Michaelmas at Great Knelle

Last weekend was a bit damp but glorious nonetheless.

On Friday we went to the annual Wood Fair at Bentley.  Lots of it was as previous years but that just means refreshing the brain and meeting friends of old.  What was new was a display of raptors : great for brushing up on what rare birds really look like, whether they be owls, falcons, kites or harriers.

We bought a good looking book on the identification of fungi at the fair – now all we have to do is learn how to do it [see below]!

On Saturday we lunched in Titania’s Bower …

Lunch Sep 14

… barbecued pork loin chops with fried onion and asparagus.  Only the French Stick [and the beer] is not visible.  Lots of large mosquitos but the smoke seemed to keep them away.

Wandering around the woods afterwards we found evidence of the wild boar on the eastern edge of Open Pond, a real wallow :

Wallow

Complete with the evidence :

Wallow 2

That is a British penny [a bit bigger than a US cent] next to the trotter imprint.

This time we took a picture of a burrow which has been excavated under a woodpile in Bellhurst Wood.  It is not clear whether it is badger or fox but we are betting on badger :

Woodstack Den

The fungi are generally late in sending up their sporing bodies this year because September has been so dry but we did find one totally unknown [to us] specimen :

Unkown 2 Sep 2014

and a couple of brackets of interest.  This one is living in a fallen cherry, judging by the bark :

Cherry Bracket

It is smoother and paler than the one in the last blog.  However, this one or perhaps two is the more interesting :

Bracket Spores Sep 14

the tree bowl below the dark brackets is laden with rust-brown spores, turning the moss from green to brown.  However there are also small white brackets lower down.  Are these a different species or this year’s sporing bodies which will turn dark brown with age?

Late Summer

We [or rather Richard, our friendly contractor] have started coppicing the west end of Titania’s Bower.  The aim is to deal with about one acre this season :

Coppice Start End Aug 2014

Autumn is relatively early this year and the fungi are already prolific although we are not the best at identification.  What is this, spotted along Main Ride, for instance :

Unkown Sep 2014

This one, possible one of the Honey Fungus family, was erupting from the base of a very dead but still standing oak in Bellhurst Wood :

Honey Fungus Sep 2014

It could be Armillaria mellea in which case it is highly prized as an edible but one is advised not to take alcohol for the 12 hours before eating nor the 24 hours after so perhaps ‘highly prized’ is not quite the best way to describe it.

These of course are bracket fungi [growing a fallen branch in Titania’s Bower] but which one? :

Brackets Sep 2014

The prize for looks must surely go to the small puffballs which have sprung up all over Titania’s Bower.  They are typically 25 mm [1 inch] in diameter :

Puffball Sep 2014

They are probably the Common Puffball of the UK, Lycoperdon perlatum.

By the way, if you ever wonder what eats all those fungi in the woods, we have found at least one culprit in the act :

Culprit end Aug 2014

 

July 2014

A mystery package arrived at the house for ‘Titania’.  It looks rather good at the entrance to the bower :

Plaque July 2014

We found evidence of a mole in Andy and Nicky’s part of the wood somewhat north of Open Pond :

Moles July 2014

but the real joy at the end of the month was not the wood at all but the wheat field to the south of the Bellhurst Wood.  These two pictures were taken on July 27 :

The Harvest too end July 2014

The Harvest end July 2014

Badgers

At the end of May we received our tripod from Tim Lloyd and of course it had to be taken for a test run …

Tripod May 25

You can see how prolific the bluebells were in the glade this year even though the flowers faded long ago.

There was much evidence of building in a new badger colony to the north of the existing one, again still along the west bank of Eastern Stream :

New Building June 2014

and nearby was a dung pit [midden or dung pit] :

Badger Midden June 2014

 

Easter 2014

Easter Sunday was a wash-out so our Easter Lamb was cooked and eaten at #48 and we didn’t even get back to Titania’s Bower to hunt for the ‘Easter Eggs’ [aka bottles of wine and beer].

Monday [April 21] was glorious though so we went up to the woods to retrieve the bottles as best we could and knock up sausage and onions in french bread for lunch.  Not all the bottles made it back full.

The bluebells were at their best :

Bluebells Apr 21 2014

and the Early Purple Orchids, Orchis mascula [I cannot see how one can have Orchis femina!], down by Eastern Stream were putting on a lovely show.  The race that we have starts quite dark when in bud :

Early Purple Orchid Apr 21 2014

and lightens up as it matures :

Early Purple Orchid too Apr 21 2014

Late March

Spring is now well on the way :

Welcome to Spring Mar 30

… with a veritable carpet of anemones, this to the north of Titania’s Bower close to the stream :

Anemone Carpet Mar 30

Even the dog violets were out although we couldn’t find the early flowering orchid that Pat and Mary told us about :

Dog Violet Mar 30

We wandered up through Knelle Wood South and came across a magnificent display of bracket fungus :

Brackets Mar 30

Everyone was feeling the freshness of spring and the deer had not long passed by :

Fresh Spoor Mar 30

Early February

By early February the oak tree had self-pruned :

Oak Damage Feb 2

and the stream was looking almost as if we had beavers loose :

Dam 2 Feb 2

 

Dam 1 Feb 2

It has been such a mild winter that the bluebells are already showing themselves :

Bluebells Feb 2

and fungal sporing bodies are still in evidence :

Fungus on Fallen Tree Feb 2

Year End 2013

We visited the woods on December 30 : quite a glorious day as it happens and not at all cold.

There were signs of wind damage :

Wind DamageThe above was down in the little valley of Eastern Stream. The stream itself was flowing well.

In the root ball of another fallen tree nearby were the first signs of spring, bluebell shoots :

Signs of Spring

Wind Damage 3The above was close to the ponds in Titania’s Bower

Wind Damage 2And this one was close to the entrance to Knelle Wood South

What surprised us was the amount of fungal sporing bodies in evidence. We definitely need to brush up on our fungus ID capabilities!

Fungus on TreeIs this Honey Fungus?

Ramaria botrytisWe believe this is Ramaria botrytis

Black fungus 3The first of three examples of a black fungus – or is it the result of frost damage?

Black fungus 1Possibly Craterellus cornucopioides?

Black fungus 2This is heavily disguised but is it Craterellus cornucopioides?

Pale FungusA pale trumpet fungus

Coriolus versicolorWe decided that this must be Coriolus versicolor

Midsummer’s Eve 2012

Well the magic worked : Midsummer’s Eve in Titania’s Bower was a day of sunshine and clouds but no rain.

In the week before we dug and lined a fire pit in the glade :

The bricks were just rescue bricks from the garden at home :

Saturday morning saw us light up in the pit at 08:30 and by mid morning it was a deeply satisfying pit-long fire :

… and it was smiled upon :

We kept it going with dead wood from the surrounding trees until mid afternoon, by which time there was a good bed of ashes. In went a bed of green sticks followed by two legs of venison and two of lamb. After that we put more sticks across the pit, some chicken wire and then a bed of wet newspaper before a final cover of earth.

The magic really began a bit later when a faerie flute was heard out in the woods :

[thank you Helen!] and accompanied the partying for the next few hours.

More magic followed when the meat was dug out of the pit and served to one and all :

[thank you Alex!]. The fire was resurrected to keep us warm and then finally, as it got dark, the magic continued with a nightingale singing us home as we retreated from the Bower to let Titania and Oberon resume their reigns ….