Frosty Scrape Bottom

This morning, with an icy frosting under a clear blue sky, Scrape Bottom was the epitome of a winter landscape. It was bloody cold too! You'd better be wrapped up warm, Jack's frigid fingers are probing for any exposed spots; don't be misunderstanding me, this is what winter's supposed to feel like and I for one embrace it. Well, outside I embrace it; this cold snap poses a challenge for those of us doing our best to keep the heating off.

Watch your step!

Although the soils of the exposed open forest heath are poor, sand and gravels for the most part, with only a thin layer of usually impoverished soil, the ground supports a colourful world in miniature of mosses and lichens. On close inspection you can but wonder at the works of nature, who needs science fiction, the world around us is populated by a myriad of alien-ness. I'm going to try and get some better shots of the forest floor it's crazy.

Tell 'em about the honey, mummy

It's that time of the year when you might spot clusters of boxes dotted on the distant open heathland slopes, these will be Bee Hives.  The hives are brought out into forest by bee keepers during the late summer to take advantage of the abundance of heather, said to be the finest of honey.  They'll be gone soon as the heather has all but gone over. When you hear 'forest' you think trees, don't you, and there are plenty of trees around here, for sure, although the majority of the New Forest is actually open heathland, with elements of wet heath. Here Heather and Ling are king, being by far the dominant ground flora, so there's a lot of pollen to be gathered.