Bullace

Wandering along Dark Lane this morning with Geoff I was struck by how laden with fruit the hedgerow shrubs are, Sloe, Haw, Hazel, Oak, all are weighed down with ripening produce.  A nice surprise was to find a few good sized Bullace (Prunus insititia) shrubs also well laden with fruits. It got me thinking, just imagine if as a society we embarked on a massive program of hedge laying, of creating miles of hedges. Imagine the quantities of fruits and nuts we could harvest in a good year, not to mention the creation of valuable wildlife habitats and in light of the climate crisis, the carbon sinks we'd establish. If only we thought outside of our self constructed box, nature offers simple solutions to humanities complex problems.

Wooded paths

Although often shown on maps as merely footpaths along the edges of fields, you find many paths about Cranborne Chase are much more.  Many of them are paths running through slithers of, a sort of, woodland, 6m to 8m wide, though in nature not so much woodland, the flora they contain make them more like hedgerows on steroids. During the summer months they afford you welcome shade in the more open and exposed parts of the Chase landscape. In windy weather the debris that frequently litters their floors brings the fear. Though whenever you walk them they've always a magical aspect to them, as if you're walking old lines. I'd imagine they're busy nocturnal highways too.