A bumble about in the woods

I went for a bumble about in the woods up the hill the other day. Nine years ago, when we moved to the Boggy Brae (and I've just realised, saying that, that I've lived in the Boggy Brae house for longer than I've lived in any other house in my life), trees up the hill were being harvested. The lower part of the wooded area was left in a right mess. We contacted the logging contractors to ask them to hoik muckle hunks of tree out of the burn that runs along the back of us lest it should overflow. They did. Since then a lot of trees near the burn have fallen over, making it, ahem, interesting to go for a stroll there. I tend to follow deer tracks but roe deer can get through smaller spaces than I can so my walks turn into boggy wood bumbling: under tree, over tree, bumbling free. You get the idea.

Up hill, I have watched first the foxgloves, then young birches, and now replanted crop trees various growing all over the cleared area. There is a lot else too. Most of the plants and fungi in my garden have relatives in this wood.

On the birch trunk, the top one in the picture above, I found these little mushrooms growing in a crack in the bark. I don't know what they are yet and have left them there. I'll keep going to visit them for a while to see how they progress.

click on any photo to see it larger

On another fallen trunk, a pine, many mini-trees were growing out of it.

Its bark looks like this:

bark of a pine

Further along I edged along a trunk similar to these on the right but stouter. It was just as well it was stouter and a good bridge because it spanned a small ravine. All the sticky up side shoots were actually quite useful to jam my boots against for steadiness. I wanted to get a closer look at this fungus on yet another fallen tree. I couldn't get any closer. Well... possibly... but I decided not to.

another not ID-ed fingus

Down from my trunk treading, I then explored a marshy bit. It shows as a pond on some old maps but it's actually just a bog and the sides of the area are steep and skiddy, as I discovered. Scaly Male Ferns are very tough though and a big handful makes a useful rope for hanging on! In the marshy bit, I found the mushrooms shown below. I haven't managed to identify them yet either.

mushrooms in a marsh

transluscent cap

The spore print is a rich brown and they have a 'grassy' smell.

The tree from which this leaf comes has recently lost half its crown because of collapsing pines crashing through it. The leaves are a beautiful bright yellow-green in spring.

There's nothing like a bit of messy woodland for watching Life–and the deaths that help it along–doing its stuff.