Strollers are often advised not to venture up onto our high hills in the winter.

I have to answer that it is safe to walk on the hills if you take precautions. You must wrap up warm and wear good footwear. Take a hot drink in a flask, but never drink alcohol outdoors on a cold day.

Keep an eye on the weather forecast and tell friends where you are going. Take a mobile phone and make sure it is charged.

This sounds as if we are all accidents waiting to happen, but walking our local hills in winter can be a real joy.

Here are a few “up and over” ideas which you may like to think about as you anticipate spring: Pendle; Rivington Pike; Darwen Tower; Hoghton Hill and Longridge Fell towards Chipping.

This week I enjoyed a winter walk around Stoodley Pike and despite the rain it was a treat to blow away the Christmas cobwebs. This was especially true of my labrador!

The Pike is reached from the A646 from Todmorden. Look for a turn signed Mankinholes and Lumbutts. Close to this old mill village is the Pike. It was erected in 1814 to commemorate the surrender of Paris and was finished after the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

There is a footpath up to the Pike, still called London Road, which dates back to the 18th century when a packhorse route could be followed to the capital.

My wildlife walk proved to be a good one and I saw two short eared owls and one barn owl. There was also a mixed flock of golden plover and lapwings.

What does seem to happen is that lapwings move up and down between hills and the warmer coast and do seem able to predict weather trends quite a few days ahead of events.

Care with cats may save birds

Nobody loves cats more than I do, but it has to be admitted that their natural instinct is to kill their own food and birds are at risk especially in winter.

At this time the birds are hungry and often less wary.

Those who have cats should get them used to wearing a bell and perhaps have them neutered to prevent them from wandering.

Despite this they can still be a problem especially on bird tables.

There are precautions which you can take. Place a bird table high up and put obstacles on the supports.

This will not stop the cat from climbing but it will give the birds valuable time to escape.

The main feeding time for birds is dawn and dusk and so if you keep your cat well fed and at home on a warm bed the danger will be reduced.

You can also buy “cat repellent chemicals” which the local moggies do not like.

Birds have wonderful eyesight but a poor sense of smell and I have found that chemicals do work.

With all aspects of nature I always try to see both sides and anybody who does not realise that there is a battle going on all the time is deluding themselves.

The forgotten 'lady' of the streams

The grayling (scientific name Thymallus thymallus) is a relative of the salmon and the trout and is a really attractive fish.

It prefers fast-moving cold water but is also found in lakes. Why then is it not so well known especially when it is so good to eat?

I think that the reason is that its distribution is so patchy and does not occur in many places, but where it does occur, it is found to be numerous.

The present distribution of the grayling indicates that after the last Ice Age the fish became localised in Britain. They do occur in the River Ouse and its tributaries in Yorkshire and also in parts of the River Ribble.

As it is sensitive to pollution the grayling has gone from many of our rivers , but there are signs of a comeback as our waterways are cleared up.

Grayling feed on aquatic insects, worms, leeches and molluscs. As the fish mature they become very attractive with dark red, bluish and brown markings, especially during the winter and the spring.

A friend of mine, a keen angler, gave me a couple of fish and told me that as it cooked it smelled a bit like thyme and hence its scientific name.

He was right and it did have a pleasant taste and the flesh was flaky and excellent.

This forgotten lady of the streams does deserve to be mentioned more often!