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Christmas 2009 starts with an icy walk

It is officially a white Christmas 2009 according to the boffins at the Met Office and the BBC . The first time for 5 years they say.

Our day started with a quick walk in the park then back home to our prezzies.

Here is a gallery of our day so far.

Thank you everyone for our gifts.

Happy Christmas

Buster and Charlie

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Frosty Carlisle but no snow yet.

Frosty ground and brilliant sunshine – just perfect for an early morning walk and that is exactly how we started the day.

Mum and dad promised that we would get out today ahead of the forcasted snow, which as yet has not arrived.

Buster has taken to wearing his fleecy jacket at this time of the year to try and keep his hip warm.  For an old man he does very well on our expeditions.

The frost over the last two nights had made the ground all firm and non-splodgy so we were in for a long walk as we would stay dry and above all clean.

Dad did not fancy getting the car out today as he didn’t want to de-ice it or face the busy roads full of Christmas shoppers so instead we walked to the starting point for todays walk.

Engine Lonning was once a busy rail yard for the  London & North Eastern Railway.  The rail yard closed in the early sixties and nature has been swift to reclaim the area.

Recent renovation work in this area has improved the major paths through the site and on a frosty day like today it is fantastic.

Wooden steps lead down towards the former Waverley Bridge where we come across some naturally made ice pops.

Water, dripping from underneath the bridge arches, has frozen to form clear icicles which are glinting in the sunshine.

Dad takes some pictures then breaks one off for us to lick.  For some reason they don’t smell right so we decline a cool drink.

He now has wet paws which start to get really cold in the fresh air.

One the other side of the  River Eden, mum notices that what appears to be hundreds of trees that have been recently planted.

It also looks as if the river bank has been taken away to allow the river to flood onto this area.

Resetting the food chain

After all the recent rain, this spell of dry hard frost is great to seal the arrival of winter and to reset all of the natural rhythms of nature.

Bugs and plants will especially benefit from the cold as it will ensure that the food chain is kept in check and that plants get their winter rest.

Recent warm winters have kept many plants awake and bugs and other insects have not been knocked back by what should be natures leveller, the cold icy UK winter.

Mum had noticed that in our garden the daffodil bulbs had already started to peek through the soil and that many of the bushes had started to grow new green buds.

Sunlight

Clear, fresh sunlight this morning made some of the plants shout out to be photographed.

Golden cones on this Larch tree twinkled with frost and almost seemed to glow as the low sunlight shone through the branches.

Our walk continued along the path past the river monitoring station and towards the Sheepmount Stadium.

Passing straight in front of the stadium we  entered onto the playing fields beyond the astro-turf all weather pitches.

Footprints could be seen on the frozen grass where animals and people had been before us. Sunshine flooded the very tops of the trees and in the calm still air we took a moment to look around.

Monster

Nothing was moving on the fields. In the bushes to our left blackbirds scurried amongst the undergrowth in search of beetles whilst above them could be seen the occasional flashes of red as a robin stood guard.

Across the field and onto the lower field we tramped, our footprints left on flattened grass testament to our passage.

Through the ground came a monster rumbling towards us. Breaking the silence a DRS train thundered on the tracks across the bridge which we had walked under about 40 minutes ago.

Direct Rail Services (DRS) is based about a mile up the tracks from here and has recently been in the news helping communities in West Cumbria after the floods.

Working on behalf of  Northern Rail, DRS are providing additional capacity between Maryport, Flimby, Workington North and Workington to help residents of these areas move around after many bridges were washed away in the bad weather.

Brick

Whilst we watched the train, and to avoid mum getting scared of being under the bridge as the train went overhead we waited, and looking to the ground dad spotted a brick peeping through the low grass and mud.

Unusually this brick had the words ‘Phorpres Electricity’ stamped into it.

Searching the web when we came home seems to indicate that this brick may have been made in London at the London Brick Company works.

Further research by dad possibly reveals that Phorpres was a trade name which came about due to the number of times they were pressed ,four times = four press = Phorpres.

All dad can think of is that the brick came from an electricity building at some point in it’s history. Maybe you know more about this brick?  Let us know via the comments area below.

Thats all for now.

Until next time

Buster and Charlie

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100 posts and a walk in Carlisle

Celebrations are the order of the day as we clock up one hundred posts on this version of our blog.

Long term readers will know that actually the number of posts we have published is a lot higher than this but the clock was reset when we moved to this software called Wordpress.

Did you know you can follow us on Twitter?  Our username is ablogfrommydog

Looking back over the last 100 posts we have done quite an amazing amount of stuff and explored some fantastic places.

Today we have been on a walk taking full advantage of the overnight frosts hardening the ground and in turn making them un-muddy.

Our circular walk started at the Stoneyholme golf course car park just off Victoria Place in Carlisle. Here is a link for  Google maps.

Cranes

Leaving the car park and golf course buildings behind us we crossed over the bridge  and entered into Rickerby Park.

The River Eden was still flowing quite quickly and had the colour of whipped hot chocolate.

Two cranes dominate the skyline as they keep watch over the new Richard Rose Central Academy on Lismore Place.

Costing about £30m to build it is hoped the new school complex will be complete by  January 2011.

The cranes – a Potain and a Liebherr – were supplied by Kier Plant and are 34m and 24m high with a 55m radius.

Debris

Following the edge of the River Eden towards the town we pass this debris covered wire fence.

Many tonnes of grasses, twigs and litter have become lodged against one side of the wire.  It is not hard to work out that the river flows past this location from right to left.

Looking across the river and towards TheSands sports complex some damage looks to have been caused to these railings.

Ahead of us and balanced on one of the Eden Bridge supports is this very big log.

Maybe this former tree was carried down stream during the last flood and became stuck here.  Let’s see how long it lasts?

Restored

Our path now leaves the river edge and after climbing the bank we take a look at Eden Bridge Gardens.

You may remember that earlier this year a programme of restoration and renovation was undertaken on the gardens which are locally known as the Chinese Gardens.  You can find out more about the work done here over at heritageandhistory.com

We leave the park via the steps and exit onto Stanwix Bank crossing over the River Eden via Eden Bridge and onto the path by the side of The Sands.

Flood defences

A new sign has appeared around the town recently marking the 2005 floods in the city. Bright red with an outline of the River Eden in blue the sign simply says ‘Flood January 2005′.

Five years have almost past since the horrid floods of 2005 when all of this area was underwater. The new flood defences will hopefully make this a thing of the past.

Keeping The Sands  Centre to our right we make our way down a few steps and onto a path by the side of yet another golf course called The Swifts.

Golf

This facility  was one of the first official PGA Golf Starter Centre’s and features a tight par 3 course, 16 bay driving range, grass hitting area, practice bunker and a chipping facility. Whatever that means:-)

Hidden in debris on this side of the river dad notices this post marking the Eden Riverside trail.

Not exactly a modern sign, we wondered how long it had been in place and doing it’s duty.

Also lurking amongst the branches mum spotted this golf club.

Resting high up in a tree we puzzled for a while how it would become in such a position.

Given it would not float easily we concluded that it must have been placed here by a frustrated golfer who had lost his grip and thrown his golf stick high into the air.

Maybe it is waiting for next autumn to get down from the tree along with the elephants.

Four years

What a memory my dad has for images, maybe he is an elephant?

As we rounded a bend in the river dad spotted a row of bushes and commented that he had a photograph in the archive, which currently contains over 60,000 images, of when these bushes were planted.

Sure enough he was right and here is the proof.  Interestingly the image was taken almost exactly fours years ago to the date (27 Dec 2005).

The large image is from 2005 and the inset is now.

Kyack

Floating down the River Eden to our  left was this man in a kyack. Had he travelled far and what had he seen on his travels. Given the high water he possibly had travelled for many miles.

If you were this person then please get in touch so we can find out about your journey and what you had seen?

Our journey now ended where we began.  It had taken about an hour but had been great fun. Thankfully we would not need a bath as we had kept very clean if not a little damp from the damp grass.

Until next time and post 101

Buster and Charlie

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Mucky paws in Bitts Park, Carlisle

How many times can we start a blog entry by saying it is raining again?  We make a quick dash today, between the showers,  to Bitts Park so that we can get out and stretch our paws.

Finding a car parking space was difficult for dad as something must be going on at the nearby Sheepmount sports complex. Interesting and just an aside, the Sheepmount description from the link above says that the site has two cricket pitches and a cycle track, where?

The number of times we have visited the area and we have never seen anyone playing cricket or getting on their bikes except on the public paths through the park.

Our walk

Back to our walk and after parking the car and avoiding slipping in the muddy grass we finally got onto long leads and a scamper about.

In a previous update we mentioned that areas of Carlisle had been flooded in the recent storms well it looks like the new moat by the side of Carlisle Castle has now vanished.

Silt and mucky puddles line the path and it wasn’t long before the tidemark around our legs became visible.

Mum suggested that we should get some wellington boots.

We meet biscuit

Victoria Park, next door and along the same path, had not dried out and the calm duckpond reflected the sky like a mirror.

Previous visits to this park had revealed a number of burrows in the plant borders possibly made by rabbits or maybe a badger or two.

Mum and dad wondered if they had found new homes or had possibly drowned as the waters rose.

Bounding along, stick in mouth, came biscuit. Straight past us and into the pond he ran loving every minute of his walk.

We have met biscuit a number of times on our walk around the park and her human. Charlie gets fussed over as a fellow nutter and did make a bit of a collection of paw prints on his trousers, for which he can only say sorry.

Blossom

Many of the plants in the park have now hunkered down for the winter after loosing leaves and shedding flowers. However, some love this time of year including a winter flowering cherry.

Bright white flowers with pinkish centres contrast brilliantly against the dark grey sky and brown tree trunks.

Nearby, spreading scent across a wide area is a viburnum. Small white flowers dispense a perfume in to the cool breeze similar to jasmine.

One of the casualties of the flooding is a very tall willow tree which now has its roots above ground.

Willlow usually enjoy their feet in damp soil but the soft ground has given way allowing this tree to fallover.

Maybe the grounds staff will be able to replant it once the waters go away but more than likely it will be turned into chippings.

Let’s hope a new tree is planted in it’s place.

We return home and entering the house it becomes apparent that we may have picked up quite a bit of mud and debris from our walk.

The entrance hall floor quickly becomes covered with small mucky paw prints and as is so much the procedure these days, we go straight to the bathroom.

Yipee not a full bath, but a washing of our legs and tummies to remove the grit and dirt.  I think a few hours infront of the warm fire is needed now to dry off and chill. It is a weekend after all!

Until next time

Buter and Charlie