All posts by Jem

Foggy Day

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.

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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.

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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

 

Beaver Walk & Bridge-Building

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

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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.

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Another Lunchtime Ramble

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.

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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.

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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.

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Little Signs of Spring

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.

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

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

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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.

Saturday Morning Walk

Day 17

After a bit of a gap, I finally managed to get out for a walk on Saturday morning which was nice. The dogs were certainly pleased after such a long break. The frogs had certainly been busy during my absence as they had spawned in a few places

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It still seems a little early in the year although I guess they know what they are doing. Aside from that, there was’t a lot that had changed over the week.

This looked like an interesting detail on tree bar. Some kind of spore off the moss I guess – I should try and learn a bit more about stuff like this.

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Quick Lunchtime Walk

Day 16

As I was at home for the day, I managed to get out for a quick walk over lunchtime. Nothing remarkable about the walk, just a pleasant walk around the loop. The weather was mostly dry – just a little drizzle towards the end but nothing really to stop me.

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The place is looking a bit chewed up after the brownie and guide walks at the weekend and it is still very wet, but we managed fine. I need to get a more waterproof case for my phone really because I managed to drop it into some very shallow standing water, but no harm was done.

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Just the boys today

Day 15

The plan for today was to do a brownie walk but I decided to head out before them with my son and the dogs so we got our act together quickly so as not to be over-run by a hoard of brownies. The weather was OK today but there was no sunshine and a little drizzle.

The heather is beginning to come into flower although it isn’t really visible on this picture.

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We had a good stroll around and made very good time considering. There are a few nice little trees at the top of the loop and it was nice to see that they all survived the Christmas tree poaching season. People seem to rather cut down a bigger tree and take off the top 8 feet which is a bit wasteful

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The foxgloves are starting to put on a bit of bulk at this stage – they are looking quite healthy in some places – whatever combination of winter conditions we are having seems to be suiting them quite nicely.

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Guide Walk

Day 14

The plan for today was to get out for a walk along with the local guide group, mainly so that I could take the dogs and look after our non-guide children. Needless to say, the usual peace of the walk was pretty much shattered but it was nice to get to share the walk with a few more people.

It was quite a nice day for it with spells of sunshine and the sky had gone a very odd colour – blue which is something we haven’t seen too often lately.

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A good time was had by all on the walk and the guides made a few rope bridges and such-like. A few of them got a bit wet as is wont to happen but everyone was happy at the end

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Missed the Snow

Day 13

After spending the morning doing jury duty and managing not to get picked, I got home in time for a lunchtime walk. Unfortunately, the overnight snow had all  but disappeared so I didn’t get the pleasure of a snow walk. I did manage to get quite wet as it started pouring rain during the walk as the approach storm started to break.

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It was a relatively unremarkable walk although some of the paths are getting close to impassable in hiking boots due to the amount of water flowing. If it gets much worse, I will need to alter my route a bit.

Sunday Stroll

Day 12

It was a fine morning when we got up – you could almost describe it as spring. So we all nipped out for a quick lap after breakfast. In particular the dogs needed it as they had been inside on their own for most of the day yesterday.

There are a few signs of spring starting to appear in the forest. The birdsong in particular seems to be getting a bit louder as everyone is waking up and there were a few bulbs pushing up shoots.

We had a nice rest at our usual resting spot while I took a few shots of fallen trees. I still only had my phone with me though so the shots aren’t brilliant.

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You can see bits of lichen growing in the foreground of that one – this seems to be doing pretty well at the moment.

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Anyway, we got around reasonably quickly and the weather was reasonable all through the walk.