Back to the woods

While in Devon we paid a visit to Hembury Woods, seemingly the first visit since 2017, noticed at reference 1. With the first ever visit having been made from Ashburton in 2015, noticed at reference 2.

Mostly tall thin oaks, but also some big old pines, rather moribund. Plenty of chain saw action. Some military action overhead.

The first item of interest on this occasion was this country cousin of our own carex pendula. Same sort of thing, but the flower stems don't seem to carry the catkins that ours carry.

The second was this yellow archangel, again not quite the same as the version to be found in our garden and noticed at reference 3.

Dart all present and correct. Plenty of midges over the water but neither fish nor ducks to be seen. In fact, we don't seem to see fish in this sort of water very often at all. Not like the very reliable fish by the police station at Kingston.

The third was this wood ants' nest, the first time we have seen such a thing for ages. The top of it was crawling with ants although you wouldn't know from this snap, even enlarged. There were also plenty out on foraging expeditions.

I think the last occasion was many years ago, when we visited Stoke Woods, just outside Exeter. As I recall it, there were lots of them there, much bigger than this one. We visit plenty of woods, but reference 4 gives no clue as to why we don't see these nests more often.

The fourth was some talk about a plant called alexander, on account of it having featured as food in that morning's Telegraph, and BH thought she had spotted one. While I took a picture of the euphorbia, possibly wood spurge, above. No connection with the alexanders of reference 9.

Passed the curious concrete pillar we had noticed on our last visit on our way up from the river to the top of the hill fort. No further ahead with what the pillar might have been for.

Took our picnic in the grave yard of the burnt out church above Buckfastleigh, where we found both a place to park and a suitably sunny bench to sit on. No sign of the ghosts of reference 5.

The front of a curious grave stone.

And the back. One Fiona von Heider from Blaubeuren. A lady who was involved in something called anthroposophy and whose death was noticed at reference 6. Possibly mixed up with the Camphill organisation, the Buckfastleigh branch of which we know well. With one link being one Rudolf Steiner, as explained at references 7 and 8.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2017/10/hembury-woods.html.

Reference 2: http://psmv2.blogspot.com/2015/04/tree-visits.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/03/archangels.html.

Reference 4: https://www.woodants.org.uk/species/biology.

Reference 5: https://www.haunted-britain.com/buckfastleigh_church.htm.

Reference 6: https://gatf.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/GATF-Annual-Report-2020.pdf.

Reference 7: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthroposophy.

Reference 8: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camphill_Movement.

Reference 9: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smyrnium_olusatrum.