This is a view taken from about half way up Habicht in the Austrian Stubai Alps where I have been hut-to-hut trekking with a group from the UK branch of the Austrian Alpine Club - simply amazing weather and lots of difficult soft snow high on all the mountains & passes as a result of the huge dump of rain that happened in Germany & Austria last month that made things a bit tricky - anyway its back to the wonderful (though non-glacial) Yorkshire Dales.
The Curlews, Lapwings and Oyster Catchers have of course all gone now - and we have the Swallows now gathering for their epic journey South so the dale is much quieter now. There was a big flock of Fieldfare on the second field going out yesterday evening which reminded me of the time I was doing an Alpine training walk a few years ago when I came upon an enormous flock of Fieldfare as I came down off Fremington Edge heading for Langthwaite - there was in effect a carpet of Fieldfare covering the whole hillside and as I descended the birds nearest to me rose and skimmed over the rest of the flock to settle on the lower side of the "carpet" and as I continued down this "carpet" of birds flowed down the hillside ahead of me - an amazing sight.
The hay has now been taken from the meadows around Hill Top Farm and the cropped meadows have a pale colour to them until they can "green-up" again - as I drove home from the Airport I could see the pale patchwork of fields long before I could make out Hill Top Farm. I'm sorry to have missed helping the Atkinsons with their haymaking - its a bit of a treat for a "townie" like me to be chucking hay bales about and sharing their tea, sandwiches & cake at break time. Janet tells me that the weather has also been amazing up here for the last two weeks and the photos below show how lovely the garden is at this time of year - it seems another world when the garden was waist-deep in snow drifts. Summer at long last.
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