Fire

I wasn't at home when the fire started on Ilkley Moor. I only found out when text messages started arriving from friends and family checking up on me. It would have been a spectacular sight but I’m quite glad to have avoided watching the fire rage from just a few hundred yards away. It would have been impossible to sleep. 

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen the moor as tinderbox dry as it is right now, at any time of year let alone in April. The desiccated bracken from last season is the perfect kindling. It could have been a whole lot worse. 

I was worried about my beloved pine trees but, except for a handful, they seem to have survived with just minor charring. The litter of pine needles is still smouldering but the trees rising out of the blackened ground look mostly unscathed. I hope appearances aren’t going to be deceptive.

I’m expecting the land to recover quickly and there is a project sitting there in documenting the process of regeneration. The saddest sight was a grouse that I saw wandering around in a state of confusion. It was hard not to fear the worst for the poor thing.