Winter 5

Dark days but not for much longer

Tuesday 26th January

Even though the days are starting to lengthen, and we have nearly an hour of extra daylight compared with the beginning of the month, the days are still unusually dark because of all the cloud cover.  If anyone had been crazy enough to try to arrange a cricket match here during the past three months the players would have spent the entire time in the pavillion - either waiting for the rain to stop, or after successfully appealing against the light.  I can’t remember the last time we were able to read a book during the day without having to turn on the lights.  

By the way, I am puzzled by why we have twice as much extra daylight at the end of the day as we have at the beginning.  Perhaps it is something to do with angles.

Very little is getting done in the garden.  Collecting wet leaves for the leafmould bin and cutting back dead and semi-dead wet vegetation are not not my favourite garden tasks and there is little else to do at this time of year.  Last week I started digging out a patch of unwanted variegated grass so that I could plant something more interesting but that wasn’t much fun either and I came in without finishing. I lost motivation when my feet became numb from the cold.  wellies are not the best footware for keeping feet warm but they are essential because the garden is so wet.

We have been going on short walks almost daily.  We started off walking in the plantations, mainly Skyhill, but the paths were so muddy and slippery that we could only walk slowly and carefully and even then my feet slipped once and I managed to topple over.

The walks have been rather repetitious but I have taken a few photos.  On the 12th we walked up the glen road as far as the waterfall just beyond the ruined shepherd’s house.

We had hoped that the track would be safer underfoot than the plantation paths but it wasn’t much better - stony and muddy with puddles and even running water in places.

We passed the place where I photographed the wind-damaged conifer leaning across the road at the end of last month.  All the leafy branches had been removed and the only signs of the fallen tree were a pile of thick branches which had been saved for firewood . . . and a gap in the row of trees.  Luckily there was no domino effect and the remaining trees are still standing.  I wonder whether they were originally planted as a hedge and then neglected for many years.  There are more than twenty trees growing along the road boundary of two fields.  I took this photo to give an impression of how tall they are.

The history of the Glen is a source of fascination but also frustration because so little information is available.  For instance, just beyond the leylandii “hedge” we can still see the remains of a mill race at the side of the road.  There isn’t much left - just a leaf-filled depression above an earth bank.  (Another short section of the mill race is still visible further downstream near Race Cottage.)

Years ago the glen used to be very different.  It is nearly all residential property now but in the past there were farms, tourist attractions, at least three mills on the Auldyn River, exploratory mines, a slate quarry and other industry.  The large stone house below that section of the mill race is called The Old Mill.  I believe that the present building was erected near an even older building of which no trace remains.  It may have been demolished when the road was rerouted after the 1930 flood.  I tried to find out what type of mill it was but the only reference I could find to an industry on the site was this comment on the Manx Electric Railway Society’s website “A number of plants and mills in the Island processed inorganic chemicals for local use, including the now ruinous Glen Auldyn chemical works at SC432931”  Perhaps the older building was used to process chemicals.

There was a brief cold snap with a frosty morning on the 16th.  It wasn’t a very hard frost but enough to turn the foxglove leaves white.

We risked the mud which was even worse if that was possible and walked in Skyhill plantation again.  There was no snow at lower levels but top of Snaefell was white.

Moss loves the damp conditions and was was flourishing on the bark of this ash near one of the streams which cross the plantation path.

On the 19th we gave up on the mud, changed tactics, and took to the roads.  We walked down the glen, crossed Lezayre Road and continued down as far as the footbridge over the Sulby  This is a more or less level route and not such good exercise as climbing the fairly steep paths through the plantations.  But we were able to walk much faster and almost twice as far which compensated a bit.  According to a very useful website http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/ the distance from our gate to the footbridge is exactly 1.4396 miles - so it is close to a three mile walk there and back.

I took some bread cubes for the ducks that usually congregate near the bridge - hoping for handouts from children visiting the little Poolydooey nature reserve on the bank to the river.  There were no ducks in sight.  The state of the muddy and debris-strewn track down to the ford where the duck-feeding usually occurs was enough to deter even the most determined child.

We crossed the bridge and were greeted by a group of gulls that appeared from nowhere.  Gulls appear to be psychic where bread is concerned.  Feeding gulls is frowned upon but at least I didn’t have to carry the packet of bread home again.

On the way back we were greeted by a friendly pigeon that flew over and perched on a garden wall.  It cooed to us, hopped along the top of the wall, doing a little pigeon dance and listened to every word when I stopped to talk to it.

We walked down to the Sulby again the next day.  On the way home we heard cooing again as we passed the house where we had seen our friend the previous day.  I looked into the garden and saw him perched on top of a campervan.  Then he flew onto the roof before fluttering over to the gatepost.  While I was taking his photo, he took off again and landed on my head.  I couldn’t take a photo because the camera strap was round my neck.  He showed no sign of moving.  I had to ask Tim to remove him and then he hopped onto Tim’s arm.

While all this was going on a rather dour postman arrived to deliver the post and totally ignored the antics of the couple of eccentric walkers and their feathered friend.  We haven’t seen him since - the pigeon, not the postman.  But, on a later walk, we did hear more than one pigeon cooing near the old Ramsey power station on Gardener’s Lane which is about half a mile downstream so we hope he has been reunited with some pigeon friends.

We didn’t walk on the 21st because it rained all day, culminating with a heavy downpour during the early hours of Friday morning - another three inches in not much more than a day.  The rain cleared early though and we were treated to a very pretty sunrise.

After shopping we . . . (at this point work on the blog was rudely interrupted by a four hour power failure on Tuesday morning - probably caused by damage to power lines due to the gales) . . . walked down to the Sulby again and I recorded some post-downpour images.

First, our little waterfall in the back garden.

Then a view of the river from the bridge near the chapel.  The level had dropped since early morning but there was still plenty of white water.

As we approached the Lezayre Road junction we could see that the river had overflowed again and water had been running down the road.  Debris was trapped under the wooden fence where the water had spilled over into the Milntown gardens.  This is the second time this winter that the road has flooded.  Luckily it never lasts long because the level drops very quickly as soon as the rain eases off.

I think the main reason for the flooding of the road is that the Lezayre Road bridge isn’t high enough to cope with the run-off after an extreme downpour and the water backs up above the bridge.

We crossed the road and walked down Gardener’s Lane.  There used to be open fields here, between the river and the disused railway line, where we walked the dogs - but now a new housing estate is taking over.  Beyond the new houses there are still a few remaining overgrown fields and a pair of impressive trees, oaks I think but I will have to wait for the new leaves before I am certain.

The river was higher than previously and there was a little island on the debris by the ford which was being patrolled by a hooded crow.

If one takes time to stop and stare there is beauty in the most unpromising places - like puddles on a road.

On our way home I stopped to watch a pair of mallard ducks.  They  were battling to paddle up the fast flowing Auldyn river and keeping to the quieter water next to the bank.  You would think that all this rain would be lovely weather for ducks - but there can be too much of a good thing.  The female mallard suddenly got caught by the current and was washed out into the middle of the river and swirled downstream in the torrent.  She was followed immediately by her anxious mate.  Further up some more sensible ducks were lined up on the grassy bank between the Rose Villa parking area and the river . . . waiting for better days and calmer waters.

On Saturday we walked up the glen to see how the repairs to the road had fared.  The main repair to the river bank which I photographed for the Winter 4 post was fine but the second repair up near Fernside had sustained further damage.  Most of the small chunks of granite which had been packed behind the wire mesh had been washed out and there was a rather ominous crack at the side of the road.  

But there is some good news.  Snowdrops are opening all over the garden and things can get better in the garden as the days get brighter and we approach spring.