Shell Bay

Dune shroom

Amazing how even in seemingly inhospitable environments all sorts of life can find their niche, or a least a niche where they can survive. Amongst the shifting marin grass dunes, just beyond the reach of intertidal waves, two small mushrooms have found a spot and thrive.

Brackish wet woodland

Old soldiers

Old Soldiers of 20th century conflicts, never tested in battle, now neglected and nearly forgotten, slowly crumble into the gently lapping waters of Bramble Bay as threatening storm clouds gather overhead.

Hurst

Summer Solstice

Though the wheel of the year is in continual motion,
now the Sun rests briefly at its Zenith; the Oak king still rules.

Todays sun is at his strongest, light and life abundant;
tomorrow begins its waning journey into darkness and the Holly Kings domain.

The longest day sees the burgeoning seeds of spring begin to bear fruit,
the land is bedecked in all its green finery and the promise of generous harvests to come.

Rest not on your laurels, there is still work to be done;
nurture your dreams as you would your plants, for fruition in both requires diligence.

White Foxglove

White Foxgloves (digitalis purpurea alba) are rare and even rarer to find growing in the wild amongst their more common relatives. So coming across some deep in mature Oak and Beech woodland was a real pleasure.

Refresher

Sweet damp scents pervade throughout the forest, revived by the life giving attributes of fresh clean rainfall the land bursts into life, the greens appear deeper, greener, more varied in their hue, making the purples of tall elegant Foxgloves radiate with renewed vigour. Highland Water, being the longest tributary of the Lymington River, extending high into inner forest and being blessed with a large catchment area, sees its flow increased as the rain water leaches quickly off the still sun hardened ground. The filigree of tiny tributaries which criss cross the landscape carries the life giving fluids too swiftly for much long term benefit to be afforded to the water hungry flora and fauna.

Oysters

Walking during the rain I was rewarded by some fresh Oyster Mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus) are a common sight in the forest; growing on a variety of trees, although usually associated with Beech, the make fine displays in a variety of colours and to be found nearly all year round. Some of these eaten on my return home and good they were too!

Dead wood

Ch ch ch changes

Only a few weeks ago I posted about the thinning of trees and shrubbery along the banks of Fletchers Water, through the section where the stream runs along a dead straight route due to drainage works during the Victorian period. Well, it doesn't run straight anymore. Extensive works have restored the stream to one of its earlier courses. Fletcher Water no longer joins Highland Water here anymore.

Root stump

I don't know what made this Beech take this course of action, but whatever it was rather than face it this tree buried its head in the ground. A course of action that'll get you nowhere.

High Chaperal

Just within the woodland fringe is a well structured, and evidence would suggest, well used wild camp site. Surrounded by natural and constructed features forming a stockade style encampment, a central fire and ample firewood supplies make this spot an attractive overnight location.

Birken Wood

Lilly was here in 1960

River Flow

River flow? Oh, no! You can walk for a mile or so along Dockens Water between Queen North Wood and the foot bridge where Anses Wood joins Holly Hatch enclosure on bare gravels. After the foot bridge there is a modicum of water, yet this is still stale and for all intents and purposes motionless, barely covering the stream bed. Not a good sign and not good for forest wildlife.

Dancing Ledge

Postbridge

Sittaford Tor

It has been too long since I've been on Dartmoor. Sittaford Tor, 538m above sea level, looking south.

Huntley Bank Leviathon

Deep in Huntly bank, almost invisible amongst the other mature Oaks and Beech, shielded too by the younger and smaller trees and shrubs is another woodland leviathan. As with the Flat Oak, this beauty is 6m or so in circumference and must have stood at least since the time of Good Queen Bess. It's a privilege to be in the presence of such a tree.

Nine Stones

Dead Ringer

I remember this mighty Oak on the fringe of Burley Old enclosure being ring cut over 15 years ago and yet it still remains standing, its now leafless boughs protruding from the canopy like a gnarled crown or a stags pride. The endurance and determination of long dead trees to hold fast their place in the forest never fails to impress me.

Flat Oak

The wheel perpetually in motion continues to turn and although the forest has much to do, you sense calm and contentment beneath the boughs of ancient trees who've seen this seasonal transit many times before. Snaking through the stands Highland Water moves so slowly now that its process for the most part goes unperceived. The cool breeze swirling softly amongst the towering trunks belays the fierce strong winds test the leaf clad crowns as fluffy clouds are forced across the sky at speed.

Further on, deep in Wood Crates, a magnificent ancient Oak with about a 4m or so oblong girth, many hundreds of years old, is all but lost out of sight. A wondrous find.

Beech Root

Foxy

Baby Apple

Foxy

White Shoot Sun down

Buryley Old

Chuck

This is the first Chicken of the Woods (Laetiporus sulphureus), also commonly known as the sulphur polypore I've seen this season, young and fresh, yet to be devoured by the myriad of woodland creatures who would relish it, it would make good eating. Only collect Chicken of the Woods growing on an Oak trees as it has been suggested that those growing on Yews could be poisonous.

Sound of summer

The forest is beautiful at any point of the year, even in the depths of winter when stark and bare, besieged by winds, sodden and sombre, but now. At this point of the wheels transit the woods transcend beauty for another level. Vibrant greens of every hue overwhelm the senses, the stuff of life and fecundity are never more apparent. There's a riot going on, but there are no barricades though, no oppressor to subdue, this is a riot of life. The deeper you penetrate, the more distant the hum drum sounds of human activity becomes, replaced by forest song.

Gypsy camp

Deep within the woods, well away from any discernible tracks, along the fringe of mixed mature woodland are a cluster of sites which possibly represent the remains of Gypsy camps. Once common throughout the forest, Gypsy life amongst the woods was curtailed through encouraged settlement, sometimes as with Thorney Hill on established Gypsy camp sites and finally demonized and marginalized by society. Hundreds of years of nomadic living truncated.

Endurance

Defiant. Although badly mauled, damaged by time and the elements, snapped, its boughs ripped asunder, with half its ancient trunk bereft of bark, gnarled, weathered and decaying; this mighty Oak continues to endure, vigorously thrusting young branches brimming with verdant new leaf upwards towards the Sun. Determined to maintain its tenure in the woodland.

Beech

Oak

Highland Water

The rapidly developing canopy adds welcomed dappled shade as the air is close, oppressive and hot, only relieved by occasional cool winds that probe the woodland fringes. There's a storm coming. The forest closes in creating a magical world, in the open glades and covered groves all nature rejoices.

Mystery Fire

What's the story? This site of a mysterious fire was found deep in Wood Crates , well away from any roads or occupation, under a Beech tree adjacent to an old infrequently used woodland track. It appears to have burnt intensely at its core, leaving little remaining other than a linear trench of fluffy ash. The fire had spread amongst the surrounding leaf litter, but with no real power it hadn't the strength to take hold, and had burnt itself out without much damage. There's no sign of human intervention nor any signs of human presence in the vicinity; so how did it start ? Does this mark the spot of a lightening strike? What ever its cause, with all the dry weather we've had of late, it could have been disastrous.

Queen and her King

As appears common throughout the forest, Oaks and Beech grow in close pairs; it's not uncommon to find them embracing each other, as with this pair in Huntley Bank. This pair have grown together for 200 years or so, boughs entwined as if each offering the other support, 'I'll carry you if you carry me' The Levellers.

Greens

Speaks for itself.

Cleaved Tree

At some point the tree in background has been cleaved in two, by what forces I don't know, although even what one would think of as a catastrophic event and even though it's heavily scared, with its heartwood exposed these two halves of one tree have endured for years and look to continue for many more.