Bretherdale

A wander into a fabulous (because that's what I've chosen to focus on) seldom visited Valley today.
The best and the worst of our special places on view. Farms treating the countryside like toxic waste dumps, fells bereft of any diversity due to overgrazing and poor management. 
But....
Then into high Bretherdale, along the eponymous Beck, and wow, simply wow. Its too small an area, but in places it truly felt like I'd found Eden in the Eden Valley. Where re-wilding has been allowed to happen (and at its most basic that means keeping it sheep free) the explosion of diversity was a wonder to see - meadows of cuckoo flower, milk vetch, butterworts, cotton grass, marsh marigolds - all attracting orange tips, whites and brimstone. In the woods under Far Crag à Speckled Wood, à first for me in Cumbria.
This is how our wild places should be. Wonderful.