It was around 7am and still dark when I left home for the woods yesterday. A reminder that summer has truly gone (my internal calendar is always a month or two behind) and before long we will be changing the clocks back an hour. It’s a day in the year when I feel sad because the dark nights are even longer and it heralds the end of the growing seasons. I was rewarded by a beautiful sunrise. It was a still day with little cloud but as the sun rose, it lit up the underside of the wispy clouds in a palette of beautiful colours.

Yesterday I went specifically to do lots of small jobs on my new shelter but I took some time out to wander around with camera to see what nature had to offer. The photo above is Magpie Inkcap and there were lots growing on a large heap of rotting wood chips just inside the main entrance. I don’t have any in my patch but decided I would like some. I have a pile of wood chips now so decided to take a few of them and transplant into my pile. Hopefully the mycelium (sort of the root system in fungi) will spread and produce some of the fruiting bodies next year.

I came across quite a few small downy feathers. Not sure what bird they are from but suspect wood pigeon and that it had been predated, possibly by a buzzard or fox though I couldn’t find the remains of the body. As I sat eating my lunch I was joined by two woodland friends – a robin and a wood mouse. I put seeds out for the robin on a concrete slab that I sometimes use for a small stove. Suddenly a small furry head popped up to scout for safety before then grabbing a seed and disappearing again. I aimed the camera and waited. A few minutes later it reappeared and I managed to get a couple of shots.

This next creature is a hawthorn shieldbug. They look like beetles but are part of a different family. They don’t scare easily so you can get right up close for a macro shot like this.

My last surprise was finding some sloes on my blackthorn bushes. Shortly after buying the woods, I found a pot of half a dozen saplings in a nursery and bought them. I planted them near my border in a light area not knowing if they would really take to a woodland environment as they normally grow along field edges. I thought it would be nice to have some of those beautiful creamy white flowers in late winter/early spring and wondered if they would ever produce any fruit. For the first time I have some. Quite pleased with that.

Soon it will be time to start doing some tree felling to continue the thinning out of the sycamore. I’m still hoping to get motivated enough to do an overnight camp trip but of course it will be dark all evening then. Let’s see!