I went out for a walk after work as the fine weather is still continuing and it was a lovely evening. It wasn’t far from dusk by the time I got going but there was plenty of time for a decent walk.

Not an awful lot else to report. There is still new stuff flowering pretty much every day.

480 km

I had another quick lunchtime outing today with the fine weather still continuing.

There wasn’t a lot new to report as we were powering around on the shorter loop so as to fit the walk into my lunch hour. It looks like the Devil’s matchstick is getting ready to spore.

It was just me and the dogs and we took the shorter loop.

475.5 km

I got up early and nipped out for a quick lap while everyone else was still in bed on a Sunday morning. The recent run of fine weather is continuing so it was a lovely morning for it.

Everything is really starting to get going now with the spring flowering season and the place is starting to come alive properly.

It is even starting to dry out nicely and I helped things along a bit by releasing a couple of impromptu dams that were blocking up some the drains.

462 km

It was a lovely morning for a walk so I nipped out quickly to do a loop after breakfast and before the business of the day got started. I had both dogs with me but aside from them I was on my own.

I made reasonable progress over the first kilometre but started messing about with taking pictures after that as it was such a sunny morning.

It really was a fabulous morning and it makes such a difference for it to be so sunny even if it wasn’t that warm thanks to a fairly stiff northeasterly breeze.

A bit futher round, in a more shaded part of the forest, the woodsorrel has just started flowering.

453 km

Got out for a fairly normal lunchtime walk today. The place is looking fantastic with gorse blooming everywhere but not a lot else is particularly active at the moment. The trees all seem to be a week or two late.

We made reasonably good time on the walk covering the loop in about 50 minutes.

441 km

It was a quick lunchtime walk with just me and the dogs along. We’ve had a great run of weather since last weekend so it was really pleasant if not absolutely scorching.

As I got further around there were quite a few things coming into flower. The bilberries have just got going with promise of delicious berries later in the year.

I should know what this white flower is but it escapes me at the moment. Anyway, it’s bringing a spot of variety to the greens and browns of the forest.

I took the longer loop today.

431.5 km

We got out for a family walk today and it was a really pleasant trip around the forest. The air temperature has really increased over the last few days and there are definite signs of things livening up a bit.

Some of the frogspawn has long since hatched and the eggs are well into tadpole stage. They are all swimming around nicely eating anything in sight.

There are so many varieties of willow catkins about. The detail in them is really pretty if you can be bothered to look in detail.

It was quite a slow walk today for various reasons but in the end we got around. We have this lovely stand of primroses growing in a ditch on the edge of our field

It was a nice trip round the forest in fine dry weather.

385km

After a really wet couple of days, I was somewhat surprised to see the rain more or less completely stopped when I went to go out at lunchtime. It’s been a few days since I’ve been up the top due to a long walk last weekend but not a lot has changed.

One slight change is that there is something now flowering even if it is a bit drab. I can’t remember what these are but they are pretty abundant through the forest.

It will probably be a while again before I get up there as I have a few long walks planned for the Easter weekend.

342.5km

This was my usual loop on a fairly fine Friday afternoon. The weather was very clear even it was a bit overcast and I had a nice walk.

I spotted this interesting bracket fungus near our resting spot

There wasn’t really a lot else going on – just a quick lunchtime hike in the forest on the longer of the two loops.

309 km

We got out for our usual quick lunchtime loop today. Not a lot of interest going on I’m. It was just a quick walk with the dogs.

The trees are still showing very little signs of life considering we are nearly at the end of March. While the willows have catkins, nothing has leaves yet.

Anyway, it was a nice bit of exercise for the day.

304.5km