A Walk in the Black Forest

02 Fri Sep 2016

Posted by Clare Pooley in holidays, Insects, plants, walking, wild flowers

Tags

bedstraw, berries, bilberry, Black Forest, brimstone butterfly, butterfly, cat's-ear, Common Bird's-foot Trefoil, Common Cow-wheat, Common Earthball, common knapweed, Dame's-violet, forest, foxglove, holiday, Lesser Stitchwort, Loosestrife, Lysimachia, Male Fern, moth, Polypody, Scarlet Tiger moth, Small Balsam, Speedwell, St John's-wort, trees, Triberg, views, walking

Our week’s holiday was coming to an end and we wanted to take a walk in the beautiful countryside around the town of Triberg. The hotel thoughtfully provided maps and suggestions for walks so we chose one and adapted it for our use. Neither Richard nor I are as fit or as young as we used to be and Elinor cannot walk very far because of her scoliosis so we decided on a half-circuit of the town in the woods. We went in the direction of the railway station and took a steep path up between houses towards the forest.

Bilberries (Vaccinium myrtillus)

We were soon high enough to be able to look down on the town which was very busy with Sunday visitors and many motorbikes. I think Richard told us this part of the walk was called the Bilberry Wood and there were certainly many bilberries growing at the side of the path.

There was plenty of fungus too. I think this may be Common Earthball (Scleroderma citrinum)

We soon climbed a little further into the forest and left the town behind and no longer heard the traffic.

The forest became denser but there was never any difficulty following the path which was beautifully maintained. I began to see many different plants; some I recognised and some I didn’t. If anyone can help me with the names of these plants I will be very grateful.

Polypody (Polypodium vulgare) – a true fern. When walking with my family I always get left behind because I like to take photos of plants and fungi. I don’t have the time to take the detailed shots I would like in order to identify my finds in case I am left too far behind!

More Polypody

I love the chunkiness of Polypody so I cropped one of the photos above to look at it in more detail.

Polypody

I think this might be Small Balsam (Impatiens parviflora)

Unknown flower

It’s very tall!

Interesting leaves

Common Cow-wheat (Melampyrum pratense)

Wild flowers including a Bedstraw, Common Bird’s-foot Trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) and Lesser Stitchwort (Stellaria graminea).

Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea)

Speedwell

This may be Male Fern (Dryopteris filix-mas)

St John’s-wort; I don’t know which of the many St John’s-worts it is.

Cat’s-ear (Hypochaeris radicata)

Loosestrife (Lysimachia punctata)

I managed to photograph a butterfly….

A Brimstone butterfly (Gonepteryx rhamni) on Lysimachia

…and a moth.

A Scarlet Tiger Moth (Callimorpha dominula). When flying I could see its underwings which were bright scarlet.

The views as we walked were marvellous.

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Berries

Dame’s-violet (Hesperis matronalis)

Unknown yellow flower

Common Knapweed ( Centaurea nigra)

The path eventually returned us to the town near to the waterfall.

My music selection today is ‘A Walk in the Black Forest’ which was so popular on the radio when I was a little girl.

I am hoping that Elinor will provide the last of my Black Forest posts.

Thanks for visiting!

A Walk on Ramshaw Rocks – Peak District Holiday

26 Mon Oct 2015

Posted by Clare Pooley in Days out, plants, Rural Diary, walking

≈ 30 Comments

Tags

bilberry, church of St Edward the Confessor, cotton grass, heather, Leek, Peak District, Pride and Prejudice, Ramshaw Rocks, rocks, Staffordshire Moorland, walking

Sunday 16th August was Richard’s birthday and we marked it quietly by attending one of the churches in Leek and then having an early lunch at one of our favourite cafés. My own father died shortly before my birthday five years ago and so I knew a little how Richard was feeling.

The church we attended was St Edward the Confessor and we were comforted by the familiar words of the service and afterwards were made very welcome by members of the congregation. I mentioned this church in a post I wrote about the visit we made last year to the Peak District. In that same post is a mention of the favourite café. We were concerned to see that the café was up for sale. Would it still be there next time we visited Leek and if it was, would it still provide us with tasty oatcakes?

I didn’t take any photographs of the interior of the church but Richard did with his phone. The church contains some beautiful embroidery and stained glass.

Stained glass in the church of St Edward the Confessor, Leek

Stained glass window – St Edward the Confessor

I know that one window in the north transept was designed by Edward Burne Jones and made by Morris and Co. Not having any means of finding out for certain which of these two windows is the window I cannot tag the photo. (I think it might be the round window).

Hen Cloud from Ramshaw Rocks

The following day, we drove the short distance to Ramshaw Rocks as we wanted to walk on them again. We parked the car by the side of the narrow road and walked up to the first of the rocks – the one we call the ‘Top Hat’ rock.

‘Top Hat’ rock. I expect you can’t understand why we call it that!

I can see another photo-bombing bee!

Heather (Calluna vulgaris) and Bilberries (Vaccinium myrtillus)

A sweet and juicy bilberry!

Beautiful grasses – possibly Tufted Hair-grass (Deschampsia cespitosa)

Perhaps you see now why we call it the ‘Top Hat’!

This rock may look familiar to some of you. Perhaps I should give you a clue. Stick with the link – you will see the rock eventually. If you haven’t the patience, the rock appears at 4.38 minutes into the clip.