Time to stow away the winter weight sleeping bag and thermals I think..Just back from 7 very mild nights in the wood.
Camped above the stream as I like to hear the water music at night.
There is a Deer crossing close by and on the third night I heard them cross the stream, so my presence doesn't seem to alarm them at all.
The wood is coming to life and I'm pleased that new tenants are moving into the bird boxes I put up.
I took a weeks supplies in with me and spent a while the first morning re-jigging the cache as some of the stuff at the bottom needed hauling to the top and using first. I have a rough idea of what's in there, but don't keep a list. I have some very strange meals as a result on occasion...
Spent time wandering as usual, and noticed some of the Ash trees suffer from a problem that perhaps one of our tree experts will know the name of?
The Ash trees in the wood play host to a whole range of fungi, this is all on one tree..I count three types.
Trees have an ability to survive though I know. This Hornbeam is virtually uprooted and broken but stems still grow upright.
Strange branches growing from a trunk and then combining into one.
The days were warm and sunny and at night Lady Moon lit the wood.
Smoke in the sunshine.
As a very small kid I was taught that there is nothing natural in an English wood that would intentionally harm me..
Warned of the pale and delicate sometimes colourful fungi that could kill, the Nightshade, Lords and Ladies fruits and pretty Yew berries and others too that would harm me. Deep ponds, falling branches and the sunny heathy woodland edges where the Adders sleep and don't take kindly to being accidently trodden on, but nothing of evil intent, so I feel totally at ease alone in the woods at whatever time of day or night.
And yet, since coming to this wood there has been something that I couldn't quite fit into the woodland life around me.I first saw it three years ago on a bitter January night when the tent fabric was shiney with ice and the woodland floor crackled with Hoare frost. Just a pale shape across the clearing that had gone when I blinked, unsure if I had imagined something. I've seen it on warm summer nights too, a fleeting glimpse through the leaves and it moved without a sound. Daytime searches for tracks failed to prove there had been anything there. I had a fair idea of what it was but could never be certain.
Until last Saturday. I sat by the late afternoon fire, the sun had dipped below the treeline across the clearing and I looked up.
The subject of many " Did I just see something?" moments, or waking on a frosty night and thinking " Did I see it or was that a dream ?" is now known to me.
It seems that at last the white Deer has found a place with the herd and my woodland spirit is alone no longer.
Hello to those folk who have joined us while I was away in the woods..
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Originally Posted by OakAshandThorn
