A Walk in the Woods

This morning I decided to go to Hazelwood and see whether I could find seeds and nuts to plant for trees. I have been reading about the composition of hedgerows and thought I would try to grow my own! When they heard where I was going, Youngest, Small Dog and Eldest thought they would join the expedition. We were nearly two hours walking, and I think I found more photo ops than seeds, but it was such a lovely morning that it was just wonderful to be out in the forest!

Lichen

Youngest and Small Dog aka Heinz.

 A very light-starved toadstool...

...and a very well camouflaged toadstool, isn't the camouflage amazing?

There was a long stretch of dense canopy shade, and then in the one spot where the sun shone through there was this ragwort growing about 4' tall!

Clover, beech, and moss- an amazing variety of mosses on the ground and on tree trunks.

Yew candles, lots of them and very pretty.

View across Half Moon Bay from along the lake.

View across Lough Gill towards Clogherevagh and the islands.

I came across Peter Pan crowing in the old Yew- 'Oh the cleverness of Me!'

New Boots? Oh Yeah! First outing and they had a lovely time too!

This should have been at the start, as I took it when we got out of the car on arrival. As you can tell, it was a lovely morning.

And now I have two somnambulent gargoyles and one snoring Dog Person all sprawled in the sitting room watching  the DVD of 'Ice Age' (???), as one does after a long walk in the woods!

Hazelwood

Before collecting BBug from school this afternoon, Dilly and I went down to Hazelwood to see whether the bluebells were out yet. They are still buds but it was lovely down by the edge of the lake so we walked along and looked at things for a little while.

Lots of fishing on Lough Gill, trout and perch, I think.

Are these oxalis?

Fern frond nursery!

Leaning over backwards, this is what the trees look like! I wonder what they thought of me?

Don't these beeches look like dancing girls in new frocks? Sooo pretty!

Some of the twisted shapes of the old trees are so architectural and amazing.

Cherry blossom finally blooming.

And yesterday I heard the first cuckoo! Always a defining moment in Spring! There's nothing quite like the sound of the first cuckoo, or the sight of the first primrose.

This is a link to Mary's blog (she said I could post it) because she wrote much better about the point I was trying to make in my Monday post. If you have a moment do read it!