April has to be my favourite month on the mountain -- when everything is fresh, and spring flowers are bursting out on all sides. There is also something about the incredibly bright fresh green of the bilberry on the higher slopes of the mountain that adds a magical quality to the light.....
BUT August is actually not too bad either. The gorse on the higher slopes is in full bloom (it's a different variety from the gorse that blooms in April and May on the lower slopes) and is complemented by those lovely pastel shades of purple and mauve from the heather that has spread everywhere above the bracken zone -- especially on those areas burnt within the last few years. On the highest heath areas the grasses are turning white and buff. Lower down the deep green swathe of the bracken covered slopes is breaking up as the bracken starts to die back -- and patches of foxy red are beginning to appear and spread. By the end of September the browns and reds will have replaced the green, and suddenly it becomes easy to walk anywhere on the common. Among the crags and scree slopes on the mountain, the extraordinary bilberry green is also beginning to wane, and some leaves are turning to red and even yellow.
The subtlety and range of colours at this time is extraordinary -- and that's not even counting the colours of the old grey and blue rocks, which change subtly as the slabs and boulders get wet and dry out, and as they are illuminated by the sun as cloud shadows drift across the landscape.
Not a bad old place.....
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