New Discovery

I found a woodland site this weekend that is only fifteen minutes from where I live. I didn't know what was there until I decided to stop and explore. I have passed it quite often and noticed a sign for a picnic site but never explored it until now. 

It's a Forestry Commission woodland with the usual conifer plantation along one side of it, but the rest is a natural broadleaved wood. Away from the picnic site there are some wide paths where people stroll and walk dogs, but beyond that you get into lovely mature woodland where hardly anyone else seems to go. The picture above is of a sycamore that has spread into three trunks. A lovely tree that I spent some time with.  There are also some deep lanes through the trees along the lowest part of the wood, dark paths running through the shade with wood garlic and other flowers of damp woodland in an atmosphere of mystery and enchantment. I stood among the trees here with my breath held sensing something deep as I felt the presence of the wood spirits all around me. 

The wood also runs up the hillside and on the slopes there is more light and  it is more open. There was a clearing here full of foxgloves and a seat to sit on to admire the view of trees and, further away, fields stretching to the horizon.

I'll be going back to this place often especially as it is so near. Before long I will know it intimately. And I hope it will know me and accept me too.