Looking north to Kentmere The bleating of ewes reaches us from fellside pastures east of the RIver Kent and the flock follows a shepherd come to feed them. Lambing time approaches, later as you go higher up Kentdale. The light is glorious and snow patterns the highest tops. Raven Crag glows gold in the sunlight. Above Kentmere Hall there's heather on the heights, juniper on crags, and the purplish hue of birch on the bracken slopes.
In early spring sunlight pours down to the woodland floor and the herb layer flourishes whilst the canopy is open.
In early spring sunlight pours down to the woodland floor and the herb layer flourishes whilst the canopy is open.
Mosses are vibrant green, wild garlic and bluebell leaves flourish and all is fresh and new. There are holes in mossy banks and about the boles of trees, telling small mammals are in residence . Hazel nut shells are strewn along the track and hazel catkins beautify the old coppiced woodland. The rushing of water announces a beck which crosses our track and a water-channel runs beside it.
Sunlight illuminates the mosses of the woodland floor. On 27th March 2023 we found scarlet elf cup fruit bodies hereabouts, so we search to find them. It's a beautiful fungus that brings an early splash of bright colour to the woods. Each fruit body has a stipe attached to the mosses and leaf litter. Find one, search, and there are often many more half hidden in mosses growing on decaying branches in wet places. My images show mosses, leaf litter and fronds of winter bracken. Opposite-leaved golden saxifrage which grows along water tracks shows too, although its golden flowers will take a week or two to appear.
Hazel and willow often host scarlet elf cup and both species occur here. Scarlet elf cup has a network of hyphae, filaments which spread out into organic matter in the leaf litter and mosses which supply them with nutrients. Scarlet elf cup reproduce from spores but also by fragmentation when hyphae in the mycelium break off to form new organisms. Look closely and you'll see them following twigs and branches on the woodland floor. You quickly sense the micro-habitat which suits them. Images seek to reveal clustering fruit-bodies. First, there's a glimpse of scarlet and as you stop to search you begin to find more and more, that's the thrill.
Hazel and willow often host scarlet elf cup and both species occur here. Scarlet elf cup has a network of hyphae, filaments which spread out into organic matter in the leaf litter and mosses which supply them with nutrients. Scarlet elf cup reproduce from spores but also by fragmentation when hyphae in the mycelium break off to form new organisms. Look closely and you'll see them following twigs and branches on the woodland floor. You quickly sense the micro-habitat which suits them. Images seek to reveal clustering fruit-bodies. First, there's a glimpse of scarlet and as you stop to search you begin to find more and more, that's the thrill.
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