All over Europe, people are hot and bothered – not so much here up north, where it will only reach 25 degrees today. So my contribution to keeping you cool, if you’re affected by the heatwave, is to offer this refreshing sit down in our local wood.
For Jude’s Bench Challenge.
We’re lucky to have so much woodland here where I live. In recent weeks I’ve taken my camera round and about to capture fresh new growth emerging – pungent wild garlic, delicate wood anemones .. and last of all, the trees’ fresh new growth, optimistically unfurling from their tights buds of winter.
For Leanne’s Monochrome Madness #35 – Woods, Rainforests and Bushland.
Over and out. Nothing now (maybe a Virtual Postcard?) until the back end of next week. Even commenting and reading your posts may be a bridge too far with my phone as my only tool.
There’s an arboretum just along the road from here: Thorp Perrow. It’s the perfect place to wander along quiet paths between glades of trees. These days of course, it has to attract a wider audience than the botanist or the poet. So it now includes a rather good playground; a birds-of-prey centre; and slightly randomly, an area of woodland where meerkats and wallabies make ther home. Oh. And a cafe, of course. Come for a quick tour.
I’ve neglected the trees – in favour of one dead trunk carved to make a housing estate for pixies – to show instead the blossom that’s been at its best. But only a couple of shots – because really, who wants to see delicate pink blossoms in black and white?
The bird is a ferruginous hawk. In case you were wondering.
For Leanne’s Monochrome Madness.
After I showed the photo that won me a popular vote a couple of years ago, some of you were kind enough to ask to see the one that came second. I’m pretty sure I may have shown it before, but here we are. It’s of a lake not too far from here: a wooded location that’s quite well known and appreciated hereabouts, despite not being tremendously accessible. Here’s Eavestone Lake in summer …
…. and in autumn, when the successful shot was taken…
It’s set among rocks, to which trees sometimes cling tenaciously, and it’s hard to navigate your way through. Eavestone Lake may once have been a mediaeval fishpond for nearby Fountains Abbey. There’s even evidence that later, it may have formed part of a designed landscape: the lake has been dammed, and there are signs of careful planting if you know where to look (I don’t).
We once met an Oldest Inhabitant there, and he told us that the whole area had been almost entirely hacked back to the bone in the 1930s, for logging purposes. Abandoned, the trees took matters into their own hands to regenerate. They’ve done a pretty good job, I’d say. And they are part of a special area. Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Today’s post for Becky’s Squares takes me to our nearby woodlands . Leaves are just emerging on the trees, a fresh acidic green. This delicate newness may be my favourite time of year for a walk in the woods. The trees are busy renewing, burgeoning, reconstructing, moving forward …
From Pyrenees to Pennines 
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