Day 27

Another quick lunchtime ramble today using the slightly shorter route as I was a bit late getting out. The weather was a bit of a mixed bag. There were blue patches in the sky but it was really doing its best to rain. I didn’t get a drenching but there were a couple of short showers on the trip around.

I liked the monochrome treatment for some of the textures on my last post so I’ve tried flattening out some of the more drab scenes to see how that works out on this. Hopefully we won’t be seeing trees like this for a lot longer.

Some strange things go on in the woods. Last week, I met a man with a wheelbarrow taking away leaf mulch which he reckons makes an excellent garden fertilizer. I was wondering why some of the path had been cleared up into piles. Anyway, this is evidence of some more nefarious activity. These cable reels and some related discarded insulation have been in the forest for several years.

The heather is getting into full flower at this point. As it was a bit windy, I found it difficult to manage a good close-up. This is as good as it gets I’m afraid

This past autumn have been the most amazing for mushrooms but there wasn’t much to see after Christmas so I’ve not really had anything to post on this blog since that’s when I started. I spotted these somewhat sad remnants today.

Unfortunately, I know nothing about mushrooms so I wouldn’t chance picking any. So that’s another ramble over and I got back to work for the afternoon with my head straightened out. After my big walk last week the forest does seem slightly mundane but I’m getting back into the swing of it.

Day 26

After my exertions on Friday, I gave it a miss yesterday, but today I was back in the saddle so to speak. I had a bit of a cramp in one leg but I was hoping to walk it out. It was a typical late March day, fierce showers followed by spells of sunshine and we managed to pick a nice hour for it. We even had blue skies and sunshine on this walk.

The tadpoles are doing well and are starting to make a bit of progress. A few of them were wriggling about but mostly still inside their jelly.

There are fantastic textures and patterns in the the small details of forest life and I thought I’d have a bit of a play with the camera settings. This is an ivy leaf that has obviously made somebody a nice lunch.

Here is some detail on a tree trunk.

A close-up of some moss

Some more details of moss and bark

I love the pattern here

It wasn’t a terribly peaceful walk with four children along with us but I’d probably had enough of peace and quiet from my long walk to last me a couple of weeks. I’m planning on trying to do some more chunks of the Royal Canal over the rest of the year with an goal of having the whole lot walked by this time next year. But for now and for the next few walks, it is back to normality.

Day 25
I’ve made it to quarter-point of my hundred days with 10 days to spare before the same of the year so I guess this is good going. I still have a stupid row going on but getting into the forest to clear my head is the best thing for it.

It was a relatively nice day for it – a bit grey but not raining. My wife came with me for the walk and it was nice to have the company. Sometimes, I’d rather use my walk for alone time but this was not one of them. Nothing much out of the ordinary to report on this walk and I barely bothered with the camera.

This is the stick I’ve been using for the last 8 months or so. They tend to last a year or so before wearing down too short. I can then cut a new one out of the hedge at the back of the house. Some of these days, I’ll be organised enough to do one a few months in advance because they are really heavy when new due to the green wood. This one is just perfect right now.

I always like the way the light bleeds between the rows of trees – particularly when there is a gap. You could have some fun here with monochrome film and colour filters. I guess you could do the same with Photoshop but somehow it isn’t the same when the results are so predictable.

Day 24

We had planned on having a walk elsewhere after going into the parade in Longford but events conspired otherwise. So we set off into the afternoon with two mildly grumpy children who weren’t thrilled with being dragged around the forest for a second time in three days.

Anyway, as usual the histrionics evaporated once we got into the forest. Unusually for St. Patrick’s day, it was quite a nice day with clear views to the horizon.

The dogs needed the walk anyway, and they were quite delighted to be getting so much exercise – three walks in three days is pretty good going for them.

You could also see that some of the frogspawn is starting to make a bit of progress with nubs to tails appearing on the tiny blobs. Hopefully, I’ll be able to keep posting photos of these as they develop.

We got around in a reasonable time considering we had the children and we all had a grand walk. It is really nice to see things coming to life at this time of year.

Day 23

One of the great things about walking alone in the forest is the ability to think things through in peace. I generally bury my phone in my rucksack so that it is for emergencies only. So the routine of looking where to put your feet so that you don’t fall over tends to disengage the brain in a way that is fairly refreshing.

Anyway, I guess this walk went in a bit of a blur as I’ve got a bit of tricky situation to resolve so I was thinking that through. Aside from that, I say my first primrose of the year on a bank so it is nice to see things progressing that way. 

There is also a hardy little daisy poking out in the middle of one of the gravelled forest roads.

Anyway, I had a productive walk. I arrived home after an hour with a plan to shave my beard and a general of what to do next about my troubles.

Day 22

After running the morning’s errands, I got back around lunchtime with plenty of time for a walk. The children had friends over so we had a gaggle of children with us for the duration. It was a beautiful spring day with the sun shining – so much so that I had to dispense with my jacket for the first time this year.

We headed on the usual route and everyone was in a good mood about it so that was nice. Despite the racket, there was a nice chorus of birdsong about. I am going to have to try to get up early some morning to try to get out in the dawn chorus.

It is quite interesting to have a bit of a look around in the roots of fallen trees. You can see a lot of detail in the growth in among the decay

Further on a the crossing point of the stream, the frogs were still laying. I managed to snap this guy lurking just on the surface.

Day 21

With the approach of spring, we’ve had a week of frost and foggy mornings which is pretty normal for Longford. It didn’t really start to clear until around lunchtime, but we walked off into the fog with the dogs anyway.

The photographic pickings were a bit slim with the poor visibility but I took  a couple of shots in the thick of the forest just for the record.

The resting place was a lot quieter than on Sunday with the group of scouts but at least we didn’t leave any trace behind.

We crossed the new bridge and it does make the track a little easier – it  works quite effectively. When we got out of the forest the fog had cleared – both literally and metaphorically and it was time to get back to an afternoon’s work

Day 20

We had an early start this morning as the plan was to get out for a hike with the Beaver Scouts and do a bit of bridge building. So we were out of the house at 9:15 to meet up for a 9:30 start. It was a bit of a gray drizzly morning but it wasn’t too wet or cold so every was reasonably happy.

We did the first half of the walk without incident although there were a few wet feet due to somewhat inadequate footwear. However, nothing too bad happened. We all stopped at the usual resting spot, had a bit of a snack and myself and one of the other leaders made up a simple rope-crossing between two trees so that the lads could try out a very basic bridge. That was a bit of fun and we continued on after that.

We decided we had enough time to build a slightly more permanent bridge so we set to and found a few logs to build a bridge across a ditch. The lads were able to help at this and we had a great time at it. We finished this off with a rope tied between trees as a hand-rail and made a nice little crossing

After that, we finished off the walk without too much incident although we did spot a few frogs in one of the streams on the way back which was quite nice for the lads. We finished off crossing the stile I built back in the summer. I must add a couple more of these throughout the forest. This picture was taken earlier in the week on a slightly less grey day.

Day 19

It was a lovely day for a ramble so I got myself away from my desk in plenty of time to go for a nice lunchtime ramble. It was a fine day for it so we got ourselves around in about 50 minutes. The frogs were out in force today – there were quite a few about including this guy who I managed to snap hiding under a bit of grass.

Aside from that, there was a very clear view from the top with about 25 – 30 km of visibility. It is quite spectacular up there on a clear day.

Anyway, we had a fine walk with not a lot of extra especially interesting stuff. I did take a few other pictures including this one of the forest path.

Day 18

There are a few more things starting to come to life now with a few gorse flowers fully out, the frogspawn and some willow catkins making their presence felt. The ground is still very wet but not quite as bad as a few days ago.

I was playing with a new camera today and I think I got some pretty good results with it. I decided it wasn’t such a great idea using my phone as a camera after I dropped it in a puddle last week. Luckily I didn’t break it. Anyway, here is quite a nice shot of the flowering gorse.

I took the short-cut today. This is the view up where I usually come out when I’ve gone off-track.

Further along, I came across this flowering willow which is quite nice.

The weather was a bit drizzly this time but I didn’t get too wet on the walk. It took me about an hour due to various bits of faffing around with the camera.