Early Autumn on the Moors - Colours

This morning I headed up to Win Hill and was totally captivated by the colours and variety of plants still up on the moor. The heather dominates, but there are also plenty more colours to see.

I woke early enough, before the sun was up and, as usual, the first job is to look out the window to check the weather. Valley full of mist, patchy mist higher up and the sky a beautiful mix of morning colours. Well, this could only mean one thing, a walk above the mist and Win Hill beckoned across the valley.

Pip always a happy companion, especially on this walk. She loves the trees and then open moors. We pushed hard up Parkin Clough, a great wake up call for a body that was restfully lying in bed 30 minuets ago. Makes you focus on your breathing and using your body efficiently. The cold of the temperature inversion adding to the delight of early morning movement. We climbed through the trees, out of the mist and onto the summit. A couple up ahead and a big group on the top. We gave them all a wide berth and only briefly paused to admire this most amazing view.

Your gaze follows the valleys from this central meeting point. This isolated hill providing some protection from the masses, you have to work hard to get here, from whatever direction, is it’s saving grace. You have to earn this view and well worth it, it is. In every direction is a vista worthy of a stand alone view, as you turn you are greeted by vision after vision. Open moorland, purple with heather, each valley, filled with mist lying in the bottom, Bamford Edge with Stanedge behind, soon to be filled with climbers. A ribbon of mist snaking towards Hathersage, Grindleford, Calver and Chatsworth. The hot air balloons from the Country Fair will be rising with mist this morning.

But I am lucky, I have seen this view plenty of times and this is not my focus of today’s mission. I want to explore the area between the trees and moors, to see what we can see. We head down and across to the paths that lead from Win Hill towards Thornhill. We follow the edge of the moor, back through the trees and onto the open hill side. These beautiful flat grassy paths with amazing views and easy walking. The valley road down below, already busy with cars. The sounds rising up the hillside as people make their way to the start of a days adventuring. Walkers, runners, cyclists and climbers all ready to embrace the day. The day trippers not yet up and moving, only the keen, or those tight on time, needing the early start.

We pause for a few moments, under this hawthorn. Looking out down the Hope Valley. Just sitting and resting. Even Pip comes to join me after a while. Taking this time to sit and do nothing is a good skill I am learning to embrace. Just to do nothing is a luxury, no pressures, just being in the moment and enjoy the solitude and space. You then also start to notice the little things around you. First there seems as nothing is going on, then you a bee might fly by, you hear it first, then see it, and watch it pass by. The call of a buzzard down in the trees, the mewing that is often heard before you see them. Insects scurrying about in the grass and on the plants. The path looks like it is just grass, but can suddenly come to life with insects and plants, little dots of colour amongst the green. Even the greens start to look different, green is not just green, but lots of shades. What colour is actually just green anyway.

The insect life has found me sitting quietly, just enjoying myself, and midges do not like this. I secretly think Pip alerted them to our presence and so we move on for fear of becoming breakfast. We leave the cover of the hawthorn, already full of red berries.

The view is dominated by the heathers, the bright purple now being slowly subdued with patches of brown as the tiny flowers start to fade. This is not uniform purple, lots of variation of colour and plants. This is offset by the greens (as already mentioned, lots of variation), grass, bracken, bilberry with the grey walls running along.

The walls make natural divisions across the moor, but also homes for plenty of wildlife and natural corridors for travel. There are often little paths close by made by the passage of little animals who make their home up here.

If we slow our walk and look around we will see plenty more colours and variations. Harebells seem to grown on their own along the these paths. A single flower enjoying the view. I am used to seeing clumps of these blowing in the breeze, often with an insect sitting inside for shelter, but not today.

A clump of gorse, bright yellow flowers, in the heather. Patches dotted about on the side of the hill. These bushes that seem to flower as and when they see fit. No rhyme or reason as I can see. Often a welcome sight in the mid-winter when everything has been grey and dreary for weeks. Little specks of sunlight to warm our senses, if not our bodies. But today, just pure delight to see them standing out against the purple.

Little specs of black, or are they blue, or dark purple, or maybe a combination. The bilberry itself hiding in the foliage of the little bushes. Ripe for picking and eating as we go, an early breakfast. The grouse have been having their fill but plenty left over.

So there is plenty to see and enjoy on these seemingly barren moors that are filled with heather, that gets so much attention, but look a bit closer and there is plenty of colour and activity. Enjoy the splendour of the big views, these are easy and magnificent, but also look a bit closer. Slow your walk or run and take time to replenish. The destination will be there, but the journey will pass quickly by if we are not careful.