Rendcomb Village

21at August 2011: I decided to do a walk around Rendcomb. I just wanted a short stroll on a warm Sunday afternoon. I did this walk a few years ago.

As you come into the village, there is a bridge. I think it just takes a track over the road, connecting two sides of the Rendcomb estate as the road is in a cutting. Nice ornate Victorian iron work.

Rendcomb Manor was a large estate hundreds of years ago, but has been a private school for a fair while. I parked by the old stables which is part of the school.

I set off down a side road and at the bottom of the hill was an almost dry watercourse, marked by the water mint growing along it.

Also, some wild comfrey. This usually grows by water and is good for making a liquid fertiliser.

Heading uphill now, there were some wild hop vines. When I start home brewing again, I may come back here for some hop flowers. I think they flower earlier in the year though, around May.

The blackberry season is in full swing now. It's blackberry and apple crumble for me!

Nearing the turn off into the woods. A shot looking back towards the stable block.

Walking through the woods, I saw this sign that wasn't there before. It shows new permissive access  paths across the fields, linking to Monarch's Way.

Coming down a slope through the woods, a view down the Churn valley. No fungi so far!

Then, finally reaching the River Churn.

Looking back up the valley to Rencomb College.

Fungi at last! Growing on a log on the riverbank. Hard to identify this one, but looks like Mycena variety.

 

A nearby bridge over the river. A very ornate stone balustrade. Presumably built when this was a private estate. They must have been rich as this ornate bridge is in the middle of nowhere!

Heading back up the Churn valley now.

The path headed back into the woods for a short distance. I spotted this Roman snail.

Through a gate into the last field back to the village. These wrought iron gates and fence look Victorian with that ornate finial. You see a lot of these wrought iron fences on these old estates.

A nearby pond.

Back up the valley of the same dry watercourse seen at the start.

Last chance to find some mushrooms, but none seen! Heading up the original road back to the stable block and finish.

A walk over Cleeve Hll

17th August 2011: Off over Cleeve Hill again. We have had a couple of small showers in the past two days, so I'm hoping the mushrooms will have appeared. I took my usual route up the side of the golf course and up to the trig point. No mushrooms! Not even a puffball! Took some photos of the view over to the Malverns for a stitched panorama. Also a shot of the trig point and the Millennium Point marker.

Now over to the radio masts, crossing the Iron Age fortifications (ditch) first.

This is a popular spot for kite boarding and there was a chap with his board and kite, except the board was a flashy three wheeled device, a bit like a small sand yacht.

Across to the dew pond. (Still no fungi)

Now down to the Cotswold Way. I found some mushrooms there last time, but nothing this time. I decided to take a different route back in case I should see anything interesting. Bingo! Some small mushrooms! Not enough to warrant picking though.

I headed past a fenced off part of the common. Inside was a large amount of heather. I expect it has been fenced off to allow the heather to re-generate, as the sheep eat practically everything. (including the mushrooms!)

A ranger told me that these Black Galloway cattle had been put out to graze the common to allow wild flowers to grow. There seems to be plenty of Harebells.

I carried on across one of the golf fairways and came across a huge badger sett. It looked in use as there was used bedding in front of one of the holes. That's what I like about walks. You nearly always see something interesting.

 

I took the track which led back to the car park and saw these meteorites! Or are they meteorwrongs :)

 

 

Back to the car now and a view down the valley.

A walk around Cranham

14th August 2011: I decided to go for a walk around Cranham. I've not done this before and there are some good deciduous woods to explore. I parked at a small car park just before the village at the entrance to Buckholt and Rough Park Woods.

Straight away I saw some fungi growing on a tree stump. One a type of bracket fungus and the other looks like Glistening Ink Cap in my Roger Phillips book, which is edible. I don't think I'll try it.

I entered the wood and took a path in roughly the direction I wanted to go. Mostly beech trees in here, which should be good for fungi in the Autumn, but I'm not seeing any now. It does seem too dry at the moment.

The path then went back downhill towards the village again and I emerged at  the village centre. A short walk up the road and there was another path back into the woods. I stopped at this stream which had a large rock as a bridge.

Back into the woods, then uphill past "Monks Ditch". The side of the bank exposed what is generally under most of the Cotswolds, if you remove the top layer of soil. Layers of Cotswold stone laid down millions of years ago by warm tropical seas.

I had to double back on a track to the right, to get to the public footpath that would take me out of the woods. Halfway I came across this meadow of Giant Horsetails. They were three to four feet high. I've never seen them so tall.

On the last stretch before reaching the edge of the wood, I found some fungi (at last!). I'm pretty sure this is a Common Funnel Cap.

Out of the woods now, I set off across the hill to get back to Cranham. The path went past this nice example of an old Crab Apple tree, loaded with fruit.

A shot down the hill toward the woods at the edge of Cranham Common.

I walked down the hill and before entering the woods I saw some wild mint and some unusual yellow flowers. I'll look these up at home.

Well, it's Monkeyflower! I've never heard of this. My book states introduced from North America, but now widely naturalised.

I entered a short stretch of woodland and then exited it onto Cranham Common.

A view from the common down the valley towards Painswick.

Some wild flowers typical of the unimproved limestone grassland around the Cotswolds. Woolly Thistle, Rockrose and Scabious.

 

 

I reached the village and got a quick shot of the church. I had forgotten that this was where Lily Allen was married.

I then headed towards the village centre to the Black Horse Inn.

Unfortunately, it was closed. So no pint for me and back to the car for the journey home.