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Tuesday, 2 November 2021

A Yellow Wood


In our English woodlands the heavy greens of late summer slide slowly and almost imperceptibly into gentle browns and yellows. This yellow wood has many old roads within it and we chose several of them to make a day's pleasant walking.



We're in a small, surprisingly very wooded wedge of country, just south of the town of Hertford. It's usually referred to as Broxbourne Woods, though each of these contiguous woodlands has its own name and character. We made our way steadily beside Danemead Wood, around Hoddesdonpark Wood, through Benfield Wood and Wormley Wood, and with brief excursions into Westfield Grove and Derry's Wood.



These are all far from wild areas, having been worked and exploited for centuries. There are ponds, banks and old hedgerows which speak of a complex history - far too complex for me to figure out anyway! So lets just wander along, enjoying the colour and details....



















  
























So none of your gaudy reds and oranges, just the gentle, understated shades of brown and yellow that are typical of Oak and Hornbeam woodlands like these. There were quite a few fungi which seemed to appear wherever we stopped to look for them (though several of my pictures were taken on one decaying log, and the fungi look different depending on how the low sunlight is illuminating them). And a nearly pristine Red Admiral butterfly putting in a very late appearance.


Take care.


34 comments:

  1. Very surprised to see the butterfly. Wonderful fungi along the way.

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  2. I could travel your gentle Autumn woods all day John.

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  3. It is dark here, and will be for the next hour.
    Thank you so much for brightening my morning will this beauty.

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  4. What a gorgeous walk that was! The fungi all look so healthy.

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  5. Love this stroll through the woods - it is the same here, green and yellow but no golden colours as yet. I have just looked back at previous years and the end of October can normally be relied upon to reveal autumns splendours.

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  6. Love seeing the subtle yellow leaves there, the beautiful abundant fungi, and the butterfly. I'm so glad you've been posting photos of fungi. It made me take a closer look around on our walks, and yes, they are springing up here too.

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  7. Second attempt at posting a comment. Google acting funny in Safari browser so here I'm in Chrome. Thanks for the walk in the woods. That first toadstool photo was magical. I could envision fairies coming out of there.

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  8. Love the mushroom shots! Perfect! The butterfly must like the autumn air.

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  9. I love all the mushrooms...and wish I could walk in the woods. No one else mentioned the third photo down. I see ghosts...in the upper lefthand corner, it is almost like there something and there is one other spot but too hard to explain. I opened it in a new tab and see them even more clearly.

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  10. Beautiful shots. It all feels quite peaceful.

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  11. This is quite wonderful and leads me to wonder whether, when our generation has gone, whether people will still walk through the woodlands and appreciate their beauty, and notice the biodiversity. On my walks, it is rare that I see young people.

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  12. As always, a lovely arrays of beautiful scenes. The fungi hint at a fairy or elf nearby.

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  13. How lovely and peaceful it looks! Thanks, John!

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  14. John, you certainly captured the essence of the English wood in these beautiful photos. A walk in the woods costs nothing and brings a lot of happiness, interest and good thoughts in this ever changing, sometimes very sad world.
    Happy November.

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  15. This is how I like to walk in the woods...just look at the scenery for a bit, then look closer at some interesting things close-up, and so on.

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  16. A walk in the woods, priceless! It's the best time of year to take that walk, thanks for taking us along.

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  17. Beautiful woodland images John.

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  18. Great selection of pictures. They make me feel like I'm right there.

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  19. Great photos of a gentle Autumn. I love the reflections and the fungi too:)

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  20. Beautiful photos. And I do love the gaudy oranges and reds too! Those are such interesting shots of the mushrooms. Enjoy your day, hugs, Edna B.

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  21. Hi John - wonderful walk through those woods - I'd love to walk through them with you ... but I've enjoyed the views - just delightful. Cheers Hilary

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  22. Beautiful walk. I like the mushrooms photos, they are gorgeous!
    I’ve looked up in the dictionary and I’m a bit confused. What’s the difference between mushrooms and fungi? You always use the word fungi.

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    1. Yes, everybody's confused. Me too!
      The word "mushroom" is used for the common mushrooms that you can buy in the supermarket, but also for any others which have a stem and a cap (like all the ones shown here). So you're right; I should have said "mushrooms". But it doesn't include things like Birch Polypore which was in my previous post.
      "Fungi", on the other hand includes them all, and also moulds and yeasts. Just to make things more complicated we also have the word "toadstools" which is usually used for poisonous mushrooms.

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  23. We are blessed with many hornbeam trees here, and the beech trees are absolutely stunning in their yellows and browns this past week. I enjoy the slow march of the changing colors, from pale yellows to oranges, reds, browns, with some green still hanging on here and there. It's been absolutely breathtaking here, so much to see that it's impossible to capture it all in photos. Doesn't stop me trying though.

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  24. In fall I do love the gaudy colors, but this is lovely in it’s quiet way. I particularly enjoyed all of the fungi photos. I have a thing about fungi, and would love to stumble across as many as you did. Lovely.

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  25. I absolutely love walking with you. I only have sidewalks and people and exhaust. It's dreamy where you walk. That patch of green foliage that looks like stars laying about seems delicious enough to eat. But the little families of shrooms...they look so happy and loving one another.

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  26. What beautiful photographs- I love the gentle golden end to the year. I also like all the wood names you mention- and I wonder about the stories of their names.

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  27. The gentle yellows were quite lovely, John, and I especially enjoyed seeing all those small mushrooms. I noticed a number of them on recent walks through wooded areas, but am not knowledgeable on the varieties, whether edible or not.

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  28. Each and every photo caused me to gasp, and to exclaim "THIS is my favorite!" What a gorgeous part of the world you live in. What inspiring vistas on your walks.

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  29. The woodland is alive in such “gentle, understated shades of brown and yellow.” Fungi are all so cute and magical like in fairy tales. They look adding more enchanting feel to the wood. I also love the fallen leaves on the moss. I wish I could walk there in person hearing the crunching sound of leaves under my feet.

    Yoko

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  30. Great woodland photos which really do show how beautiful they are this time of year. I have only come across miserichords a few times but got some really nice poppy heads in my last post

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  31. So beautiful. I looked for the fairies nearby....

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