THEY shut the road through the woods,
Seventy years ago.
Weather and rain have undone it again,
And now you would never know
There was once a road through the woods
Before they planted the trees.
It is underneath the coppice and heath,Only the keeper sees
That, where the ring-dove broods,
And the badgers roll at ease
, There was once a road through the woods.
Yet, if you enter the woods
Of a summer evening late,
When the night-air cools on the trout-ringed pools
Where the otter whistles his mate,
(They fear not men in the woods,
Because they see so few.)
You will hear the beat of a horse's feet,
And the swish of a skirt in the dew,
Steadily cantering through
The misty solitudes,
As though they perfectly knew
The old lost road through the woods.
But there is no road through the woods.
~ Rudyard Kipling ~
| Summer over and a new Season begins. Autumn has come to Canford Heath. The very heavy early Summer rain, has ensured there are enough leaves left on the trees to show us the glory of the new Season. Reds and golds and russets of Autumn.The Beech trees in the pictures below are still quite green but the ground is strewn with russet leaves, and slowly the colour changes. The silver birch already have a mix of green and gold, making the trees look as if they are bearing yellow fruit, the bark gleaming a brilliant white in the sun. | |
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| Below the same avenue of beeches, just 2 weeks later. The change is really marked. the greens now turned gold and russet. I think it is quite beautiful | |
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| It is possible to walk sometime and see nothing but the rather drab green of evergreens and then quite suddenly a splash of colour like those above, brighten up the woods. It isn't just the trees that don new clothes for Autumn, the Heath and woodland floor take on their own shades of orange russet and gold. | |
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| Today, the 2nd November and a most brilliant day. Bright blue skies and just a few fluffy clouds over the horizon. The temperature about 18ºC, perfect but hardly typical of early November. I decided to walk home with the dogs through the woods again and was rewarded for my detour, a good few miles further than I had planned to walk today, by the glorious sight of the sun shining through the trees and producing an almost shimmering gold. The leaves on one of the beeches still showing green, gold and russet.Each step cushioned by years of pine needle deposits and today covered in a carpet, several inches deep of leaves. | |
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| Above, yet another gleaming golden leaf tree, the sunlight once more making it a glowing sight. Next to it, a most unexpected but very pretty sight of a Pampas Grass in full plume. It might have been dumped by some local gardener who found it too large for their garden, or it arrived as a seed on the wind, some time ago. In it's present position it can grow to it's hearts delight and thrive among the more native of heathland plants. I wish I had the space to show you these pictures in their original form, reducing them tends to lose so much of the detail and the impact. I have been using several as desktop wallpaper | |
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| Just a couple of pictures today, 6th November, another bright very mild sunny day on Canford Heath. The first only because I took a picture of this same beech tree only a few days ago when the leaves were a lovely golden colour, today they are deep russet. The second picture I took and also rang the Heath ranger to warn him of what I had seen, a lot of smoke. I have not yet heard the outcome, but the sight of so much smoke in an area I know is mostly woodland it always worrying. I still don't know if this was a controlled burn of if it is a spontaneous burn or arson. Time will tell. As I write this you will be pleased to learn that the ranger along with the fire crews are on the job. | |
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| Today I went to Delph Woods, just another extension of Canford and Upton Heath. Today the 7th of November, still very mild but wind is forecast, so I have taken the opportunity to capture the last of the Autumn colour before the wind whisks it all away. Below is the result. An almost startling colour. | |
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Created, 12th October 2007....