Chuck

 

There's been a flush of Chicken of the Woods (Laetiporus sulphureus) about the forest of late, good sized fresh specimens too. Although within it's recognised season, it's not common for me to see so many handsome clumps at this time of year. We've been seeing them everywhere we've roamed. 

Stag Brake

 

Stag Brake

Fading glories

Throughout the forest heathers' reign is starting to fail, their rich lilac hues beginning to fade. They've put on a magnificent show this year, that's for sure.

Highland Water

They've been low, and their gravelly asses have occasionally been on show, but this year the forests streams have continued to flow throughout, which is becoming an increasingly rare event. So huzzah to that. I know we're on autumns cusp but you know summer's already left the room, it's felt like autumn to one degree or another throughout August, though now it's presence now is inescapable.

Autumn lady’s tresses

 

Autumn lady’s tresses (Spiranthes spiralis), the last of our native orchids to appear, are coming up all over Spy Holms at the moment. Quite the diminutive orchid they're easily overlooked if you're not paying attention, attractive though, comprising dainty little white flowers with greeny yellow bracts growing spirally around a single stem. They favour rough grassland and heath, though are more commonly found on calcareous soils they will tolerate lightly acidic soils, and Spy Holms usually puts on a good display of them.

Holmsley Bog palette

Out in the forest our Goddess the land shows off her developing palette for the autumn season.  And, it's looking rather lovely.

Young oaks

A stand of young oaks, one of many mosaic blocks which make up Rhinefield Sandy's enclosure. I do like this particular block. It's not big, though enjoys a very attractive and engaging aesthetic.

Fungi

 

A little reminder of the potential seasonal bounty to come, a young Beefsteak fungus (Fistulina hepatica) errupts from a ancient beech trunk. Soon throughout the stands and amongst the woodland fringes the fungi realm will reign. It's a fascinating world, and one we've yet to fully understand, though we know enough to know they're essential to the whole damn thing. Plenty are edible too, several classified as edible good, though just as many are not, and if you're not 110% certain, leave well alone, some mushrooms are fatal. And as for Beefsteak fungus? Well, it's an edible, and I've eaten it on a couple of occassions in the past and will pass on eating it again in the future; bitter, rubbery, weird, would all be appropriate adjectives to employ. It looks a wrongun too.

Rowan berries and the moon

 

Rowan berries and the moon

Wild Stallions

 

Two stallion foals playing, one clearly trying to dominate the other; already hierarchies are being established or at least the process learnt. Although she often looks lost in chaotic abandon, mother nature is highly structured and hierarchical; a time, a place and a season ascribed to every species of flora and fauna, and to every activity. The wheel turns with purpose. The natural world is the epitome of order.

Bugger

Bugger. It looks as if the forestry are clearing the collect which runs under Burley Rocks on the edge of Mill Lawn, and they've either moved the bridge in the process, or have removed it with the aim of renewing it; it does look a bit worse for wear. Either way, discovering it missing required we change our course.

Oh beehive!

The hives are out in the forest. I reckon it could be a good year for the bees and therefore for honey; it's been a bumper year for heather and ling.

Thinning

 

Hell of a lot of thinning going on throughout Vinney Ridge enclosure at the moment, all sorts of sizes and tree species too. The forestry tracks are lined with stacked timber, stacks which have grown every time I pass. From good sized larch (Larix decidua) and I think Western Hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla), and a handful of Oak (Quercus) and Beech (Fagus sylvatica), right down to much younger and therefore much smaller Silver Birch (Betula pendula) and Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris). As you'd imagine the character of the stands is totally changed in the thinning process. I look forward to seeing, and wandering, the results.

Danger!

Well, you don't get more dangerous than that. Straight and to the point.

Nice out

 

Nice out.

Green Bury

 

A subdued morning in the forest. Has summer abandoned us? 

Invasion

 

An invasion of silver birch, pine and gorse continues unabated throughout what was until harvested only a few years ago Markway enclosure. When I was younger swathes of open heath had been colonized in this way, they doesn't take long to get established. I for one hope the forestry or NPA just leave them be, let nature take her course. I'd like to walk through those woods.

Anderwood

 

Anderwood

 

Changing seasons

Red Rise Brook looking magical. For summer there was a strange sense of Autumn about the forest this morning. I swear the seasons have changed in nature in the last 10 years or so; summers and winters have got shorter, while autumn and spring have become much longer, their boundaries nebulous. I don't mind though. I much prefer the transitional seasons. Though I'd imagine there are many in the flora, fauna and insect communities who feel differently, as once everything in nature meshed, now too frequently not so much.

What's that?

 

Something unseen caught Geoffs' attention, it often does. I wondered if our auditory perception and sense of smell were once more acute than they are today; I know chimps have an acute sense of smell. I came to the conclusion that we must have had at some point. I imagine our hunter gather ancestors still had to some degree, and that contemporary hunter gathers would be far more attuned to their environments that we'd be; their environment surely necessitated it. They say that like us dogs have a 6th sense too, though dog boffins believe that unlike us dogs are more likely to trust it.

Water Mint

 

Walking the same forest roams throughout the year you get to see how a place changes, see that it's always someone’s time to shine; currently it's Water Mint (Mentha aquatica) time. Swathes of this fragrant member of the mint family carpet the damp grassy environs of the forest streams. Smells lovely.

Purple reign

We didn't need hold on for too long, the purple reign has begun.

Nice out

Dappled sunlight plays in this stream side copse on Ober Water. If you'd gone down to the woods today, you'd have found them rather pleasant.

Lughnasadh

 

I swear the wheel of the year's accelerating, or maybe it's just the requirements and pace of modern life. Whatever. The blessing of Lughnasadh and first harvest is upon us. Raise a toast, the energy of the green man is spent, his time at an end (for now), his sacrifice will feed the tribes. I'd like to hope that folks literal and metaphorical seeds have born fruit, though a cursory glance about reality indicates that in both natural and human realms it's clear things aren't quite right, and they might not have. Still, we're always grateful for any bounties the fates bestow. Lughnasadh blessings to all. /|\