bunn

I went to Greenscombe wood this morning.

This is quite a new wood, and you can see among the trees the remnants of the old market gardens that used to line the valley. Then someone tried plantations of conifers, but it was really too steep for that, and then wild trees came and crept into the spaces between the plantations, and now it is part plantation but more and more a self-made wood.
You are supposed to be able to find strawberries still growing in the wood, left behind by the old market gardeners, and today I found some!

They aren't fruiting yet, but the flowers are way too large for wild strawberries. I will come back in a few weeks and try the fruits. If they are good, maybe I can take a runner or two, later in the season to plant in my own garden.

Up on top of the hill, they (? I know not who? The Duchy of Cornwall, perhaps? They own the land. Or some conservation group?) have cleared some of the volunteer woodland to make a nature reserve for butterflies, with patches of bluebells in the grass. Probably if I had read the notice about butterflies more carefully, I would know who has done all this hard work to make it look all so beautifully untouched.

I didn't see any fritillaries, but there were yellow brimstone butterflies flitting about among the bluebells.

I liked this fern, poised in a sunbeam and reaching up its leaves: 'I'm a STAR!' it says...

The dogs ran about madly after squirrels. Then they came back, very pleased with themselves.

More squirrel...?

On the way back, there were many shining green and blue damselflies. I was photographing the three sitting on the leaf, and only later noticed the one coming into land...

I had flung down the leads with an excited cry of 'Damselflies!' and wandered away with the camera Although the hounds have not ever been trained to respond to such a command, they clearly got the idea. I was so pleased when I turned around and saw them waiting patiently.