Yet another bit of laziness from your correspondent as I’m adding this over a week after the event due to a mixture of extreme business and general laziness. Anyway, this was a fine autumn morning for a walk. The sky was clear and there was brief respite from the rain of the past few days
Amazingly there is still some colour about with some gorse flowers struggling on although I didn’t manage to get a decent picture. There are also lovely autumn colours in a few of the trees that still have a few leaves – mainly beech now.
It was a fabulous clear day with visibility right to the horizon. Days like this are getting a bit thin on the ground now.
As I went deeper into the forest, there were more bits of colour about. Aside from the ubiquitous mushrooms (I’m having a mushroom-free post today), there was some very mature early holly.
Finally just as I was about to turn off the main access path, I came across this struggling on.
This was an odd experience for a walk. We have had a couple of guys around the village on a sort of a quest following a dream of Midhir and Étain trying to find their fairy palace which is reputed to be up on the hill. While my own tendencies would tend to be of the more skeptical persuasion, fair dues to them for following their dream and I can certainly think of more boring ways to spend a holiday. So anyway, I was organised into showing them my route around the forest which I was happy to do.
It was a bit of a mucky day and in honesty I probably would have wussed out if it had of been just me. I did the normal loop but we also took a diversion up a very overgrown lane to what might have been an old quarry but I rarely visit. On the way, we passed this fallen tree root which is slowly but surely losing its battle with the elements.
The dogs enjoyed the extra long walk and the chance to explore a new place. I’m not sure I’ve ever actually taken the dogs up here before.
After the detour we were in a bit of a rush as I had a conference call arranged at two so I put the camera away. We did spot this little guy on the way back.
Another non-rushed walk on a bank holiday Monday morning and my first week in some time where I’ve managed more than two walks. The weather was still quite nasty but I got out anyway. The leaves are almost all gone now but there is a bit of colour in some places
The main feature of this walk was an explosion of red mushrooms (Fly Agarics I think) down the bottom part of the forest. Suddenly they are all over the place and I can’t remember having noticed them before. These are the classic red toadstools and are highly poisonous.
This one below is a right little fairy scene.
The landscape around Ardagh is quite odd with a lot of glacial erratic boulders in the ground. You’ll quote often find a little stone sticking out of the ground that turns out to be a two tonne boulder. Anyway, these ended up being ploughed up in the forest so in parts of the forest you see these boulders everywhere.
I managed to get out after breakfast for my first weekend walk for what seems ages. The wet weather is continuing and I managed to get myself a right soaking. Still, the dogs and I appreciated getting out of the house for a turn.
We are down to the last couple of weeks of having any leaves left on tree. The big ash tree in the garden has been stripped bare by now but a lot of the other ash trees are still fine. These look quite colourful.
The festival of mushrooms continues in the forest. I though this one looked rather good. I’ll try to get a few of the more exotic ones the next time I get out
Just out for a quick lunchtime ramble on a miserable late autumn day. There really wasn’t a lot to report for this one. Just a quick scramble round the forest in fairly nasty weather for a bit of exercise. I always find it’s a lot quicker if it’s a foul day.
I got out for a loop of the forest after breakfast this morning as it was too fabulous a morning to miss. Mostly the mist had burned off but you could still see it hanging on in the distance. There was a fabulous blue sky but it was still quite chilly after a touch of frost overnight.
It is still unbelievably dry up the forest. Not a lot of new stuff to report except for the holly berries which are very close to being properly ripe about a month earlier than normal. I don’t expect to be getting much berried holly for Christmas
Anyway, it was nice to get out for a quick walk at the start of a busy day. I have been slacking somewhat of late.
This was another quick lunchtime lap on my own so not a lot to report really. Then fine weather is still holding after a brief spell of stormy weather over the weekend.
A bit grey outside but not really too bad considering the time of year.
I am absolutely exactly on schedule now with the first walk of the last quarter of the year. Again, I’m on a lunchtime rush so not a lot of note to report. There has been a little rain over the past few days but it is still very dry.
I didn’t do much with the camera due to general laziness – just this shot of a few slightly bedraggled mushrooms.
I need to try to get out for a slightly slower weekend walk in the next couple of weeks. Unfortunately I am taking advantage of the dry weather to do a bit of outdoor work so don’t have a lot of time for walking.
I was a bit late getting out today due to losing track of time at work. It was yet another fantastic day but it is definitely getting colder.
As you can see, the visibility up the top was fabulous with the horizon a good 70 km away in place I should think. In the latter part of the walk I came across a solitary foxglove having a second coming. It even still had some buds on it.
With the fine weather continuing I had yet another dry lunchtime walk. It was a bit overcast and a relatively unremarkable walk. It took the shorter of the two routes as I was running a bit late.
Everything is dying back – even the mushrooms are past their best and it is rare to see some nice colour. So I took this shot on the edge of the forest to show there is still a splash of colour about.
Walking forests and trails in the midlands of Ireland
