Walking in the woods (part 2)

I found some other words and quotes that perfectly describe me and my walks.

Nemorivagant- an adjective or noun to describe someone who wanders through the woods.

The last verse of “In the woods” a poem by Lucy Maud Montgomery .

The woods are never lonely, as I stray Adown rain-freshened slopes I hear today

All shy blithe forest voices,

Calling around me till the great wood’s calm

Falls on my spirit with a wondrous balm, And my vexed heart rejoices.

This certainly describes my relaxed feeling after listening to the birdsong in woods. Even before my sight loss I rarely saw the avian choristers.

Suthering- Used by the poet John Clare to mean the noise of the wind through the trees or the sound of it under a bird’s wing.

Woodshore:- The edge of a forest, and the mini-ecosystem it creates with what borders it.

As well as having woods and green spaces in town Welwyn Garden City has the farms, villages and woodlands surrounding it that I’ve described frequently in my old (free) blog between 18th October 2019 and 18th May 2023.

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Like my previous post

https://wasthatadinosaurcouk.uk/2024/01/21/walking-in-the-woods-part-1/

I am fully describing the photo collages below.

These wooded walks are all North of town as the crow flies within a couple of miles from my home though obviously a little further on foot.

Top right is Harmer Green Wood and Loxleys Woods, the former being the largest out of town wood, and about the same size as Sherrardspark Wood which is 185 acres (74.9 hectares). The paths through these private woodlands are mostly permissive (allowed by permission of the land owner) and subject to necessary closures (usually due to tree felling, and other forestry work) with certain areas off limits one being an area that is a Scout camp and another being Barnes Wood which abuts the South East edge. Lockleys and Harmer Green woods are joined by a trunnel (a road or path where the leaf canopies on either side meet to form an archway) that runs next to the railway line and partly over tunnels that run under the 2 woods… and yes the idea of a tunnel under a trunnel is so much fun. This is on the North West edge of my range.

Top right- Lambs Dell Wood with the North End being a private wood called Flexley Wood the rest has public access surrounding fields with some paths at the edge. This is the East edge of my range.

Bottom right- is Westley Wood little more than a copse between farmland either side of the roads- it is the direct link to a public path across the 2nd farmland that leads into the graveyard of the Village Church. As I exit the church yard continuing east I eventually get to Lambs Dell Woods.

Bottom left- is Digswell Lake Nature Reserve at the South West edge of my out of town range though it can also be entered on the town side off of the A1000 (Bessemer Road). As an area to walk (north to south) there’s the river, spring fed lake, a woodland area (on an island between the river and lake), marsh land on the eastern edge of the reserve north of the river (where the water from the lake flows into the river over a weir), and a “meadow” with trees between the A road and the lake on the south side and random trees in groups by the lake on the north. The viaduct is just east of reserve.

Below is a collage titled “In the Countryside” of 11 photos (2 top rows of 4 and the bottom row is of 3)

Top left and top centre left are both in Digswell Lake Reserve on the left is a tree being allowed to rot and have beetles etc use it for their home since it’s by the path it will be felled before it becomes dangerous and the resulting log allowed to provide a natural habitat. The top centre left is a branch that has formed a natural arch with a branch growing across the path with 2 branches coming off. One is growing straight up the other straight down to the ground. It looks like an archway to Middle Earth.

Top middle right, top right, bottom middle are both at Lambs Dell. Top middle right is a hollowed tree possibly made by 2 or more trees growing together. It’s a hidey place I’d have loved as a child. Top right is some rustic wood and mud steps that travel over a ridge (quite sheer drop offs either side) from the field leading up from the church into the wood proper). Bottom middle is a fork of a path at the top of the steps within the wood. The right fork takes you up to the Hollow tree just outside the wood, the left along a path that is noticeably lower on the left than right that has a couple of areas where you can leave the wood using wooden bridges over the ditch between wood and field.

The middle row are all from Harmer Green Wood:- Left- a felled rotten tree and stump. Middle left:- what looks like a shed behind a wooden fence is where the felled trees are processed. Middle right- wooden struts and ceramic bits that were part of the old electric overhead wires updated by LNER and left to rot off the path in the wood. Right- one of the Witches Towers scattered through the wood. They are really the concrete cylinders top with wood and metal spikes that are the ventilation shafts for the railway tunnel. This one is up on a “hill” amongst the trees next to the trunnel; there others just off of paths in the woods (both Lockleys and Harmer Green).

Bottom left and right are from the Lockleys end of the trunnel. Right- are a carpet of bluebells just off the path before leaving the wood. Left- is a natural arch similar to that at Digswell Lake except it’s parallel to the path with a drop down to the fence protecting walkers from the further drop down to railway tracks. This small length of tracks links the small tunnel under Lockleys wood to the larger tunnel under the trunnel and Harmer Green wood.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this insight into some of the woods I walk in.

Until next time.