Went for a wander round the plantation woods yesterday with my old muckers Rockmonkey & Hugo, and man alive was that wind cold, even in the relative shelter of the woods it still made it's presence felt, still, you have to be out there to appreciate these things and in my mind you need to see nature at all times of the year to really appreciate it and yesterday we were rewarded with some lovely examples of the natural world, from the Roe Deer buck and his harem, to the Fallow Deer buck with a magnificent set of antlers on display and his ladies in tow, to the Red Kites (2nd week in a row we have seen them) and loads of other things that are far too numerous to list here, anyway a few pictures from the day;
Walking in
Some of the other 'wildlife' we saw
walking up through the Beech plantation
Tons of Butchers Broom to be seen.
One of the many large wood stacks as you would expect from a working woodland
yep, it's an old stump covered in moss, pretty though
Out of the Beech and into the Pine woods now
and a look over the farm land (Brussel Sprouts) towards the Castle
Back into the Beech woods
Good place for a brew up and looking through the beech you can see the Birch woods
so after a coffee, that's where we went
Tons and tons of sign left by the residents of the woods
No Hugo, you cannot put a match under it and have a bonnie
Perfect example of why it's not a good idea to pitch camp under a beech tree
Feeding site
'Hobbits House'
back round the top corner of the woods, we were going to head out into the open countryside from here and follow the ridge, but the wind was bitter, so we elected to stay in the woods instead so we went down the other side of the Birch plantation
one of Hugo's 'bonnie' piles
perfect spot for a spot of lunch, out of the wind, nice log to sit on
and easy to get to the underlying mineral earth
The Squirrels agree it's a good spot too
Lunch over it was time to carry on with the bimble
In the trees we spotted this
Further round again and a different environment
Time for another brew of course
Hugo's set up using a very well made pop can alcohol stove and pot stand, wonder where he got it from
my set up
brew downed and time to carry on, one of the shelters that you find in these woods, made by kids, big and little i guess, from the left over brush once the foresters have done their thing
Never forget to look up
heading back in the general direction of the cars now
There be Dragons in these woods
then back through the Piney woods to the car
Superb days out again, loads of wildlife seen, but far to cold out there yesterday to stop for any real length of time, other than to eat and drink, roll on next week, no idea where we are going next week, although we still have a fair amount of exploraiton to do in these woods, there are some other Deciduous woods not that far away that i think need investigating.
Walking in
Some of the other 'wildlife' we saw
walking up through the Beech plantation
Tons of Butchers Broom to be seen.
One of the many large wood stacks as you would expect from a working woodland
yep, it's an old stump covered in moss, pretty though
Out of the Beech and into the Pine woods now
and a look over the farm land (Brussel Sprouts) towards the Castle
Back into the Beech woods
Good place for a brew up and looking through the beech you can see the Birch woods
so after a coffee, that's where we went
Tons and tons of sign left by the residents of the woods
No Hugo, you cannot put a match under it and have a bonnie
Perfect example of why it's not a good idea to pitch camp under a beech tree
Feeding site
'Hobbits House'
back round the top corner of the woods, we were going to head out into the open countryside from here and follow the ridge, but the wind was bitter, so we elected to stay in the woods instead so we went down the other side of the Birch plantation
one of Hugo's 'bonnie' piles
perfect spot for a spot of lunch, out of the wind, nice log to sit on
and easy to get to the underlying mineral earth
The Squirrels agree it's a good spot too
Lunch over it was time to carry on with the bimble
In the trees we spotted this
Further round again and a different environment
Time for another brew of course
Hugo's set up using a very well made pop can alcohol stove and pot stand, wonder where he got it from
my set up
brew downed and time to carry on, one of the shelters that you find in these woods, made by kids, big and little i guess, from the left over brush once the foresters have done their thing
Never forget to look up
heading back in the general direction of the cars now
There be Dragons in these woods
then back through the Piney woods to the car
Superb days out again, loads of wildlife seen, but far to cold out there yesterday to stop for any real length of time, other than to eat and drink, roll on next week, no idea where we are going next week, although we still have a fair amount of exploraiton to do in these woods, there are some other Deciduous woods not that far away that i think need investigating.
Looks like the kind of place that's worth a walk every season too 
