Horsefield, Deadwood and Cemetery

A Long Walk Around the Horsefield and Deadwood and Back via the Cemetery

This turned out to be a much longer walk than normal: 6.5 miles, possibly because I had to visit the doctor's surgery for a blood test first.  From the surgery and walked through Scartho village and on through the churchyard, pausing to photograph the church which looked wonderful in the morning light.  Continuing, I met Heather who was waiting on the path over to the Horsefield.  We carried on to the Horsefield and then wandered round the perimeter next to the cemetery.  I was frustrated to have a linnet posing beautifully only to have left my long lens at home.  I was delighted, however, to find that there were more butterflies on the wing, especially plenty of fresh small tortoiseshells, so perhaps there has been a recent emergence from pupae.  I also found small heaths, a single large skipper, one common blue and several speckled woods, particularity in the woodland burial ground.  We saw cuckoo spit for the first time this year and elderflower is comming into blossom now; I must order some citric acid so that I can make some elderflower cordial.  The dog roses are looking spectacular now, one of my favourite early summer flowers.  We found white campion, birds-foot trefoil and yellow rattle and in the wood there was the delicious scent of honeysuckle.

We walked on through the Deadwood, past the YMCA and into the cemetery where I did a lap of the woodland burial ground before making my way home.  I did have a look for the sword leaved helleborines and found plant; a very poor specimen, but at least there is evidence that they are still there.

Speckled Wood

Small Tortoiseshell

Small Tortoiseshell

Small Heath

Dog Daisy

Large Skipper

Japanese Rose

Dog Rose

Nettleton Wood

Discovering a New Wood on a Beautiful Afternoon.

At the beginning of Lockdown we joined the Woodland Trust, something I had been meaning to do for some while and it seemed an appropriate moment.  From all of the reading I have done, it seems that one of the best ways to help the climate emergency is to plant more trees and look after the 'wood wide web'.  Both the trees themselves and their associated mycorrhyzal fungi are one vast carbon sink and we need to look after them.  This wood wide web comprises millions of fungi and bacteria in a network surrounding the roots of trees, forming a vast interconnected web of organisms throughout woods.  They swap nutrients between soil and the roots of trees and transmit chemical messages from one tree to another, from one end of a wood to the other.  Scientists have mapped this web on a global scale, using a database of more than 28,000 tree species living in more than 70 countries.

Looking for a new location to walk I looked at local woods in the Woodland Trust information and came across Nettleton Wood.  This is somewhere I had always known, but always thought was private so on Sunday afternoon we launched out to explore. The woodland trust section was purchased in 1981 at which time it consisted of half, open grassy heath and secondary oak and birch woodland.  The open grassland is now a mixture of young birchwood and open space.  The remainder is a natural secondary woodland of silver birch and oak, including a small remnant of the original oak planting from the 19th century interspersed with small woodland glades.  Adjoining the Woodland Trust section is a Forestry Commission scots pine woodland with quite open stands of trees.

We followed the main path through the wood which went in a long curve from the scots pine section through the oak and birch woodland to the A46 at the far end. Walking through the open pine section was reminiscent of a cathedral while moving into the broad-leaved section we wandered into a sea of green: bight bracken green and the fresh acid-green of new birch and oak leaves.  The sun shone through the wood making the colours sparkle; it was beautiful.  It's a pity that I hadn't discovered this wood earlier when I was producing my body of work on walking in woods for my photography degree.  As we wandered through I was already filing away ideas for future photography session: early misty mornings with perhaps deer peering through the bracken, rich autumn colours, close detail images and micro landscapes.  It seemed an ideal wood on sandy, heathy terrain, for nightjars, I wonder......

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Speckled Wood