Sunday 10 August 2008

Tidying up and fungi

First the important news - Tracy passed her chainsaw course! So she's now qualified to fell trees up to 8 inches diameter, leaving me to fell the heavy ones and drag the logs around... ;-)

While she was on the last day of the course on Friday I cycled up to the wood again to do some tidying up. I found that someone had moved into our shelter though:
I guess I'm not the only one who appreciates somewhere to shelter when it's raining! While we're on the subject of insects, I also spotted these two tiny bugs while checking out the growing tips of some of the coppice:
and back at home that evening a Brimstone Moth came to visit:
Anyway, up at the wood there were three separate oak branches that had fallen over the past few months, two of which I think had been damaged during the thinning. Anyway, they're now sawn and moved out of the way. I was also collecting up some of the chestnut offcuts, but left quite a few where they were, as they've got fungi growing on them. Here's a typical pile:
and here's the underside of one of the pieces of wood
I know fungi are important for the woodland, as is leaving some dead wood around. I spotted some other fungi too, including this one growing on a long-dead chestnut stump that I'd flattened with the chainsaw some time ago:
and this one, which I inadvertently picked from among the leaves, wondering what it was!
I'm very bad at mushroom ID, so if anyone knows what they are, please leave a comment. The only wild mushroom I've ever been sure enough of to eat was a giant puffball, because they can't really be mistaken..

We've got visitors on Monday, so will be down at the beach and then up to the wood for dinner I expect...

Mike

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