Misty Start….but the sun returned

A misty start to the day with a low sun doing its very best to break through made this mornings walk in the woods a joy……

The sun on the fresh Yew branches brought forth a welcome smell of spring.  Even the drying leaves on the woodland floor had an aroma of sweet decay as a new season is about to begin….

Looking up through the skeletal network of branches on the old Beech to the clearing blue sky you could detect that there were new buds swelling and not far from busting into life…….

Deeper in the Birch wood it does still look winter like, the only green is on the overwintering Rhododendrons….

On most mornings on our woodland walk I pass this group of old twisted, misshapen Beech trees.  Whilst they stand there virtually unchanged I see them on each occasion as if afresh for the first time…..

As I have mentioned on previous blogs they owe their misshaped appearance to mans intervention, to form a hedge, then neglect and time have done the rest.  That they should still be standing is a little miracle as the ground on which they are rooted is mainly hard gravel, yet they have but down roots and secured a firm footing…..

It has to be said that there are no major signs of spring, no spectacular bursting of spring flowers and buds, that delight is yet to come.  But there are these small signs and this morning there was also that spring fresh smell in the air…..so it cannot be that far away.

 

 

 

 

5th March

© David Oakes 2013