Walesby Woodlands

Writing now, in the middle of April, it is amazing to note how quickly Spring has progressed.  Looking back at photographs I took on a walk around Walesby Woodlands on 3rd March I can see that it was still very wintry looking with trees bare of leaves.  One of the earliest to come into leaf is the hedgerow hawthorn.  I remember my mother telling the story that during her childhood in the 1920/30s she used to eat the leaves and call them ‘bread and cheese’.  In Walesby woodlands we came across a couple of beech trees with a robust growth of horse’s hoof fungus.  I was intrigued because it is normally found on birch.  In days past it was processed and used as tinder and is still used by proponents of bushcraft today for the same purpose.