Beech Wood

A walk through the Beech Woods on a nice sunny day in May. There seems to be a wide avenue through the woods with large mature beech trees either side. I think this must have been a road, or farm track, or even an old river bed at one time.

Nice healthy birthday outing to the park

 Healthy birthday in the park, well..... healthy except for the angel cake, chocolate brownies and gingerbread men!!

My Birthday Outing to Crombie

Because it was my birthday yesterday my daughters, their children and the dogs all came to take me out. No grand or fancy restaurants for us, we went to Crombie Country Park. We walked the couple of miles around the man made loch, let the children play in the adventure playground, picked up our picnic from the cars and then headed to the enclosed marquee for a splendid birthday tea. They toasted my with fizzy apple juice, sang happy birthday over shop bought angel cake  and tucked into cheese and onion quiche, chocolate brownies, ginger bread men, cherry tomatoes, crisps and cuscus salad……….not necessarily in that order. None of us have very much spare cash at the moment but this was one of the nicest birthdays I can remember.

 
Crombie Parks Past
The park has its origins in this areas growing need for water during the mid 1800’s. A nearby reservoir at Moniki was completed in 1854 but found to be inadequate for the growing needs of the area. In 1866 work began to develop the former quarry and part of Crombie Den as a reservoir, with the construction of an enormous, earthen embankment with puddle clay lining.  The whole thing was completed in 1868 but the combined supply of water from Moniki and Crombie was never really sufficient to meet demand. In 1871 work started on the Lintrathen scheme, which remains the key supplier for Dundee plus much of Angus and Perthshire.  Crombie was last used to supply water to Carnoustie in 1981, and for almost 100 years its future was uncertain.

Crombie Park Today

The Park was officially opened in September 1983. It has 102 hectares includes Crombie Loch as well as broadleafed and coniferous woodlands; it is a welcome haven for wild life and waterfowl. The woodlands are home to red squirrels, woodpeckers and roe deer.

My own personal favourite part of this vast park is a tiny unused crofting cottage. It has been left exactly as it was when it was used by crofters during the last century. My dream is to one day find my self living in a little house that looks exactly like this with the front door looking out onto the sea. I would sit at my door and watch the sun rise over the sea.  The only sounds; the sea crashing against the shore, the sand being dragged back into the sea and the gulls screeching above the wind and the waves, no company, no conversation, no nothing except me and my house and the sea. …… Oh Navada

 

http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/photos/album/185/Crombie_Country_Park

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crombie Country Park

Nice healthy, open air, fresh air, birthday walk. Better than any fancy restaurant.

the blog to go with the photos is here
http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/journal/item/168/Nice_healthy_birthday_outing_to_the_park_

Walking the dog, a spring morning in April

Woodland area just off the main road between Arbroath and Montrose. Walking the dog on a fine April spring morning.

Burnham Beeches, Bluebell Woods and Eco-Schools

The legacy of Burnham Beeches and the bluebell woods

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Many moons ago, before I was banished to the wilderness and unable to get online, I wrote a little about my involvement with Eco-Schools. In the intervening months I have managed to make a start on something I have wanted for quite a while. I have been allowed to use an area of the school grounds, already planted with a few young trees, to make what I hope will become a wonderful wild woodland area of native trees, plants and wildlife. I won’t bore you with the details but suffice to say I, on behalf of the school, applied for and was given a pack of native hedgerow shrubs which were planted by a group of school lads under the supervision of a volunteer gardener. I have managed to raise sufficient funds to order 200 woodland bulbs which are due to be delivered in the autumn AND my list of willing volunteer pupils is growing. Doing anything in a school takes for ever but eventually it is all coming together and this little dream is on the verge of becoming a reality. Just today I faxed an application for funding to buy 200 wild bluebell bulbs, bird nesting boxes and hanging bird baths.  We decided against bird feeding boxes because of the problem of keeping them full during the long school holidays. Eventually we hope to include butterfly and bug boxes but that is still in the planning stage.
I am actually quite excited at the prospect of having our own little bluebell wood right here in the town. I have loved bluebell woods ever since I was a small child. One of the places my parents took my sisters and I so many times was Burnham Beeches, a totally wonderful ancient woodland area. Now regarded as one of the best examples of ancient woodland in Britain, Burnham Beeches in Buckinghamshire was acquired by the City of London in 1880, in response to a threatened purchase by residential developers.
Despite its relatively small size of 220 hectares (540 acres), Burnham Beeches still attracts around 500,000 visitors a year. Every one who is lucky enough to visit appreciates its tranquillity and rich diversity of habitats and wildlife. I have no idea if that lush carpet of bluebells still covers the forest floor the way it did when I was a child but I will carry the memory of it forever. Nothing else in nature has that sapphire blue colour or that distinctive smell, when I was young these flowers were not rare, the habitats were not threatened and we played happily in the middle of a thousand bright blue bluebells, they grew every where. We all took armfuls home and still they multiplied and grew all subsequent years. Then came the developers and now they are rare to the point of having to protect and nurture them. I just don’t think this kind of habitat is around any more which is why I would love to recreate  a small part of it right here.
I have left links to all the sites where I have bought wild flowers, trees and nesting boxes. The picture is something I found online. It is a water colour painting called Bluebell Woods, Burnham Beeches; by someone called Rod Jones, on a site called ‘the Rod Jones Online Art Gallery’ This man has really captured the essence of the place. Oh I have always loved bluebell woods

Bluebell Woods
Location: Burnham Beeches
Medium: Watercolour

http://wossname.thingy.com/trees.htm

The Rod Jones Online Art gallery