This is really a post about fungi. I have to tell you this because, if I don't, there will be no way of you knowing because, after this paragraph, they won't be mentioned again until the end. But it's good to have a context. These woods are the context for the fungi in the next post and for them, you will have to wait!
They are on the edge of the River Stour, which runs beside Blandford Forum in Dorset and which is, as you can see from the gulls swimming on the grass, prone to flooding in wet weather. The woods themselves, at least on the bank we are about to walk along, are on enough of a rise to be mostly protected from the water and they are, I reckon, one of the most beautiful places you could ever be.
They are wonderfully and sensitively managed; the lightness of touch is impressive - old logs left and lots of undergrowth but paths kept clear so people (and horses) can walk through safely. To get there, it's a bit more than half an hour's walk followed by an hour's bus-ride from the places I usually show you so forget the sea, forget pebbles . . . and, in winter, you can think snow.
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| November 17th 2012 The grey behind the leaves is the water of the Stour. Some branches are branches, some reflections. |
At the beginning of the walk, there are yew trees. After that, at this time of year, it's the beeches which most attract my eye. The ways through the woods are wide so it's reasonably safe to look up as you walk; though it is, in places pretty muddy.
Some of the leaves, as you can see, are quite a deep bronze. Others, brighter.
And, under foot, a carpet of both - with more and more falling as you walk.
(Notice the ivy?)
Through the trees, you can see St Martin's - the church of Bryanston School.
If you keep going (which you have to unless you turn back, there's no-where in between!) you will come out beside it, or near it (depending on the route you take) and, all the time, you will have been looking out for fungi - or, at other times of year, maybe . . . beetles? I don't mean it's rock solid with fungi - but there are enough to make it extra interesting, especially because they are not the same as the fungi I know from the woods nearer home.
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For the post about the fungi in this wood, click
HERE
HERE
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| How are the trees you are following doing now it's autumn? My elderberry seems pretty mundane compared with the beeches in these woods but, not withstanding, I'll catch you up with it soon. |
