We all went for a family walk up on the shorter of the two loops and had a nice day of it. It was quite an interesting walk. The heather is quite spectacular this year and there is loads of it in flower at the moment.
After the wet August, it has been a few days since there was any rain and longer since there was a significant downpour. It is quite amazing at this time of year how quickly the place dries out and there is very little water about.
As we got towards the end of our walk we came across an interesting sight – a wasp’s nest on the ground. Further along there was what looked like some bits of a wild bee hive. Perhaps we have a badger about.
I’ve not been doing a huge amount of walking over the last couple of weeks – just the usual lunchtime and weekend efforts but the mushrooms are back out in force again. These few pictures cover four walks over the last couple of weeks.
The weather has been reasonably dry over the last couple of weeks so the going is relatively easy at the moment.
It won’t be long until we’re into winter weather at this point, the mushrooms normally mean it’s time to dig out the fleece again.
I’ve stopped feeling the need to blog about every one of my local forest walks, so this is really just a quick note to record that I did 4 walks in the forest over a two week period.
The weather has been fairly mixed. We’ve had a couple of really nice days for walking and the usual run of wet weather mixed in with that. The mushrooms are back so I’ll have to get posting a few pics of them over the next few weeks.
With the start of August, and most of my home projects finished, I’m hoping to get back into walking a bit more. I managed to get two weekend walks in a row to start the month off which is a promising walk.
On the first of these, I was on my own the the dogs and spotted two foxes right in the middle of the forest path. I very quickly fired off a picture but the dogs spooked them before I could manage to get a proper picture so this is the best I could manage.
We’re back into mushroom season again, and this is an interesting specimen that I hadn’t noticed yet. No sign of the Fly Agarics yet but they seem to wait until a little later in August normally. The mushrooms don’t terribly seem to have been affected by the lateness of everything else.
The birds have had most of bilberries by now but there are still a few about. These two were very tasty after I finished taking the picture. Bilberries were held in very high regard in ancient times – I can imagine their sweetness must have been a very intense flavour in the days before refined sugar.
I managed to get out twice today – once at lunchtime and once in the evening with the children who needed a bit of exercise. We managed to dodge the heavy showers we’ve been having for the last few days so had dry walks both times even if the ground is very wet.
I christened a new pair of boots today – my old daily walking boots had given up the ghost after about 5 months – I won’t be buying Hi-Tec boots again. The Lidl ones I had before as daily boots were better.
The pine flowers are now well on their way to becoming pine cones. I really love this time of year in the forest as everything is coming alive and there is a real sense of possibility. The bilberries are coming along nicely – there could be a good crop this year.
I nipped up the mountain on a fine Saturday afternoon to get a quick walk in. There is loads of stuff flowering at the moment which makes for quite the spectacle.
There isn’t really a lot to say about the walk – it was a fine day for it.
Although not a part of the forest, the apple trees in my garden have rather fabulous blossoms at the moment.
After having been a bit lazy the last time I was working from home, I went out into the rain for a lunchtime loop. It was a bit wet for most of the walk to be able to use the camera. All I managed to take in the line of photographs was this broken blackbird’s egg.
Anyway, we got a walk in despite the weather so that must be a good thing.
I was out for just the usual lunchtime loop on my own. It was fine and sunny when I started but my luck with dodging showers ran out during the walk. The smell of gorse is still fantastic up on the mountain and it everywhere at the moment.
It was a fine clear day.
The lady’s smock has just started flowering right on schedule for the start of May. The bluebells won’t be far off by now.
It got a bit of a soaking on the way down but nothing too drastic.
With the long evenings in, I am finally able to get evening walks in and for the next few months, I’ll try to get an evening walk in with the children as well as walking in the day.
So, today I made it round both at lunchtime and in the evening – once on the longer loop and once on the shorter one. The children were suitably impressed by the riot of yellow we’re getting from the gorse.
The smell of gorse has also really started spreading which is one of those real aromas of late spring / early summer.
489 km
Walking forests and trails in the midlands of Ireland
