Since the middle of October our garden has been home for a one-footed robin; two legs but one foot, and I’ve no idea how it lost the other. It gets chucked mealworms and crumbs of cheddar from time to time and seems to do well on them, but does struggle perching, preferring to rest itself […]
Flora and fauna – almost bobbing along Read More »
Eagles or Doves? Aquilegia is a really common and splendid sight at the moment on roadside verges. Originally a wild flower, there are also many cultivated varieties in gardens and many of these have escaped back into the wild leading to a confusing picture! Original wild varieties are deep blue but can also be pink or
Flora and fauna – eagles or doves ? Read More »
An exciting yet reasonably regukar visitor to New Mills the Goosander is a medium-sized duck and a member of a group called the ‘sawbills’ because of their long, narrow bills with saw-like ‘teeth’ which are excellent for gripping fish, especially the brown trout found in the River Goyt. This long sleek, streamlined bird, is perfectly
The diving Goosander – flora and fauna Read More »
The Guelder Rose has a lacy, romantic looking creamy white flower with multiple little clusters of tiny flowers in the centre and a surrounding edge of larger five petalled flowers. Its delicate white appearance makes it easy to see why it inspired a traditional wedding song in Russia. Also known as dogberry, it has bunches of
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The midpoint of the Sett Valley trail is a perfect place to stop and savour the delights of the beautiful Bird Cherry tree. A tree that loves to grow near water, there are several dotted around here in the wet woodland and by the stream bank. A particularly lovely one lies in the field by the public footpath leading up to Hayfield Road. At the moment these trees are covered in clusters of creamy blossom which have a powerful scent of almonds. Eventually the tree will develop black berries. Like most plants it had a range of uses in the past: its bark was once used to ward off the plague and its berries to dye wool. PC
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This time of year the wood anemone is popping up all over New Mills. It’s thought to be a sure sign of ancient woodlands and also the Romans picked the first flowers of the season to ward off fevers The flowers come in shades of white, pink and purple and large swathes of them can
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Spring has well and truly sprung here in New Mills with the surrounding fields and hedgerows now blossoming. This along with the excellent weather recently has brought out some very busy bees. There is no mistaking the tawny mining bee: a honeybee-sized ginger species with a thick orange coat and a black face. They feast
Flora and fauna : mining bees Read More »
New Mills Walkers are Welcome are one of the many local groups that make our town so special. Visit New Mills enjoy supporting them both financially through our weekly Quizits and also in promoting their events and successes in making New Mills a focal point for walking – here is their annual report for 2020
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Our friend Alan Howarth at Kinder Mountain Rescue has recently been doing some work on analysing the Kinder MRT callout data. Where people walk on Kinder, what the most popular routes are and if possible, where people struggle with their navigation. Having looked around for data he hit on the Strava Global Heatmap. This is
Things are understandably quiet here at Walks from the Door, so I was delighted to receive a local commission that I could work on over the Christmas break while complying with the restrictions in place at the time.As a local I’m extremely familiar with this area, so I’ve been able to pick three thoroughly tried
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