IT wasn’t a great weather day, with a wind from the north east - a lazy wind, they’d say in Lancashire, it couldn’t be bothered to go around you so went through you. It was mixed with hail showers of considerable wind and chill.

On this basis, it was a good day to walk up Alex Tor, I thought, but Geraldine looked at me as if I’d lost the plot.

It’s not Everest, at 955 feet high, but intriguing, it has a large kerbed cairn on top, surrounded by enormous rocks - and I have no idea how they were positioned in Neolithic times. Anyway, head bowed against the wind, I plodded uphill and decided it catch my breath in the natural little hollow on the top.

I sat a while on a rock and looked up to see Hank, the young spaniel, at least six feet above me. Horrified to see he was planning to jump, I yelled “no”, but no chance, he leapt off, hit the ground and hurtled away.

Whilst I was in recovery mode, I noticed some small green plants in a damp crevice in the granite. It was navelwort, or pennywort, common in such environments.

It was lovely to see on a cold winter afternoon, well protected from the weather. It has characteristic rosette leaves and is edible, apparently tasting of lettuce - I’ll let you know.

It was used for medicinal purpose in centuries gone by, treating fevers, kidney and other ailments - even mentioned by Nicholas Culpepper, a distinguished academic, in his Complete Herbal book in 1652.

Walking back in the fading light, the wind mercifully behind me, I heard the thin reedy cry of the golden plover.

A small group of about 15 came into view and flew to within a few yards of me before wheeling away in the dusk.

The numbers may swell over the winter as more migrants arrive.

Together with thousands of starlings heading to a roost in Davidstow woods, it was an amazing sight. What a lovely evening.

• Fred Knobbit is a nature blogger. He grew up in the Pennines in Lancashire on the edge of an industrial town but is now safely in Cornwall. You can read his archive at www.bodminblogger.com