Lichens and fungi

If you go down to the woods today...you might find a gang of Lichenologists on the loose.

Well, it was a bit wet for a teddy bears picnic so we had our picnic in the farmhouse after our walk through the Atlantic Hazel Woodland between the farm track and the sea.

It was absolutely fascinating.  The Atlantic Hazel Woodland people have been here several times.  They were filmed here talking about the importance of AHW as part of a Landward programme with Dougie Vipond. 

The event was organised by a relatively new group to the island called Wild Mull.   They had arranged for Andy Acton, Brian and Sandy Coppins to come over.  Sandy gave an illustrated talk in the morning and then we all headed down in to the wood.  It was very wet, and we all got soaked, but it didn't really matter!

I was reminded of how little I know of lichen names, both Latin and English, and of what special woodland Atlantic Hazel Woodland is.  It is an unsung hero of woodland, a relatively rare habitat supporting thousands of wonderful, and some very rare, lichens and fungi.

"The UK's temperate rainforests are fragmented emeralds in a sea of human-modified landscapes impacted by people dating back to the retreat of the last ice age.  But these rainforests are vertically challenged compared to the more statuesque rainforests of North America, Chile, and Tasmania, some with trees no taller than 3 meters." Dominick DellaSalla (editor of Temperate and Boreal Rainforests of the World)

We definitely have trees of the no taller than 3 meters variety in the Treshnish Atlantic Hazel Woodland.

It was so wet I didn't take my camera - these photographs were taken on an iPhone which I had to dry out afterwards!

Lichens and new leaves

A damp walk through the Atlantic hazel woodland beside the Ensay burn.  This woodland is deer fenced along the hill side and along the Ensay burn.  This is the woodland we are looking after to protect Hazel Gloves Fungus and also some nationally rare lichens.  

At this time of year it is easier to see the progress of the natural regeneration, as the tiny saplings show up when their bright green leaves open.  

Bedraggled wood anemone.

Wild honeysuckle.

New leaves on new trees.

Lichen thriving in the clean sea air.

No sheep or cows are allowed to graze in here, so it is well fenced. Every now and then our neighbours sheep are accidently 'pushed' over the boundary cattle grid, and we have to round them up and get them out again! 

The editing on Prasad's book (Birds of Treshnish and North Mull) is nearly finished, and so it will be published soon.  I will post a link once it is available - as an ebook initially.

Belties on the moor, apples in the orchard, and lots of cheese.

A while since the last post, but Farmer and family packed up the car and ventured south of the border for the first time in a long while. A short break in deepest Somerset, followed by a few days longer in South Devon. The weather was great, the people were friendly and there were local food producers everywhere we turned.

In Devon we stayed in a cottage down a narrow lane, tiny fields and lovely hedgerows and woodlands turning autumn colours - a neighbouring farm made organic apple juice (and cider) from these huge boxes of organic fruit.

The small town of Kingsbridge had small shops now atypical of the usual high street - delis, bakeries, pasty shops, butchers, fishmongers AND a Farmers Market - and as for Totnes, an organic shopper's dream.

Devon strawberries and cauliflowers, on the street in Kingsbridge.

A friend of ours advised us to eat at the Riverford Field Kitchen. Riverford Organics is near Totnes - started out as organic veg box scheme locally in Devon and now franchised all over the UK selling locally grown organic food. The Field Kitchen is on the farm where alot of their organic produce is grown. There is no choice on the menu, though there is always a meat option and a veggie option. So while our vegetarian friend enjoyed cavelo nero calzone, the meat eaters had a main course of quinea fowl cooked with puy lentils and we all shared 5 different vegetable dishes - followed by delectable puddings. I am certainly no food writer, but the food was delicious - Farmer talked about little less for the rest of the day. He said he felt as if he had just eaten Christmas lunch.

We walked on Dartmoor. There were lots of belted galloways, not as many ponies, but still quite a few...

At the end of the holiday, a full day's journey north on Friday brought us back to Oban, where we picked up the quad bike which was being serviced and onwards home. The roads feel much quieter. Certainly the ferry was not even half full.

Woke on Saturday to blue skies and a new lamb in the stack yard.

Brownie, in the foreground, has a new friend called Beauty... as Farmer's daughter was given a ewe lamb, another Zwartie cross, by our neighbour.

Dog walking. Down to the boathouse beach. Lichen on rock face. Crab supper on rock. Spot the dog.

While we were away BBC Landward came to film our hazel gloves fungus. We were not sorry to miss our big chance at being on TV!

Our guests have been doing lots of recycling, and our hens will have a lot of eggs to lay to fill this lot.