The Weardale Way runs through a series of lovely hay meadows between St. John’s Chapel and Cowshill, with excellent pubs at both ends of the walk. The yellow rattle seed pods are beginning to ripen and it will soon be time for the hay harvest, but for the moment the long grass and tall buttercups offer the perfect opportunity to relive one of the great pleasures of childhood – laying down in the long grass (in this photograph mostly bents Agrostis species) and watching the clouds drift by. Do this for long enough and you’ll find it hard to be sure whether it's the clouds moving above you or Earth moving underneath you - although, of course, it’s both. A giddy, elemental pleasure. While we were staring at the swaying grass heads we noticed these caterpillars feeding in Timothy grass Phleum pratense - anyone know what they are?
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