Smithy House - 08-15/06/2018
We had planned to have a week's holiday in Bampton Grange before driving on to Mull - but a plumbing leak had brought down the kitchen ceiling and flooded the lounge overnight on 02-03 Jun, so our holiday turned into a DIY repair job. Amazingly, our excellent builder, plumber and electrician had already been in repaired the leak, put up a new ceiling, taken up the lounge carpet and underlay and had them out to dry in the sun. We had a week to make everything good for guests arriving on 15th. This involved mist coat and two coats of emulsion on the new kitchen ceiling, repainting the kitchen walls and skirting; getting a joiner in to replace four kitchen unit end-panels which had expanded in the water and cracked the veneer; getting the electrician back to replace the kitchen ceiling lights; replacing the oven which had filled with water; restoring the wooden legs of all the kitchen and lounge furniture which had been damaged by standing in water; completing the drying out of the lounge floor (2 industrial heaters going constantly from 4th to 11th Jun), underlay and carpet; refitting the carpet and making a repair to it as it had shrunk a bit; repainting the lounge skirting and cleaning everything. We got the job done and also managed to have a few partial days of leisure. We looked in to check everything on our way back south on 25th and found that the guests had left glowing comments and a 10/10 rating - so I guess we did a good enough job.
On 9th, having spent the morning cleaning, we went to North Lancashire to Warton Crag in search of Cistus Forrester - conditions were perfect but we were (again) unsuccessful. We also visited Gait Barrows NR, had a very nice curry at Bolton-le-sands (north Morcambe Bay) and went for a dusk walk in search of Netted Pug (again unsuccessful).
On 13th we had a day in the hills starting our walk at Great Langdale and climbing Cold Pike and Pike O'Blisco (click link)
On 14th we had a short walk from Mardale Head up to Small Water
On 13th we had a day in the hills starting our walk at Great Langdale and climbing Cold Pike and Pike O'Blisco (click link)
On 14th we had a short walk from Mardale Head up to Small Water
Moth trapping was generally quiet and not much was found by day. I did have one nocturnal expedition to Cliburn Moss on 10th where I obtained what i believe to be Coleotechnites picealla (Spruce Groundling) - this is a recent introduction to Britain (along with its host plant Norway Spruce), but has so far only been reported from SE-England as far as I can ascertain - so if/when confirmed this might be a first for Cumbria. The image left shows 3 hawkmoth species trapped at Smithy House (a Poplar HM, 4 Elephant HMs and a Small Elephant HM. It illustrates some of the variability in size of Elephant HM and the the smallest of them is not much larger than Small Elephant HM (the furthest left animal) |