A January Walk Around the Outback
It is January and we are in the middle of a cold snap and aside from my hands getting sooo cold taking these photos its just beautiful.
This photo above shows the lovely Oaks still with their leaves looking soo pretty. The path here is about 10-15m off the Western boundary. You can see the combination of young Oaks and Black Thorn emerging and growing strongly. I will let this area grow and fill out with scrub and trees. A magic combination for wildife and especially some of the shyer, rarer, native birds who need lots of thick cover.
The location of each set of photos is shown to the right.
1A Looking SE.
1B Looking S down the middle of the field the skeleton of trees in the back ground
1C Looking N
2A Looking E.
2B Looking S
3A Just one example of the amazing growth of young Oak trees in its winter clothing.
3B Looking S on the W boundary . This area between the path the left and the hedge will be allowed to develop into thick scrub and trees.
3C Blackthorn marching out from the hedge on the W boundary.
4A Beautiful frosty plants in the SW corner of the field
4B Looking N with the big hedgerow Oak tree on the left.
4C Looking E, two of the ghost ponds are on the right of the path a little further up.
5A Looking S towards a frozen ghost pond on the S boundary.
5B The trenches we have recently dug along the edge of the pond to (hopefully) hold rather than wash away some marginal pond plant seeds.
6A Rose Canker in the frost
6B Looking N up the central path towards the planted ring of species Oaks in the centre of the Outback.
6C Looking S onto Owl ghost pond.
7A Looking N.
7B Looking N across the Outback
7C Looking E
7D The Blackthorn under the power lines was cleared in the Autumn to esure access to for maintenance
9A Looking NW
9B Looking N with the Lime and Oak planted we think 6ish years ago.
10A Looking N onto the Eastern ghost pond;
10B Looking S onto the Eastern ghost pond;
10C Looking N from the Eastern ghost pond across the mown meadow area.
11A Looking S, the forground, mown in the Autumn, will be kept as meadow.
11B Looking W with the laid hedge to the right.
