Buzz, if you split off to the right just below the cairn below the hillfort it gets silly fun in a ‘where the hecks the trail gone, i’m in a gully a foot deep in dry leaves’ pinging about on tree debris and rocks.

Whenever i write about those hills it’s Warra Play ground’..

It’s not a classified path so the Rangers have no obligation to unsure it’s clear. If there’s a way i can clear the gully i will, though it’s unlikely, it’s best therefore if a trail appears higher to get above it.

I’ll send out the wildlife to begin walking a new trail in. 😉

Which could work well in keeping the trail above the other fallen trees.. But it’ll need to happen naturally. 😉

😀

Jambo, you’ll start Dibbs off again.. 😆

Ruscle, All’s greet thanks.

Is the tree raised off the ground? If it’s laying on the ground then maybe, just maybe a pile of stone and soil will find itself on the facing edge creating a naturally formed way over it. Though if it’s a bigun, then a way round will need to found, the rangers don’t venture down there, and i’m not going the use a Chainsaw in there. I will look into it though and see what can be done.

Took a while to write this so Ruscle has covered Bin.

But here’s my brief guide to the Q’s top trails.

I’ve always said Bincombe is my favourite, perhaps because it’s not overly rode. It’a a trail of subtle incline that once you get to know it, becomes a twisty playful ribbon of giggles, features to get you flicking the ass end out, jinking left and right as you hurtle inches past tree stumps and roots laying in wait for your bad forward vision. From top to bottom 3-5mins of shits and giggles, thrills and spills. Pure natural fun.

Another fav will always be Somertons top section, but it’s been getting wider as the years go by as riders run wide scrubbing out a new rut. At it’s best it’s a fast and furious descent to the tree line along a moorland piece of single track, the worn shallow rut means that when the turns come, you can get the front tyre to stick so you don’t lose momentum, and after the slight pedally bit around back side the trail is just pure bliss as at speed you’ll get a little drift as you flick left, right, left, left and left mind the rock then into the trees, 80m and slight(18″ step) into rooty braking bumps, sharp right, moist butt and follow the wider track along side the stream, it gets pedally but crank it and enjoy.

Weacombe, mind the drop to the right most the way along it’s mile and a half length, though it’s not on the trail itself, so eyes ahead(once they’ve stopped rattling in side your head from the stuttery first 150m) Pin it at your own peril, Weacombe is just waiting for the over enthusiastic it will bite, It’s non steep and non technical, it’s just FAST!

Frog combe, traverse or Roller coaster. Not an obvious to find trail but if you survive the initial steepish rooty run in, the reward along the traverse is a very natural twisty piece of 400mm trail, that joins the main frog combe trail near the bottom. I like because it bit me tearing my ACJ and collapsing my lung, so i bit it back, harder.

Smiths is a love hate affair for me. Love it because it has a good mix, grass, roots, stoney, hard pack and stream crossings.
Hate because i always have a bad feeling about it once i let go of the brakes on the mid section. It’s not a comfy landing…And the climb out usually bitch’s at me.
From Beacon hill trig, it’s a mile long.

If you want pure speed, followed by a burger, you’ll be after the descent North of the Hill fort (Dowsborough) It’s wide, there’s a few bumpy bits on the first hundred metres then it’s loose stone till it rises for moment, about enough to gather your breath then it’s down, down, more loose stuff making a drifty left and then into the trees to a gate. Careful in there, there’s monsters lurking on the ground ready to spit you off course and watch the long right hander at the bottom, trees hurt.

Did you say your favourites? Then let me continue…

Slaughterhouse, Concrete block, Dead womans ditch north side, and te Hare knapp splits(two choices) even holly bush gives me the necessary smiles.

And that’s just on the Heath and combe.
The Forestry has alot on offer too but these aren’t named so are not so easy to find. There’s Sam’s track and the Chimney dropping into Great wood, then in Cockercombe there’s around 40 DH runs of varying difficulty, most can be ridden on a HT IMO.

That’s enough to keep most people busy for a weekend or two.

Enjoy!

Making my first batch of 60 litres of fresh apple juice.
Followed by chatting for over an hour with a very nice lady i’m seeing.
And then the day gets topped off with an Osprey stopping over for a few dips into the local reservoir.

It’s been a day full of smiles

It’s their job to do what’s best for the countrybenefit of the next election

Imo

Sadly all the damage has been done over years of bad decisions/reforms.
Each new policy attempting to repair the previous damage done, and in doing so ruins something else.
Society just about gets used to system in place only to see change come along and unsettle the routine which pisses people.

In essence governments only do right by themselves and their like, there’s no intent to please society as society will just in most cases tow the line, feeling powerless to make proper change for the good.

It’s an unstoppable force that will rape and pillage humanity and the earth till it breaks.

They do nothing positive because they don’t need to. They may mean well and tease you with promises and token favours but look into their souless eyes and tremble from the truth that stirs within…

On the bright side the suns out. 😀

Missing children on the Quantocks as darkness came in.

They’d been missing for 3 hrs, it was raining and getting dark when i was told by the first policeman to arrive on the scene. I’d just finished a ride, but took off in search.It’s helps to know the area and how to use the landscape to your advantage when searching for people.

Great feeling to reunite them all.
Tops anything material i’ve found, though a silver sixpence on the SWCP was pretty cool.

Do i need to look for ads? As TBH, i’ve not noticed them enough.
Perhaps they need to be bigger for those who DGAS..

I opened this thread hoping to be able to understand WTF it was about Emsz.

Thank gawd i don’t come here enough to be bothered by ads, big hitters or the darkness(even if i did go to see them live)

Enjoy you tea and put one on for me whilst ya there, i’ll supply the cake. 🙂

Laminated pics.

Nowt other than hayfever for over 2 years now.
De-stressing my life and a an unclinical life style, enjoying all the germs i can smear over myself to build up a good immune system..

I should have some Somerset zider brewed for my own consumption next year. Also Apple juice..

About time i turned up to a BBB too.

yes i am.

Saladdodgeer of these parts keeps bees and is localish to me, so i’ll hopefully be enlisting him and his good lady for advice.Naturally i need to work with the local beekeepers group.

Sadly there’s few cider apple trees yet 😉

I’ve also a few tonnes of charcoal seasoning ready to burn next year. I feel a busy one coming on.
I’ll still find time though to be out with the Canon, clicking away like an obsessed loon.
And on that note it’s almost moth o clock.

🙂

Well done you lot, good to see it.
I’ve just been asked to look after an orchard with 200 apple trees and 8 bee hives that fiends have purchased, including juice processing plant and the equipment to process the honey.

Both the trees and Bee’s have been neglected over the past year, so year, both yields of goodness have suffered as a result(with the weather not helping).

I plan to liven up both by sorting out the ground flora so that a healthy stock of bees is there to improve pollination of the fruit baring trees. The grass below has been uncut all year preventing much in the way of ground flora in which to keep the bees well stocked ready for the winter so that in the spring, a good sized hive can efficiently pollinate the trees, maximising fruit growth . At least that’s the theory, anything to prevent them from swarming off in search of a better source of food.

So a good mixture of woodland seeds for the shaded areas with a variety around the perimeters. Lots of research, digging, cutting, pruning, etc, will hopefully mean by next year, honey production should be high and the following year juice will be in full flow.

Might even get a little forest garden going in there, so a self regulating area providing a mix of fruit and veg through the year.

I may even talk sense after a bit of learning.

I first thought you said Camel toe drive…. 😆

Timber, yellow shell?

I think our local transects have also been poor, i know i’ve only had one in favourable conditions. Though on part of my transect but not during a survey, a large buddleia was teaming with them, 10 species on it. Hopefully the weather remains next week when i’m on rota to do it.

Has the moth boff flooded more at mcmoonters?

So no God worshipers yet then?

He was a pretty nifty builder.

Good Indicator of climate change and Moths advancing their range north?

Lets hope it stays dry all night for you,you’ll get a full evening catch that way.

Still around a Month of good mothing left. 🙂

Good Peacock there count. Lots about now but still far to few Small Tortoise shells, a one time common sight.

Cheers Mcmoonter. I’m only interested to add to my basic knowledge of things.

Nice to know there is boggy land and heath land nearby, so looks like a probable case of either wind blown moths or them just looking for more and got attracted to the MV.

I’ve just been out to check the weather and it’s looking good, quite alot of micros about already and ruby tiger is settled on a lamp and a tawny owl calls in the distance.
I’ll hopefully have my trap over here next week, so looking forwards to a full nights collection rather than hanging about under street lights….
😆

Gary. Yeah, much better than the usual on here, hence why i’m not on here much these days.

Fantastic. Quite a few i’ve yet to see there and many that i’m surprised not to see. Perhaps the rainfall halted the trapping of even more species.

So you’ve no Heathland or moorland close to you? they’ve a bit of a journey to find a suitable egg laying site if that’s the case.

The previous LOL was for this remark.

he’d ask on a specialist site, I doubt he rode a bike so it may not be here.

😆

Mafiafish.I thought more of a Stealth bomber, guess i’mnot watching too many Sci-Fi’s now i’ve hit 40 to see that comparison 🙁

Mcmoonter. That’s pretty cool, potentially finding a rare of new the UK species. Many are hard to ID without looking at their genitalia and then there’s the colour variations seen on many species causing confusion in ID.

I’ve no doubt you’re moth expert knows his stuff better than i and if a Specialist site can’t ID it, perhaps he’s kept the Specimen to be checked out properly.

Have a great weekend all whatever ya’ll get up to.
I’ll be out deer tracking as the Stags here will be in Velvet and ripe for photographing.
Sharki.

LOL.

Bunny. Not great i’m affraid, though we really won’t know the extent of how damaging this weather has been on them till next year when those that have just one brood hatch or or go through complete Metamorphosis.(This varies across the species).
Hopefully the results from the Big Butterfly count http://www.bigbutterflycount.org/ will aid in giving us a better idea of how down on numbers we are. You’ve still got till the end of this month to do some counts so get on it.

My monthly surveys from May started terribly as it struggled to provide the correct conditions in which to get an accurate survey done, with just one session providing a healthy numbers of varied species.
Meadow Browns and Ringlets seem to have enjoyed another good year, marbled whites seem to be having a reasonable year and Gatekeepers are in good numbers right now.

All three whites are now emerging as a second brood and seem in good numbers.

Of the commonly seen larger Butterflies, Peacocks are finally appearing in their numbers, and thankfully are gracing the Buddleia’s after what appeared to be a poor show early on. Red Admirals this year aren’t having such a great start, but as they are a tough butterfly, they can do well in poor weather.
Small Tortoiseshells really seem to be struggling this year, so few of these once common sightings are being reported.
Migrants like the clouded yellow and painted lady are having a quiet year from what i see of it.

Woodland species are fairing ok, but still nothing like ideal, so again, only time will tell.

Species that colonise only need a window of opportunity in which to find a mate so Common blues, Brown Argus, etc should be fine.

It’s all not perfect for them, but they battle on. Just a shame to not see meadows of them bustling with life during the summer months, instead they just hide out under a leaf, or on a stalk. waiting, waiting, waiting..

Cheers, that’s a fair old haul giving an insight to just how much is flitting about over our heads at night. And that was all during an unsettled night weather wise.

So, you’ll no doubt be looking at the Anglian Lepidoptera site and building up a trap of you’re own 😉

I’ll look forward to the list, i trust he’ll submit the list to the local Moth recorder.

Great stuff.

They were probably feasting on the one that got trodden on. Unless there’s a certain amount of translucent tissue showing in which case they were mating or trying to. The problem sometimes occur that both slugs reveal their male genitals(slugs being hermaphrodites) after abit of intertwining of the penises, one slug chews of the others penis and normal service can resume. At least that’s the jist of it from memory.
This is normal Service.

I’ve yet to see a Muntjac, heard one yes and boy do they scream. SO lucky you and pics would be lovely, i’m sure other STWers would like to see it to.

Wild worlds are great aren’t they?

BBQ grills? You’ve wasted beer on it ya drunkun yob 😉
Slugs like abit of most food so a touch of burger stuck to the grill was a enticing treat.

G’night.

Same here, though the UK mammals, (most)birds, Amphibians, reptiles and Butterflies i’m sorted with, churning my way(slowly) through moths and when you get to the Micro’s you’ve really got an obsession. LOL

Then there’s beetles, flies, bee’s, fungi, flowers, bryophytes, Lichen, etc..

Everyday does however become a school day. 🙂

Cheers Timber.
Teasel, there’s alot that look very similar to that, it’s only when you really study them closely that you see some very subtle differences and suddenly you realise you’ve loads of different species there.

Ooops! The last one of my images is Black Arches, not Dark, rushed post as i wanted to get out.
Pointless really as it’s blowing a hoolio and raining with it, so not a great night for it.

Moth trappings a great way to see what night time visitors you have around your home and it’s a super way to be able to look at them close up.

You’ve got an ideal evening for it being still and hopefully mild.
He’ll have you checking around the trap as some moths will settle nearby on trees, buildings,etc.

Have a fun morning checking the trap and be amazed at the vast array you’ll no doubt find.

The trap i use is away at friends so my mothing is limited to what i can find around the local lights which is still rewarding.
I was out the other night with a Bat detector and heard at least 4 different species in the area hunting the moths.

Here’s a few moths i’ve seen this week.

A Brimstone.

Canary shouldered thorn

Ruby Tiger

Yellow tailed moth

Female Oak Eggars.

Chinese Character

Dark arches.

Hopefully this wind can die down here meaning a few more can be found tonight, and maybe the otter will pass through again..

Be good to here whatcha get and that no wasps or Hornets get in during early doors.

I’d never offer advice on here, everyone either..

1. Knows everything already.
2. Knows nothing at all and needs help in making the very basic of decisions.(To some shocking extremes)
3. Aren’t worthy.
4. Know’s i’m full of shite and mostly smeared in alot of it.(usually Otter Spraint like today) 😉

Hi Del 🙂

Erm! That might of been me.

Sorry emzs, i’ll stop stealing ya smalls too.

Phew, It’s good to get it out in the open.

*Climbs back in the bushes*

Many smiles today for many reasons.

Finished with one to when i popped out to hunt for night time wildlife…

One could say you only become free once you’re dead.
As that’s really morbid, freedom is having the ability to live without thinking about.

Yes it is a Moth.
Count. It’s a Female Yellow Tailed moth.

You can’t usually see the yellow(in this case orangey) abdomen tip, so i thought to try and show it from a suitable angle.

Lucky composition…

It certainly was a muddy gully of filth last month when i went down there.

Ciderinsport. Did you hang any more sexy bottles in the rafters for the scout groups to draw inspiration from?

If you stay at Moorhouse and don’t fancy risking the apparent low quality food in the Plough, the other nearby option is the Hood Arms, which is around a mile away in Kilve. Sadly it’s not as good to get to on foot as the road there has no Verge. The back route is better but you still have a couple hundred metres of vergeless A39 to walk along. There is a Bridle way that gets you there but it’s often a muddy downhill river.

The food has always been well rated, though the prices may put those on a Budget or small pockets.

Moorhouse is the only campsite that you can get onto the trails within 10mins of the campsite and is certainly one of the quieter sites.

There are more options of camping in the area, but those will mean a drive to the trail head or at least a 30-40min ride along roads.

Enjoy!

Yeah, but it’s not a pub anymore.

Snaps,cake par way round, then Fish and chips by the sea at the end 😉

Hiya Cheez.

Tea and cake fo so.

Only if you don’t want refreshments after coming off the big Beacon descent to Brockwell. I’ve had plenty of Exmoor rides with the only stop, albeit a very tasty one in Horner tea rooms.

It’s good to have options so just giving the heads up on a new place.
If it offends or is against the Rules then hey ho, happy trails and wondering where to get re-fuelled when on an epic.

And while i’m here, there’s some awesome trails off Wooton Common back to Minehead.