Diamond Jubilee

Back in the new year the Daily Mail was offering readers the chance to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee by planting a tree. (I can't remember how many thousands of trees the paper was sponsoring but it was quite a large number) I thought this was a brilliant idea as not only were they helping the environment but at the same time you could dedicate a tree to someone special. The Woodland Trust were planting forests in various parts of the UK (one area being named as the Daily Mail Wood).  I collected the tokens sent off the application and waited to see if I was chosen. Today I got this certificate in the post so there is a tree dedicated to my mother at a place called Normanton le Heath, in Leicestershire. I will now have to do a little research to find out exactly where this is located. Embee said "we'll go and look for it'! The certificate no is 5856 that seems like a lot of trees to me!!! Wonder if we would find it -I guess the number will be on the tree!!

Diamond Jubilee Celebration

An Autumn Walk

I have been trying on and off all day to upload these photos that I took when I went on my Fungi Forage earlier in the week. These are general views of the area rather than of the actual fungi that we managed to find. I am going on another walk in a couple of weeks and I am hoping for some better photos.
It is quite encouraging to know that they have manged to retain some of the natural beauty of the area alongside the vast sprawl of houses that have been built on much of the land over the past 25 years. Although you can hear the traffic from the motorway and the hustle and bustle from the schools and houses it still feels like another world once you are in the woods. There was a quiet peacefulness that reminded me of my childhood growing up in the country as we walked along an area known as Three Brooks after cutting through Webbs Wood. There were a few people about walking dogs and mothers with toddlers out for a stroll in the afternoon sunshine. We actually didn't walk that far in the two hours we were out as we stopped to look at trees and learn about the different fungi we found. We returned along the edge of Savages Wood.

Webbs Wood is ancient woodland and Savages Wood was originally the boundary between two local parishes. There are several brooks and small lakes where you can see a lot of birds. It is still quite green but some of the bushes have lovely red berries. There is even a relic from the days the land was farmed. I think it might be a plough but I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong!









I'm now looking forward to my next walk in Warmley Forest Park on October 31st, that is provided it's not raining. I'm a fine weather walker!!

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October 19th 2006: No archive

Name this tree!

I know I'm being rather silly but I'm feeling rather melancholic today. Not because of the weather, although that's extremely changeable; it's literally pouring down one minute and feeling quite cool, then the sun comes and it's hot and this has been the pattern so far today!! The real reason I'm feeling low is because Beccy and the family will be out of touch for the next three weeks. Don't get me wrong I'm absolutely delighted that they are having a three week holiday in France with Joules' family. Dillon, Mollie and Ben will have a brilliant time with their little cousins, aunts and uncles and their other grandparents; Ben rang me last night to tell me all about it and say goodbye- he's such a sweetie. I suppose I've got used to daily contact through the blogs and more recently skype and this is what I will, selfishly, miss. However Beccy and Ben are coming to spend a few days with us in July while Dillon and Mollie are away at camp so I have that to look forward to.
Now what have I been doing
Yesterday (Weds) on my walk with Angel I decided to concentrate on trees. Growing up in the country I was far more interested in climbing them than learning their names. Of course we all knew where to get our conkers and had marvelous fights to see who had the champion conker. I think this has now been banned in schools because of H&S issues, yes, there is an element of risk but what's a few bruises compared to learning good eye to hand co-ordination and having fun that cost nothing!! On the other hand were we just lucky and what would have happened if someone had been seriously injured, probably not a lot when I was a child; nowadays someone would be sued!! So I guess it has to be better safe than sorry- what do you think?
The Horse Chestnut which gives us conkers.
We suddenly came across a tree that had been unrooted, I couldn't decide if this was part of the estate management or whether it had been blown over in a storm.
I couldn't get a full photo of it as it was a really huge tree. In fact it was so big it spanned the river and I couldn't get it all in camera view, about half of it is in this picture.
It seemed strange to suddenly see this little conifer on the edge of the wood, alongside its tall friends!
Now this is the tree I cannot name and I'm relying on someone being able to tell me- I wonder if it is a rhododendron!! (The flowers were almost over).
We also stumbled across lots of molehills and Angel was more than a little interested and tried to dig into a couple of them.
We were out for a couple of hours and another hour yesterday evening - needless to say we both slept very well!!
Today (Thurs) I have been having internet connection problems and have only been able to stay on line for the last couple of hours which is why I am late posting this. I wanted to go swimming this morning which meant I was up and out with Angel by 7am. We only did a short walk 1.6 miles and she did not look impressed when I later went off without her. It was also the monthly Market this afternoon and I took my mother, luckily we just about got back between the storms. I was able to get a lovely lot of fresh fruit and veg grown about 30 miles away. I'm particularly looking forward to trying the early raspberries, strawberries and the asparagus and embee had to have a pastie for his lunch tomorrow!