After Saturday’s revealing walk around the poor selection of breathing spaces in Liverpool City Centre, on Sunday we headed across the river to one of our favourite places for walking, sitting and just being, Wirral’s Shining Shore around Thurstaston. So as the working week here in the city gets underway, here’s how things are just a few miles away, where springtime is starting.
Setting off inland from where the railway station used to be.
Leucojum, or Summer Snowdrop.
Hawthorn coming into leaf.
Marigolds in the church yard.
Snowdrops still here.
Crocuses too.
Out in the lanes, tiny Red Campion.
Sarah tells me their presence is a sign that we are in ancient woodland here.
Everything ready to burst through.
Pear blossom in the hedgerow.
Thurstaston village.
Into The Dungeon.
Second day running for lunch outdoors.
We sit here an hour or so, reading peacefully.
Walking on, blackthorn not quite ready to bloom.
In a few weeks this hedgerow will be a celebration of tiny white flowers.
A very still, very quiet misty day.
Feeding along the edge of the channel as the tide goes out.
The birds and our trudging feet the only sounds.
Ancient boulder clay cliffs now mostly gone.
Formed at the end of the last ice age, around 12,000 to 14,000 years ago, we’ve watched these erode dramatically during this past decade of our walking along here.
The boulders that glaciation carried from Cumbria to form the cliffs now mostly strewn across the former sandy beach.
The sticky boulder clay too.
This making for very heavy walking, heavier than ever before.
Still a beautiful place though.
And of course we ended the day in our traditional way.
People queuing out the door over at Nicholl’s. All very good natured though, no counter-jumpers.
Then both suns set.
The End.
Had a Lancashire weekend – Helmshore Mills, one of the museums threatened with closure (superb & must be saved!) on grey damp Saturday then Lancashire Wildlife Trust’s Brockholes reserve on gorgeous Sunday – it is fabulous! If you want breathing space and are willing to go a little further it is well worth the effort. And sells Lancashire ice cream too 😉 can recommend the toffee crunch.
Sounds great, all of it!