Late winter in the Peaks

Today it’s spring in London, but in Derbyshire a couple of weeks ago it was still winter.


You can see on one tree, though, that winter will soon be ending. (A sycamore, I think.)


Being in the middle of Woodlands by Oliver Rackham (see my earlier posting) I paid special attention to trees. This landscape would I think count for him as savannah – grassland with scattered trees -- though not at all like our usual image. Here’s a wood, too, which Rackham would know how to date (with historical documents, geography and botany).

The tree that’s blown over would, in Rackham’s experience, probably go on growing.

Everywhere are dry stone walls, the ones, I assume, by which the Enclosure Acts were implemented. The presence of grazing animals and free-standing trees make these valley fields seem like parkland.