The wood

Remiss

2010-04-08T00:28:00.000-07:00

It has been very remiss of me in not updating this blog throughout the winter. This neglect has been due to many factors and one is that we have now got a dog. Dylan is his name and while I take him to the wood two or three times a day it uses even more of my blogging time!

It was a long cold winter when it started and spring has started very late. During the winter the wood became a very bleak sight with branches that were bare and ground that had lost all the soft undergrowth and colour in the leaves remaining undergrowth. When it snowed then it did become, at times, a truly magical place to be. It suddenly looked far bleaker though when we had the final frost that remained for a couple of weeks. Spring has arrived though and at last leaves and flower buds have started to appear in their various forms.

It wasn't until yesterday (7th April) that we managed to find any Sloe flowers and that is seriously late.

These are some of the various 'catch up' pictures and I will try to add more and keep the blog up to date.

Autumn Colours

2009-11-02T13:58:00.000-08:00

It is over a year now since I started my regular visits to the wood and once again autumn is here. It started slowly and was almost imperceptible this year except for the leaves on the ground. It started this way because of an 'indian' summer, often talked about but rarely seen.

Last week the leaves had started to fall more noticeably.

And over the weekend we have seen a more significant change with a very breezy day and an awful lot of wind. I haven't had chance to visit the wood since weekend, but will go tomorrow for a photograph.

Back to school

2009-09-12T23:35:00.000-07:00

SOC has just finished her summer holiday and has now returned to school to a new year. Things start to return to 'normal'.

We went up to the wood again this week to see how things are going on and, very much to my surprise, there are still tadpoles in the pond show no signs of developing legs. They must be late hatchings and whether they will survive now is anyone's guess. A return to warmer weather sees the pond level low and dropping which will make life even tougher for them.

There are still butterflies to be seen, but fewer now as the flowering season comes to an end for so many plants and the leaves on ground start to threaten the onset of autumn.

People talk about Autumn coming early this year, but while there are leaves turning and falling, it is slow as yet and if it does mark the onset of autumn, then it is coming slowly which may make things more beautiful than ever.

Aha...

2009-08-03T05:27:00.000-07:00

Today - tara! - I remembered the camera! The buddleia is getting towards the end of flowering but is still attracting all sorts of butterflies.

Here we see a peacock in it's spring colours. There were a couple of these hanging around.

And here we see a painted lady (on the left) and a red admiral (on the right).

This picture doesn't show us anything we haven't seen but....... I like it.

And here, in the path, is a speckled wood. Not such a clear picture I'm afraid.

The squirrels were very active, but I think they carry 'cloaking devices' because they never seem to end on the camera. We also heard and watched some crows arguing over some morsel they had found.

Sorry

2009-07-28T09:50:00.000-07:00

Been going to the wood, just not blogging because we have been very busy. I now feel a little guilty.

Been up today and forgotten to take the camera!

At the gate a very large buddleia is in flower and these are reputed to attract butterflies. Well we saw 3 peacocks (at least) and a comma so quite a sight really.

Inside the wood it was quiet because of the time of day. We were late as we had been chatting to a friend longer than planned but walking around we saw 3 or 4 big dragonflies on the path. And no camera! We watched them cavorting around a while and moved on to see another pair or was it the same ones?

I hate to do this but.....

2009-07-03T06:38:00.000-07:00

I really hate to do this and I will come back and correct this, but here are a couple of pictures I took on the 1st July.

We know the names of neither of these. If you do then please let me know - in the meantime I will carrying looking.

This blue one, the wife thought was bugle, but having got the book out it appears not to be. Unfortunately the book is not well organised and needs me to go through each picture until I get a match!

Others things that mostly elude our little camera...

2009-06-26T14:24:00.000-07:00

We regularly see a pair (or more) of thrushes in the wood. They dart into the path about 20 to 25 feet in front of us but are very shy and we cannot get close enough to photograph them, which is very frustrating. We can hear them sing and know there are at least 2, but maybe 3 or 4?

The robins are beautiful and have a body language that says robin without having to see their red breast. They land on branches that seem tantalisingly close and the camera fails to catch them, poor old camera.

The chaffinches again are flighty and quick and just that little bit too far away to get a photograph of, but are beautiful to see darting around the trees.

The squirrels, at this time of year, spend most of their time higher in the trees and seem to find less reason to come to the ground. They are easier to photograph but the leaf canopy makes the lighting too dark to get good photographs. During autumn and winter more light gets through the trees and photography is easier, but the squirrels spend more time on the ground as well picking up the fallen fruits of the trees.

While the nettles now stand high and in flower they are forever accompanied by the friendly dock, whose leaves will ease the sting of the nettle.

Days like today are special in the wood though. We went up late and we saw no dog walkers. Not one. Very unusual and the birdsong was beautiful. I find I can only identify the song when I can see the bird and I hope this will improve as I spend more time now in the wood, so I will not tell you what we heard. Enough to say it was beautiful with only the birdsong breaking what otherwise would have been silence.

The last from the catch up....

2009-06-25T10:17:00.000-07:00

Some trees - like this scots pine - stand majestically on the edge of the wood towering above their neighbours.

Others stand in groups, tall and proud, in the middle of the wood.

The pond is rich with tadpoles, and while they are growing fat, they are not showing signs of growing their limbs just yet. Although, with the summery weather, the water level drops and they have to start to breathe in to make space for their friends.

This close up shows the tadpoles more clearly.

The sycamore seeds are starting to form. While we enjoyed the 'helicopters' as children, this seems to be missed by the current young generation.

Here we see a squirrel sitting in a tree. There are many living in the wood and in winter it is not unusual to see a dozen or more on a visit, but during summer they seem to shun the ground perhaps having sufficient food in the trees. Don't see him?

Well here we have a close up.

And here we see a speckled wood butterfly. It truly is a delight to see any butterfly and the speckled wood is relatively common in the wood. I think I would make an exception of the cabbage white when seen around brassicas - not a delight at all.

There are several varieties of rose in and around the wood and I would not pretend to identify them by name, but merely try to illustrate them within the limits of my poor tired camera.

A second type, but not as colourful.

And another type. Each has it's own beauty and it's own flowering time.

Continued...

2009-06-24T13:09:00.000-07:00

By the pond in the wood are two groups of irises with their feet in the water. One group gets more sunshine than the other and this year has some lovely flowers on it.

This lime tree is actually in the public open space on the way to the wood. The space holds 4 football pitches and could hold more, but the perimeter is given over to trees and wild flowers and is now about 20 years old, so many of the trees start to look mature.

This is masterwort and to look at the flower heads is easily mistaken with so many others, including hogweed. Examination of the leaf and checking the height shows them to be very different though. The flower head does look like elderflower, but obviously elderflower is a tree with a very different leaf.

This looks like a photo of bramble, but if you click on it to enlarge it you will see, quite clearly, a mayfly from the front (I believe) with the two 'aerials' - I will show my ignorance of the correct term - sticking out. I will apologise for the camera once again. It does it's best considering the hard life it has had and the photographer doesn't help it.

A mayfly in profile. Although they look small, when flying they seem much larger.

Nettles may not be pleasant but they have they role and their own beauty. They now stand head height and many insects visit the white flowers they put forwards. Remember that where there is nettles, there are dock leaves.

This old tree is testament to the age of the wood.

Once popular, this rhododendron (ponticum) is prolific and now considered by many foresters to be a weed and actively removed from woodlands. As yet they survive in our little wood and bring colour.

Some more

2009-06-23T12:50:00.001-07:00

Cranesbill is one of the wild flowers that is sown by the council and brings a lot of colour to the open space on the walk to the wood.

The lighting through the trees is very picturesque on sunny days - which at the moment are plenty.

The path is dry and smooth but wind free and warm and a true pleasure to walk.

The light breaks through the gap in the trees and lights the pond to make photography very difficult and each day the water level drops just a little more.

Elderflower time and a few people gather the sprays for elderflower wine, although I have heard elderflower fritters are quite nice - although rich in fat!

The hawthorn finished flowering a while ago but smells of rotting flesh when it does! This is to attract flies for pollination as flies don't like fresh meat.

Here we can see that the hawthorn is in berries now.

Hogweed stands tall now in the wood, although I had believed this to be cow parsley until checking my facts (using a book).

This honeysuckle thrives in the shade in the depths of the wood and smells absolutely beautiful as the smell lingers in the air stilled by the trees.

Although this honeysuckle grows on the outside of the edge of the wood in full daylight and while it enjoys more colour it's smell is not enjoyed as much due to the open air.

The backlog

2009-06-23T00:46:00.001-07:00

I have quite a backlog to catch up with on what is happening out in the wood and the walk to it because I have started this blog so late in the year. So my apologies. I have put up 10 pictures here, taken this week to show some of them. I have over 30 more which I will try to catch up on.Horse Chestnuts starting to grow. We have lots of trees and very few people seem to gather conkers nowadays.

Clover, buttercups and cranesbill grow on the field as we walk to the wood, having been set by the council in a wild flower mix when the open space was set up. This is not cut throughout the year and allowed to grow. Earlier in the year we had Cowslips and Primroses and other things.

A close up of the buttercups and clover.

These buttercups exists, as a natural patch, in the wood which is a little unusual. They are normally a meadow plant.

A view to show the extent of the wild flower sowing.

A blackberry bramble in flower. As they rake your trousers, socks or ankles they get cursed, but they have their own beauty and they fruit forgives them all they wrong doings.

Bramble in bud.

The bracken starts to stand about head height.

As the bracken starts to 'take over' the wood becomes dense with undergrowth and starts to take on the feel of fairy tale woods where children stray from the path and woodsmen work.

Bittersweet. One of the nightshade family and so children often confuse this with 'deadly' nightshade. It is a beautiful and delicate flower.

A day without the wood

2009-06-17T10:26:00.000-07:00

We didn't go to the wood today because of various factors but yesterday I had taken the camera and I snapped just about everything. Unfortunately not everything came out and one I was disappointed with was a flying insect of a type I had never knowingly see before. We came home and looked at the pictures then had to go through the insect books from memory and found it was one of various species of mayfly. I will try another camera next time and hope I can get a better shot of it. I still have to go through the other pictures and work out the best shots of everything for inclusion here.

The wood in which we walk

2009-06-16T11:59:00.000-07:00

Each day we take a walk in the wood close to where we live, for exercise and to enjoy the wildlife that we encounter.

It was a beautiful day today with the sun coming through the canopy. The insects were very active and here we see a speckled wood butterfly on a blackberry bramble.