Camel Green

Morning in Camel Green

Slow year for sloes?

The Sloes are looking a bit thin on the ground, maybe a sign of a slow year for them.

Pignuts

Once a plant known to all, and a particular favourite of children, I'd be surprised if many could identify this common countryside plant today. Pignut (Conopodium majus) is dainty umbel, a member of the Celery family which has an edible tuber. It's not simple to collect the tuber though. The 'pignut' is always off at a 90 degree angle from the stem, and only very lightly attached, so easily lost. Once you've caught one and removed its' papery skin you've a tuber that looks, and to a degree tastes, a bit like a hazelnut. Commonly you'll find them in woodland, fields and meadows, and they're a sign that the ground has been left undisturbed for a good time. We're towards the end of their season now. Of course don't collect or consume anything if you're not a 110%, as could be confused with the bulbs of other spring flowers.

Bog Asphodel

The tapered spikes of densely packed dainty yellow flowers you'll notice in the boggy habitats of the forest are Bog Asphodel (Narthecium ossifragum). They're a very pretty flower.

Avon Water

 

A meandering Avon Water.

Green screen

 

Out and about we're reaching peak bracken, in places it stands shoulder high, and tightly packed. Gone are the expansive views extending hundreds of meters through the stands, reduced in places to no more than just beyond arms length. The whole aspect of the forest is changed.

Encombe

 

The picturesque Encombe valley; for my money one of the loveliest pockets of Purbeck.

Summer Solstice sunrise

We arrived in Purbeck just shy of 04.30, parking at the gate to Encombe we began the short walk up and around the edge of the Encombe bowl to the coastal high point of Swyre Head and its' crowning tumulus. From the summit of the tumulus we surveyed a landscape bathed in pre-dawn stillness and that eerie light, as in the east the warm hues of dawn began slowly flooding the horizon. A growing intensity of colour heralded the solstice sun, shortly a bright orange disc emerged above the horizon and the longest day of the year had begun. Blessings at Solstice time. /|\

Gimme shelter

I love finding shelters amongst the stands, it means children are being socialized to the forest and nature. I wonder how many though, I don't think it's that common. I can only speak for our local woods, which 'used to be' packed with camps, dens and dirt jumps, not so much nowadays though; in fact I can't remember the last camp I saw over there. We'll lose something of ourselves if we wholesale abandon nature for the screen world; it'll be something essential and difficult to regain too.

Rhinefield Bridge

 

Rhinefield Bridge, where Black Water becomes Fletchers Water.

Pyramidal orchid

Amongst the throng of grasses and chalk grassland flora, a sea of pyramidal orchids (Anacamptis pyramidalis) stand proud, their tight form, shape and distinctive flowers make this orchid quite easy to identify. 

Early Marsh Orchid

 

I think, though don't hold me to it, that this is an uncommon white form of the Early Marsh Orchid (Dactylorhiza incarnata) discovered on the ramparts of Hambledon Hill.

Hambledon Hill

 

Dorset is home to some magnificent Iron Age hillforts, some of the country's finest if not most emblematic examples, and one of the finest is Hambledon Hill set in the county's Blackmore Vale region. The hill rises majestically from the surrounding landscape and was a focus of activity long before the hillforts' construction. During the Neolithic two causewayed enclosures crowned the summit, overlaying an earlier enclosure, the site also includes a couple of long barrows, most of this activity has been overlaid by the ramparts, ditches and interior of the later Iron Age hillfort, or levelled by time. I've not walked here for years, and it was only by chance that we found myself over this way today, and with an old friend; a perfect day to return. Even though I've visited this site innumerable times over the years it never fails to solicit a visceral response,  you can only imagine how the architects and users of these monuments must've experienced the sites and surrounding landscape. 

Warwickslade Cutting

Glorious out in the forest again this morning. Warwickslade Cutting near Camel Green and it's connection to Highland Water, I'll frequently take a shot of this section, although that's usually during autumn as the stream here runs wide and shallow allowing for magical reflections of the canopies autumn tints. Not so reflective at this time of year though as the water level drops and the flow narrows soon to disappear below ground, though still as beautiful. The restored courses of the forests' drains  to their original  organically developing slow flowing meanders has transformed the forest and continue to do so.

Greater Butterfly Orchid

Another orchid that appears to be doing well this year out in the forest is the Greater Butterfly Orchid (Platanthera chlorantha), they're well represented over Wilverley Plain.

Heath Spotted Orchid

 

I can't remember ever seeing so many Heath Spotted Orchid (Dactylorhiza maculata) as I have this year; Rhinefield Heath is crammed with them, it really wouldn't be an exaggeration to say there are thousands of them about. A beautiful sight.

Cotton Grass

 

Cotton Grass (Eriophorum angustifolium) is usually a common sight in the wet boggy regions of the forest, but this year appears to have been a particularly good year for it. Remember it, as it's a good indicator that you don't want to be walking where it's growing due the potentially hazardous nature of bog. Although it's called 'grass' it's actually a member of the sedge family. And its uses? Well, its stems and seeds are edible, and its roots and leave have medicinal astringent properties, and it has also been used to stuff pillows and to dress wounds at different times. Most things our here have some use or other, we've just forgotten them. Maybe it's time we began remembering.

14 pebbles #3

During a recent walk we passed the huge hollowed stump, site of the 14 (later 15) pebbles only to find that most of the stones had been scattered, it appeared deliberately too. I'm used to finding the stones disturbed or displaced presumably by fauna and the elements, and usually have little trouble collecting and restoring the pebbles to a circle; on this occasion though beyond 4 there was no trace of the stones. So when we were over Purbeck I collected some more, and renewed the circle; the tiny stone in the centre being from the original circle. And just in case a passer by felt creative I left a handful of other pebbles in a hollow. I hope the original creator would approve. 

Thanos Rising

 

Bloody good read this one. 2013's 'Thanos Rising' charts Marvels' big purple villain from his disturbing birth, through his troubled formative years and his journey towards the merciless Titan that destiny would have him become, no matter how hard he tried. Strong stuff. Dark themes for a dark character, they don't call him the 'Mad Titan' for nothing. He's clearly not right. Compellingly written by Jason Aaron you almost feel sorry for Thanos at times, only almost though; and as for the illustration, well, Simone Bianchis' work is never not gorgeous, and it's made even more so by fantastic colour artists Simone Peruzzi and Ive Svorcina. As I say, bloody good read.

 

Black Water above Gravelly Ford

 

Black Water above Gravelly Ford. 

Lovely.

Deer

You've seen far few deer in the forest of late, and even then only in ones and twos; so it was nice to catch this group out in the open this morning on the edge of Poundhill Heath. As numbers exploded towards unsustainable levels nessesity has required the forests' deer population to be culled, and over 2000 have been.  A sad nessesity.

Rhododendron flower

As I mentioned in a previous post the rhododendron though an invasive pest, does have attractive flowers.

High and dry

It doesn't take long without rain for the forests' streams to begin flashing their gravelly asses; and it won't be long before there's more gravel than stream on show. Did you know that even though this past winter and spring are amongst the wettest recorded we're still on course for a drought and water shortages later in the year. Why? Decades of privatization have seen our existing/ageing infrastructure left neglected, huge sums of money extracted with no investment, and certainly no substantive reservoirs were built. It's no wonder that our services are collapsing when during that same period our population has risen by some 10 million. For a start we take the water companies back into public hands I say, that's taking them back too, not buying them; the investors have had their pound of flesh and some.

Avon Water

Along the bank of Avon Water this morning.

Old track

 

An old winding forestry track through Anderwood enclosure, and it is quite old, showing on maps from the mid 1800's; the depression to the side of the track is a hundred years younger, a Second World War bomb crater, a gift from the luftwaffe. Danke.

Mullein moth

The Mullein moth (Cucullia verbasci), or rather the caterpillar there of, so named due to their taste for the mullein family of plants. A gang of these buggers have butchered what was shaping up to be a grand Great Mullein (Verbascum thapsus) in the garden; these  impressive plants will grow up to 2m tall, most of which is a majestic spike densely covered in yellow flowers. Great Mullein's a common wild flower found in myriad habitats, and is a useful plant in traditional folk medicine with many medicinal benefits, including having antiviral and antibacterial qualities. The colourful nature of this moths' caterpillar is not reflected in the Mullein Moth itself, which is perfectly camouflaged to look like dead wood, ragged edged, brown and buff with a dark tufted back. A cool looking moth.

Townley Shentons' Seat

Tyneham Cap or Towney Shenton' seat (as I know it) is without doubt one of my favourite spots on the Jurassic Coast, with it's spectacular views along the Jurassic coast in both directions and a clear sweep across the entire Kimmeridge bowl it's easy to understand why. The halfway-ish point on our mornings walk, it was the perfect place for a break. Whilst chilling I got chatting with a chap who it turned out had been born in Kimmeridge in '44 and has lived and worked here since. How cool is that, to have that depth of connection to a particular parcel of land must be something special. His stories brought the landscape and places around us to life, stories of childhood capers, of family connections, of farming and more, the nuggets of information he shared adding to my knowledge of the area. I think he was up here visiting his brother 'Mivvi' whose ashes had been spread here a couple of years back, so after a while I thanked him for his time and left him in peace. I really find it a privilege chatting to people. I'm a huge fan of oral history and recording peoples stories, it's a resource too often overlooked and to valuable to waste. We could learn so much by listening.

Worbarrow Bay and Tout

 

Worbarrow Bay and Tout. But for ephemeral remains glimpsed through undergrowth and thicket you'd never imagine that until the Second World War this was the site of a small fishing village and Coastguard station. Military involvement with this landscape has been a double edged sword, both destructive and protective.

Tyneham Valley

 

This morning was our first foray to the isle of Purbeck this year, and what a morning to choose. It was bloody lovely. Purbeck's a special isle, a magical isle, adjacent to an expansive urban sprawl, yet remaining worlds apart. A seemingly timeless place, and an area that mercifully has thus far through a mixture of factors escaped the ravages of development, in some parts remaining to all appearances unchanged for a hundred years. As you walk all around you the visible remnants of 5000 years of history and human activity are etched on the landscape, with every period well represented from prehistory to present day. The photo is across the Tynehan Valley to Tyneham Cap, with Swyre Head and then St Aldhelms' Head in the distance. Beautiful.