Walk in the wood.

[Grooveski]

Went a bit snap-happy at the weekend . It's a good time of the year for seeing things that the bracken swallows up later.

The wood's old and wind-blown, forming all kinds of wonderful shapes.


Shows how tough birch bark is. The wood has rotted away long ago yet this half metre high length of bark is still coping with the wind.


Ferns don't seem to mind where they grow. Come summer the whole mass melts together and you literaly can't see the wood from the trees(or anything else). The ground bracken hits 2-3m high in places and trees look like shrubs from a distance.


Lichens and mosses are everywhere. A SNH survey carried out years ago lists page after page of latin and the bulk of it falls into these catagorys. If anyone can recommend an good ID book it'd be much appreciated as we'd like to start matching names to faces.










The burns are small but they've had a while to eat their was down. Crossing the gorges is always entertaining .




IDing from bark is a laugh when everything's covered in moss . At one point we stood among two hazels, three birch, an ash, an oak and a beech and up to 2.5m high they all looked exactly the same.




They look handy. There aren't many burls around funnily enough, only really in shelterd spots, curious.


Long growing fungi like razorstrop and hoof were scattered around. Wish I'd had a camera in september when the ground fungi were in full swing, was a right old nibblefest.










Primroses always seem to be out. They just go on and on. Don't know what these wee red chappies are but they're the next most common at this time.






The shoreline's a pretty dodgy walk(i.e. fun) and is mangled upturned mica-schist with quartz veins. The only sign of man points a handy reference to another rhododendron(that's what we were out for, the blighters are easier to spot at this time).
The frogspawn in the high freshwater rockpools looked fit to pop anytime.

[bushwacker bob]

lovely pictures.

[Toddy]

Stunningly beautiful Josh Wish I'd been there, it looks so different without the bracken.
I've got some stuff on lichens, mostly for dye though
(Before I get flamed, I get mine from tree surgeons and foresters who are felling trees anyway.)

Cheers,
Toddy

[BorderReiver]

Really beautiful.Thanks for sharing.

[Phil562]

Great Phots mate

[Snufkin]

Great pics, thanks for posting .

[JonnyP]

Lovely photo's of what looks like a beautiful area........................Jo n

[Scally]

some lovely areas to tarp down there been there a few times myself usually bushcraft and shore diveing around teddy bear reef, three reefs and the sound testing station. beautifull area hard to found dry wood or it was the last time i was down there.

[Cyclingrelf]

Thanks for sharing - some nice photos there. New camera by any chance?

[stuart f]

Hi Josh, nice photos by the way,thought this book might be of some interest to you for I'Ding lichens and things.Try Roger Phillips Grasses,Ferns,Mosses&Lichens, ISBN 0 330 25959 8

Its a good book, i got mine in Carlisle for £8 half the rrp.

Hope thats of some help mate cheers.

[ssj]

Beautiful photos!
steve

[jdlenton]

Nice phots Groov boy do I miss the westcoast lochs they are very very beautiful

James

[Grooveski]

Yeah, I miss it too and I've only been back for three days .

Thanks for the tip Stuart . Looks the part, Amazon are doing a not bad offer so that's it ordered.

Must see your colour charts sometime Toddy. Has anyone suggested an article for the mag to you? (hint, hint)
While this whole area is under a hefty conservation order and is stictly look but don't touch there's no harm in knowing what to do with the things you're IDing, in fact it helps the ID process as it raises interest.

I've heard there's some good diving Scally, and we see folk out sometimes as we're driving round. When the weather picks up a bit we'll be taking the snorkling gear for gathering shellfish. Agree that finding dry just-about-anything is tricky - dry isn't a word that we use often other than "going to have to dry our gear again".

New camera, guilty as charged Cyclingrelf, but this's what I got it for so it'll not be the last photo frenzy.

[Grooveski]

Cheers to everyone for the cheers too. Cheers right back for all the pics I've admired.

[falcon]

What a wonderful area....woodland like that is too rare in my part of the world.....top photos

[benjamin.oneill]

Those are magnificent, if you can excuse the theft of copyright one is now my desktop background. Looks like wonderful country, it reminds me alot of parts of the coast in North Devon that look alot like that... and suffers its fair share of rhododendron.

I think the little red flowers you found look like whortleberry. If you return in late summer you're in for a tasty little snack - they're just like blueberries, if not nicer. Exmoor has its fair share too, especially near the coast in similar locations.

Ben

[laurens ch]

Thanks for the great pics . It reminds me of some of the woods round here, but perhaps a little damper.

[bilko]

Brilliant pictures. One could take a lovely shower under that fall if noone was around. And that spawn looks ace, like a purse of magik nestled in the pool.
Thanks