Yesterday's surprises
May. 3rd, 2011 08:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellarienYesterday we did our favourite segment of the Sheffield Round Walk, from Ecclesall Woods up to Ringinglow and down the Mayfield valley to end at Endcliffe park. The woods were full of bluebells, giant stitchwort, and wild garlic, as well as fresh leaves; there were robins, and a mob of ducklings on Forge Dam, and of course that heron. Most of the surprises of the day, though, happened in the field just before Ringinglow -- the bit I've taken to calling the Boggy Field with Cows In. Because it's boggy -- being apparently at least one of the sources of the Limb Brook -- and has a higher probability of bovine encounters than is quite comfortable. We decided to chance it rather than going half a mile out of our way, given the dry weather lately -- only to encounter surprise number one. In the last year, someone has devoted a lot of trouble and a lorryload or two of stone chippings to making a nice dry path through the bog.
Surprise number two was the Fungi of Unusual Size, growing on a dead tree; seriously, the things were the size of dinner plates, if not tea trays, and quite handsomely scaled in gold and brown. Someone had apparently harvested one, quite neatly with a sharp knife, but there were plenty left to admire.
After detouring to look at the fungi, we sat down to eat our sandwiches while we were a bit off the beaten track, and that was when surprise number three happened; a sizeable branch fell off one of the beech trees with a tremendous crash. Fortunately no one was too close at the time -- though the nearest dog came running almost before the echoes had died down. (We got a closer look later, and it looked as though it had been rotten anyway, and had come down under the weight of the new leaves.)
Surprise number two was the Fungi of Unusual Size, growing on a dead tree; seriously, the things were the size of dinner plates, if not tea trays, and quite handsomely scaled in gold and brown. Someone had apparently harvested one, quite neatly with a sharp knife, but there were plenty left to admire.
After detouring to look at the fungi, we sat down to eat our sandwiches while we were a bit off the beaten track, and that was when surprise number three happened; a sizeable branch fell off one of the beech trees with a tremendous crash. Fortunately no one was too close at the time -- though the nearest dog came running almost before the echoes had died down. (We got a closer look later, and it looked as though it had been rotten anyway, and had come down under the weight of the new leaves.)
