Fungi were few

Fungal finds were few this morning on my woodland welly wander, though I did spot a brown birch bolete masquerading as a hot cross bun and some toodler-sized jelly babies.

I also found a small but deep paddling pool fed by its own small waterfall and with plenty of scope for exploration near it. I've 'bookmarked' the place in my mind, for the benefit of visiting grandsons in due course, as 'directly above the larches' that grow at the bottom of the field below the wood. The larches are still very green. I love their late autumn colour change.

I thought the line of stones looked almost as if there had been an ancient wall there. At the lip of the pool the water was well over my feet. In the centre the water would have come over the tops of my wellies.

Lovely purple light this morning behind the Sentinel Tree

The 'Sentinel Tree' showed up well against a pale purple sky this morning. I'm enjoying the fact that the bare part of its trunk that was shielded from light until ten years ago when much of the hillside above us was 'cropped' of its plantation trees now seems to be putting out green shoots. It will be interesting to see how far it can clothe itself before the next crop catches up.

The dead wood in the foreground of the picture at the right is holly. Keep meaning to get a ladder up there and harvest it for firewood. Small bits fall off now and then.

Go, Sentinel!

Nearer the house, as the sun came further south, its light caught some of our neighbour's remaining cherry tree leaves.

I made it right up to the Sentinel Tree last November. It was tricky because there are so many fallen and felled trunks lying about and a thick growth of bracken, bramble and opportunistic young birch, not to mention a fast-flowing steep burn (stream) to cross. I was standing on one of the more or less horizontal trunks to take this pic that's looking down to the back of our house and the misty sea loch beyond.










The next two pics were taken last October when I was lower in the wood and wondering how tricky getting up to Sentinel would be! Anyway, I have touched it; actual hugging was difficult given my precarious footing!

undergrowth to fight through
to reach Sentinel

The pale green in the middle is our back garden,
as is the upright goat willow tree in the NW corner.