Sunny and rainy Saturday visit to Cranford Park

Back in the middle of February, a night of strong winds bought down a huge beech tree. I blogged about it at the time (see my photos and the story - link to 14th Feb blog post )

It was such a huge tree and fell in such a secluded spot, that a crane could not be bought in to remove it. So bit by bit, the fallen tree has been sawn up over the last few months. Now the path that was blocked by the tree, is completely open and all that remains is a pile of saw dust.

 

 

Some of the trunk has been used to make some wonderful authentic 'picnic' tables and stools, and one section has been made into a fantastic bench (which, I might add, is very comfortable).

 

My new favourite bench

All around this area, were hundreds of mushrooms, which added a nice rustic touch.

 

 

 

There are still fungi fruiting else where in the ancient woods.

 

 

The trees are bursting with acorns and I saw several people collecting the conkers from under the very old chestnut tree by the kids playground.

 

 

 

Honeysuckle is still flowering by the stable block.

 

 

Rain stopped play for a while, so I sat on one of the benches under a tree and waited it out while playing with the settings on my new camera.

 

 

On the river, I briefly saw one of the Kingfishers, and I've noticed on my last few visits  that this appears to be a favourite perch for this young Moorhen.

 

 

And there isn't just two Little Grebes, there are three. Again no great photos as they are very wary of humans. According to another visitor to the park, there have been a family of Little Grebes here for a couple of years now. Just goes to show that no matter how long you've been visiting a patch (in my case nearly eight years), that there are still things to be learnt.