that crowfoot is already flowering in the small ponds around the quarry pool.

 And a stonechat (I think) was puffing himself up and giving full vent to his Spring song.

post post script:- my in-house expert has suggested that what I thought was a stonechat is in fact a linnet. This may well be true because its song was strikingly beautiful and the linnet is renowned for the quality of its song. It also likes scrubland. I have a new source of information to keep us all well informed, Birds Britannica (see link)

Downgate

a beautiful sunny morning with a thick mist lying in the Tamar valley. As the mist receded the whole village of Downgate appeared beneath us as we stood on Kit Hill. Downgate is on a fairly steep hill but the perspective has flattened it out. In the background a green wood pecker was yaffling away (to hear it try this link to RSPB). I have never managed to catch a green woodpecker on camera, but there is definitely one in residence on Kit Hill now. We will go hunting (only with a camera of course!)

quarry tails

soft grey colours in the quarry on Kit Hill, and one inhabitant showing off the length of his tail. It is worth clicking on the Kit Hill label (see list to the right) to see how this little patch of granite varies so much through the year.

icefall

the water in Kit Hill quarry has frozen solid but no dogs were allowed to try it out given recent tragic events. It is so cold that an icefall has formed on the quarry face. (OK, the blue is cheating)

New Year 2

the first view from Kit Hill below is towards Plymouth. The English Channel is the thin sliver of bright light at the top right.
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The second view is of Brentor sitting in front of the main mass of Dartmoor. It is usually much more difficult to pick out from the background.
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Brentor is the little pimple like hill (plus church) to be seen just below the russet brown line of Dartmoor on the far horizon . It is a strange place (see link) with many legends (see link)

the New Year

It has been unusually cold for this part of the world recently. From the Saturday before Christmas until the middle of last week the roads were covered with sheet ice and many people couldn't even get out of their houses. Car travel was almost impossible without 4 wheel drive. After a brief milder spell, it has turned very cold again. The air is very calm and clear. The views from Kit Hill were spectacular and the quarry was frozen over for the first time in Spot's experience, who can be seen assessing the situation very gingerly (and no, he wasn't allowed to walk on to the ice) .

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squall over Dartmoor

and still it rains, the ewes must be soaked. Dartmoor is on the far horizon, Hingston Down to the right.

and the view

It was a very clear day, and this photo shows the Tamar valley (very flattened by the perspective), and in view are the villages of Luckett, Sydenham Damerel, Milton Abbot, Horsebridge, Townlake and Tutwell, and in the far distance the hills of Dartmoor looking towards Okehampton.

more orchids

nearby and for the first time on Kit Hill, we found some orchids. They look like southern marsh orchids (having no spots on the leaves and two sepals that look like bird's wings) but these orchids often hybridise with heath spotted and common spotted orchid. However, they were by a marsh!

egg and bacon

bird's foot trefoil, showing why it is sometimes called eggs and bacon, and below a vigorous clump of eyebright, possibly nemorosa anglica (but who can tell??), growing in the marshes at the entrance to Kit Hill quarry.

at the rock face

intricate and mysterious imagery from the quarry at Kit Hill. It looks like a natural (wild) version of a Japanese garden, or vice versa

view from Kit Hill

Kelly Bray mine workings (now a world heritage site) in foreground, and Linkinhorne parish church in background, and Bodmin moor in far distance.

crab apples

crab apple blossom, growing on Kit Hill where today I heard a cuckoo for the first time this year. Early purple orchids are growing in abundance on the road to Launceston, and the swallows and martins are building their nests. Once again, and with some relief, one can feel the strong pulse of the deepest rhythms of Nature.

and the rest of Cornwall

looking west from the very top of Kit Hill. Pensilva and St Cleer hardly visible in the background, Callington in the middle ground, the pack in the foreground.

quarry, Kit Hill

Yesterday morning (Saturday) was a fine, cold morning with ice under foot and fascinating colours in the rocks.

King crow

slightly smaller than a rook and with a darker beak, this crow posed very nicely in front of the view from Kit Hill