Edge of the world

Scout Scar, Cumbria

A lunchtime walk on Scout Scar. This little ash tree is one of many that grows on the limestone clitter on the top of the Scar. The clitter is probably the fractured stone left behind after the weathered limestone pavements were plundered from here generations ago to adorn the wall tops in Kendal. The ash trees are slow growing, I've known them for twenty years and they never seem to get any bigger, growing as they do on unforgiving substrates and blasted by westerly winds.

Grazing prevents the new establishment of ash and other saplings, and this one and the others must have got away from grazing sheep at some point in the past when the Scar was free of stock - possibly even as far back as the agricultural depression before the 2nd World War.

My original purpose was to take a photo of the two rockrose species growing on the Scar edge, but there was too much wind. So I took this instead, I like the airy feeling with the sky and cloud below the tree. It looks rather like the edge of the world.

A bit of a frustrating time downloading photos tonight. The old PC is getting slower all the time, and now it refuses to recognise the USB cable connecting the camera. Fortunately I have a card reader too, and eventually the PC recognised it and accepted the download.