Jogging around the park before the 9AM start it's easy to forget that you're in the middle of a city. The Parkrun is a great, friendly, low-key, all-inclusive run that anyone can do, and do it as slow or as fast or as competitively as they please.
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| From Sunderland Parkrun |
What I like about the Parkrun is that it gets me out of my bed at a decent time on a Saturday morning whereas without that prod I'd probably fritter away the day without achieving much or getting of my backside and getting some exercise. With the Parkrun in my diary I'm home soon after 10 and the rest of the day is waiting.
The forecast for Saturday is good. The forecast for Sunday is not quite so good. So flasks filled and we're off to Blanchland for lunch at the White Monk Tea Room before a walk beside the Derwent.
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| From Blanchland Walk |
One of the nice things about living in County Durham is that it's not busy. It might look busy. You might park and look at all the cars and think the fells are going to be mobbed. But they're not. I've never understood why but I'm certainly not complaining.
We headed NW up the lane and out of Blanchland, passing a mixture of old broadleaved and deciduous trees. Some of the conifers seem to think they're broadleaves and a few had me looking twice to make sure I wasn't mistaken. One conifer, a spruce, had such a broad fissured trunk I had to stare up into the canopy to convince myself I was actually looking at a conifer.
Over to the left I saw an intriguing formation of tree guards. The tell-tale green mesh shelters were arranged in a circular fashion. But why? Or around what? An old pit-shaft perhaps? Investigation would have involved a dry-stone wall and probably a lot of trespassing so it will have to remain a mystery.We turned at Pennypie House, crossed the beck, and walked alongside the dry-stone wall beside Birkside Fell. Between the track and the wall is a grassy verge. On the other side of the track is heather moorland. On the grassy verge there were many small fungi and I can't decide what they are. (For someone studying Arboriculture, this is a rather depressing admission. But identifying fungi causes me problems!)
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| From Blanchland Walk |
The mushrooms have a conical shiny looking cap with no sign of a ring underneath. When I got home and checked my fungi book I realised there are so many other things I should be looking for that hadn't occurred to me; e.g texture and smell.
Looking underneath the cap the gills are quite distinctively deep-grooved.
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| From Blanchland Walk |
If I had to guess I'd say it was a waxcap. I've just found a key at the University of Aberystwyth. It's a pity I didn't note the things it mentions (wet/dry/sticky etc) that would've helped aid identification. I'll know next time!
As we walk down the lane towards the river I notice some very confused trees. There's an ash that can't decide whether it's spring or autumn. I feel sorry for it. It seems to have put out a flush of young new growth up at the top of the crown. Ash, famous for being 'lazy', is one of the latest to come into leaf, and earliest to go to bed for the winter. So this expensive leaf production is interesting. Quite a young tree. A bit of a rebel perhaps.![]() |
| From Blanchland Walk |
Soon we're beside the River Derwent on a riverside walk that always surprises me (pleasantly) on how quiet it is given how handy and scenic it is. Almost safely back at Blanchland but not before some more fungi.
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| From Blanchland Walk |
An untidy bracket fungus on Silver Birch (Betula pendula) that looks a bit like Beefsteak Fungus (Fistunlina hepatica) although it isn't as reddish as I might expect.
There's also a blackened cluster around the base of the tree (which is very old) that I assume is just an older version of the same fungi.
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| From Blanchland Walk |
Back to Blanchland and the last few hours of summer before the November rain arrived.
Blanchland Stroll at EveryTrail
Map created by EveryTrail: GPS Trail Maps









