Ragged Wood

A bit of a cheat, as I took this photo yesterday, but it was always intended to be todays blip. With a dry afternoon after weeks of rain, we decided to go for a walk. I knew that there were new houses being built just up the hill from us, but I hadn’t realised just how many there were and how much they had impacted upon what used to be open countryside.
We hadn’t been out in this direction since lockdown one, and what used to be a lovely stroll through a small wood is now a traipse through a housing estate of nearly 90 houses, with the fields beyond inaccessible due to ongoing construction work. And the sound of birdsong has been replaced by the roar of JCBs. I’m not even sure who is going to buy all these houses. There are no major employers in Kendal any more, but I suppose if you work from home, it doesn’t matter where that home is.
Worst of all, the old tree lined drovers road has been chopped in half by a new road and the remaining bits fenced off with no access to what used to be a public footpath. I suppose I should be grateful that there are multiple signs warning that the trees are all protected, so at least there might be a bit of old woodland retained.
I’m sure this Speckled Wood butterfly - which lives on the edge of woodland areas - would agree with that sentiment.