Forest Murmurs

A late afternoon walk up Wapley Hill behind the house, a walk we haven't done since the end of last year. The top of the hill is thickly planted with pines by the Forestry Commission, but there are older deciduous woods along the roads and around the lower slopes. And across the middle of the Hill is a long beech avenue, maybe three-quarters of a mile long, a straight row of beech trees. They look quite old, and are certainly older than the surrounding pines. The FC do not manage these woods well and so they are gently reverting to real woodland, with only the deepest woods free of ground cover, mainly saplings and brambles. We have seen deer on the Hill as well, and we have seen their tracks on the old toll road, part of their route from the Moor to the Hill. The roadsides on the Hill were lined with wild flowers and the roads themselves were made of earth and hard stones. And even after rain a day or so ago the packed earth roads were bone-dusty, the colours of old cream or ivory.