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The flowers of Old Man's Beard (or Wild Clematis or Traveller's Joy) are ripening their seeds.

Each seed has a long silvery filament attached, which will soon burst open to reveal the white hairy plumes that give the plant its name.  

 

A WALK THROUGH THE OLD PLANTATION

This is a bit longer than usual but is an illustrated guide through The Old Plantation, the section of Filnore Woods that you get to by turning left inside the main entrance and walking past the toolshed.

Crossing over the stream, which dries up in summer, you enter the wood that we call Cuckoo Pen, an old name for the last area to be left wooded in an area of cleared land.

   

At post 11 there is a choice of paths.    To the right is a path through a twiggy corridor, which we shall come down on our return, and sharp right another path ascends through the valley woodland. 

BUT we carry straight on . . . . 

  

. . . . past a turning to the right and past post 12.

On the left is a stile leading into a small paddock now full of hazel and blackthorn.

At the top of Vilner Lane we turn right as signed and follow the path by post 13 . . . .

  

. . . . along a corridor lined with blackthorn, ferns and rosebay willowherb.

  

At post 14 we pass under the beech trees that were heeled in here years ago when this was a Northavon Council tree nursery.  Though still young, two of them have unfortunately died already.

The path curves round to the right and leads into the old plantation - more leftover Northavon trees

    

Duck under the hornbeam and rowan branches and turn left at post 15.

    

A corridor through here was cleared in the early days of Filnore Woods by Allan Burberry and some young helpers.

   

   

When you get to the leaning Silver Maple look for the arrow at post 16 just beyond it and turn right between two London Planes with their distinctive bark.

      

This will lead you through the jungly trees, mostly willow, and through an overgrown hedgerow into the field, at post 17.  

This is a good spot for bluebells in spring.

We are working to keep this field grassy and full of wild flowers but the brambles, thistles and hogweed are trying to take over.

Turning right follow the hedge line and pass under the branches of the first of two ancient beech trees.

    

On the opposite side of the path is the entrance to the site of an old cowshed, last cleared in March but now a bit overgrown again.   Nature's resilience !

   

Carry on down past the first large beech with number 18 on it.  Opposite the second large beech is post 19.  

Bear left here down the twiggy corridor and come out at post 11

. 

  

 Turn left to post 20 and you are back at the beginning.

 

 Hope you enjoyed this walk from your armchair.  Possibly you will be able to manage it on foot before too long.

ASPENS QUIVERING

We have several Aspen trees at Filnore Woods and we shall probably have more because they send out lots of suckers on their roots to create new trees.  

   

They are the most sensitive trees to wind; even in the gentlest breeze their leaves will tremble noisily.

The leaves, which are almost circular on a mature tree, have long laterally flattened stalks or 'petioles. 

This is why they wobble from side to side in a breeze.

Try holding a strip of paper sideways and see how unstable it is, especially if you blow against it.

 

CATERPILLAR ON PELARGONIUMS

 Who's this dining on my pelargoniums?

As far as I can make out this is the caterpillar of the bordered straw moth.  Usually the caterpillars are just green but the pink banding on this one helps in identification.  These moths migrate to southern Britain every year and may have a couple of broods but they cannot survive the winter cold.

I was going to take a video of her munching away but as soon as I got close she froze for about half an hour.

Eventually I caught her at it again.

I was struck by the sideways chomping action of her jaws, like a pair of garden shears.

MAPLE-COPTERS

It's a distinguishing feature of maple trees that their seeds are attached to kind of wings or 'helicopter blades' to help them distribute.  The proper name is a samara.

Our commonest maple is the Sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus).

And our one true native is the Field Maple (Acer campestre)

 

CONKERS

 Native to Albania and Northern Greece, 
the Horse Chestnut has been planted in Britain since 1616.  
Thanks to the huge number of conkers produced, 
young trees spring up whenever they get the chance.

FRUIT AND NUT BAR

In our garden we are blessed with either several moles or one very active one.  While clearing the earth away I found just one walnut or one hazelnut in four out of eight mole hills.   Clearly a squirrel had been storing nuts away for winter.  Buy I was surprised there was only one in each cache.

Of course as well as storing for later, squirrels are fattening up now on the available fruit and nut harvest.

Video, thanks to: Kayla Worsley