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.