The peaceful Irthing Valley

I expected to show you a blip of Crammell Linn, a lovely waterfall on the Irthing River. I was walking there today, doing a recce for the U3A walk on Saturday. The walk to and from the waterfall is quite rough. The paths are obviously not used by many people and the bracken is in the process of a take-over bid.

Nearby is the RAF station, Spadeadam. The area is used for practice bombing and I gather there is a very sophisticated system for assessing performance of fighters from around the world (allies I assume!). Today a helicopter was circling aroung noisily and I was lucky enough to catch a few shots when it sent out flares. It has released 2 lots and you can see them both in this image.

I spent so much time watching and then enjoying the wild flowers, butterflies, birds, ferns and grasses, that I didn't have time to do the whole walk. Another day's delight.