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.

Weekend In Hampshire

5th August. Down to Alton in Hampshire to visit some friends this weekend. I stopped off at one of my favourite Hampshire towns, Alresford. I started my walk by going along the riverside footpath, past the eel trap and then out over the local fields. Along a nice old hedgerow, I first spotted the elderberries. They look ripe, whereas the ones I last saw in Gloucestershire were still green. Maybe it's because it's further south here or just more sheltered.

A shot of the nice rolling Hampshire countryside, looking over to Alresford.

Not far from the elderberries, in the same hedge were some dewberries.

There were also blackberries nearby, but they are nowhere near being ripe. I've yet to see enough dewberries to warrant picking them.

This is quite a varied hedge, so is probably an ancient one. The next find was some hazels nuts. Not ripe yet. I would have thought it would be at least September before they are properly ripe, It tried some, but the kernels were very small.

By the nuts was some sweet smelling honeysuckle. I wonder if you can make anything from this. Maybe wine as you can make dandelion wine. Probably not enough flowers though and it is almost certainly protected.

A dead mouse. A bit far gone for the BBQ though :)

I reached Old Alresford and started my way back alongside the watercress farm. This is owned by Vitacress and has featured on Countryfile. I don't think the farmer would appreciate me foraging some of his cress, so I'll have to find some growing wild. Probably not difficult to find in this area, with all the chalk streams.

I knew I was nearly back at Alresford now as I reached the Fulling Mill Cottage. Stunning place. The river runs underneath the house and the public footpath runs in front of their front door!

The River Arle. A tributary of the Itchen. A classic Hampshire chalk stream. Full of trout and grayling. It would be great to fish here. I did look up fishing on the Itchen and it was at least £200 a day! It's quite difficult to photograph fish because of the glare from the water.

This was the biggest fish I saw, but it was too far away for my phone camera

Swindon Village Fields

Over to Swindon Village today for a short walk around the fields. Before I went through the gate onto the first field, I checked out the plum trees on a piece of community land near the pavement. I knew they were there as I have picked plums from them before. A reasonable crop this year, but not as heavy as last year. I expect they have  a rest some years.

As I walked along the edge of the field, I started to see the sloes. They are a bit patchy this year, but plenty there if you want to pick a batch for making sloe gin.

A bit further on I spied some crab apples. Apart from crab apple jelly, I don't know what you can make from these. You need a lot of sugar as they are very sour. Perhaps I'll look it up in John Wright's book.

I carried on on the path where I have had Horse Mushrooms before. Nothing at the moment, but it is very dry. I got to the field known as "the mushroom field" and disaster! The farmer has ploughed it up and planted maize!

I did find some Fat Hen growing on the edge of the field. I'll go back and get some one day when my spinach has finished in the garden.

I carried on back to where I know there are some more wild plum (or damson)  trees. They have a reasonable crop this year but not as good as in the past. Enough for me to make my damson gin though.

Almost back to the car and I saw the leaves of wild horseradish. These plants have been here for years as I used to dig a root up with my dad when we lived at Swindon Village.

More raspberries!

Sunday 31st July 2011: I went to my favourite wood to see if there were any raspberries left. I managed to find about half a pound, but I think that is it for this season. That takes my tally up to about 3 pounds of raspberries from here. There are signs of other people gathering. I met a group of walkers and one of them said there were more raspberries at the top entrance to the woods. I must investigate before they are all gone this year.

On my way up to the raspberry canes, I spotted some dewberries. Not enough to pick for a meal though, so I left them.

On my way back through the woods, I stopped at a log placed as a seat. There was a small lizard basking on it. It ran off, but I remember seeing a wildlife program where they said wait quietly and it may come back. I waited and it re-appeared within 30 seconds. Then another one appeared on the log. They were very small. only about 2.5 inches long, so they may have been young.

I stopped at a hazel tree not far from the wood entrance. I was surprised to see so many nuts on it. I thought the squirrels would have eaten them. I have seen other trees where they have already been stripped
by squirrels. I need to go back here when the nuts are riper.