Day 2. Another chilly day, but dry. The pavements and drains were covered with bits and pieces brought down by the wind and rain of the past 48 hours. So I decided that today’s task would be to see what I could find, and what it told me about the trees in the area – in other words, another day of walking along with my eyes on the ground. I will be looking up sometimes during the 30 days, honestly. Not least because the dog’s patience will soon begin to wear a bit thin.

So I gathered examples of leaves and seeds/cones. And when I got home, I made a nature table, in honour of all those wonderful school nature walks as a child in Cornwall. (Most of them were wonderful – there was the time I was the victim of a seagull with a particularly explosive digestive system, but I try not to dwell on that).

I was rather proud of it and quite impressed by the number of trees represented.

Ash: great climbing trees, with good footholds, and those tight black, pointy buds

Beech: such a fast grower, here with mast still attached

Cherry: ornamental

Hawthorn/May: with just a tiny bunch of torn flowers

Horse chestnut: healthy leaves, but so many trees will have the weeping canker later in the year

Ivy: taking advantage of just about every other type of tree to climb and scramble, until its weight eventually brings down the host

Oak: fresh and green – I really should pull them up when squirrel-cached acorns germinate in my garden, but can never quite bring myself to do so

Sycamore: ubiquitous and  one of the few seedlings to be removed without compunction.

Generally speaking, the yews, pines and cedar seemed much less likely to have had twigs ripped off by the wind and rain.

I found one little (Scots pine?)  cone on my first walk and some seeds, plus a piece of twig with really beautiful lichens, which are very common here. And more cones from a second walk – one from a Cedar of Lebanon, I think (warning: all items identified to the best of my ability, but I readily admit to being out of practice, so may be wrong).

 

All in all, a very good Day 2. But is it too much to hope that it might get a little warmer by the end of the 30 Days?

PS

Of course, following yesterday’s complete absence of common snails, they were everywhere today.