The first cuckoo of spring

A glorious walk over the Moor to the abandoned farm of Aittendow. From the farm there are wide panoramas over the Moor - a vast expanse of brownish Heather, bisected by the old railway line, (now the Dava Way) criss crossed by tracks with here and there old peat workings and the bright grassy patches marking the hard won fields of the old farms.

The name Aittendow means 'place of the black juniper'. No juniper here now but we heard the first cuckoo of our northern Spring calling from the sheltering pines. This Easten side of the Moor is so exposed that even the violets growing in grassy places amongst the heather are stunted.