Circular walk, West Malvern, near Worcester.

This walk starts and ends by the Outdoor Centre in West Malvern, at the top of Old Hollow road. Walk down the path through the outdoor centre and on to the farm. You cross the yard through the two metal gates and then stick to the path through two fields in which sheep are grazing. At the top far corner f the next field you go up through the next field and in the top corner you pass under trees to a path entering the wood. After you pass through the wooden gate you go a little further up before meeting a path making a t with the one you are on. You have now done the hardest part of the walk. Take the left hand path and you follow the ridge through the woods until you reach a metal gate. This is a long flat section of the walk. You now go through a farm yard and then on to the bottom of a private road. Just past a few houses on the left is a footpath sign, and following this you go through a few fields and then are back at the first farm at the outdoor centre.

Sheep freshly shorn

Here are a few of the sights I saw today following this walk.

First field

View north

Towards wooden gate onto ridge

Tree detail

Ridge path

Path in dappled shade

View west towards Herefordshire

View east across to Malvern Hill from second farm

Lower path back to first farm

Interesting burr in hedgerow

My favourite walk, British Camp, Malvern, Worcestershire

At last the rain has stopped for a few hours, so I quickly decided to treat myself to my favourite walk.

The wood looks so lush this time of year

The reservoir

A patch of wild flowers

Wild flower detail

Wild flower panoramic

Rape seed fields as seen from top

British Camp earthworks 

View down from summit looking north

West Malvern Ridge walk in the rain. Worcestershire.

Today the rain is sporadic, which is a great improvement on yesterdays constant deluge. I decided to walk the ancient ridge path from the Outdoor Centre to Croft Bank Farm as the wood would provide a natural umbrella.



The first part of the walk cuts through fields where lambs are no longer small and fragile, running to hide behind mothers fleece, but robust and stocky, standing their ground as I walk by. Their mothers in contrast look dishevelled, thick winter coats no longer needed hang from them. Like white tattered bunting rubbed off fleece scraps adorn fences and low branches.



The wood feels gloomy, almost subterranean. Yellow orchids, muddy underfoot. Bluebells, dogwood and carpets of green. The sound of a bee and the squelch of my feet accompany the song of a twittering robin. Purple violets hold my gaze whilst a wren flutters past just registering on my peripheral vision. Gentle rain recommences on the canopy of leaves. Below the fern so green is both prehistoric and architectural in form.

The stillness and permanence of an ancient landscape recorded in the doomsday book appears as was were it not for the distant sound of agricultural machine.



As the rains volume increases its rhythm and volume, it is joined by a woodpeckers sporadic rapid drumming.

The scent of wild garlic, now in bloom, is delicious. The garlic's white flowers, loose globes held high on tall stems are bright chandeliers in the gloom.



The woods canopy, like the vaulted ceiling provides the perfect stage for the song of birds to resonate against.

Tucked into the undergrowth wild strawberries flower promising future fruitfulness.



Exiting the wood through the farmyard littered with agricultural debris of rusted tractors going nowhere, weeds growing where once engines were housed. From a nearby field the low lonely bellow of a bull as I pass mallard on the pond and sheep on the verge. I finish the walk quite wet with rain both sinew and soul exhilarated.

Wyche Cutting, Worcester. A walk in the woods.

Fern unfurling

Today I walked from the Wyche
 Cutting church car park, south
along the path through the woods
 to Gardiners Quarry. The path
 takes you through lightly wooded
 deciduous areas and a small

The footpath

 coniferous wood. Along the way
 you come across several areas 
where bluebells are growing. There
 are areas thick with ferns, areas
 covered by foxglove and willow herb
 plants, both of which should be beautiful

Bluebell detail

come late July and August. There are
 also areas thick with brambles so come
 autumn there should be plenty of 
blackberries.

Tree root detail

Foxgloves along path

Bluebells

Silver linings to rotten luck.

 Rotten wood may not sound very exotic or important. These days we tidy our gardens and every fallen bit of wood gets collected and ends up in the ever fashionable wood burner. But keeping everything looking tidy is to the detriment of our wildlife. 

Many insects including the larval stage of the ever rarer stag beetle, live and eat rotting wood. The stag beetle needs to spend up to four years in a piece of rotten wood to reach its adult stage. 

You may not like insects but they are the main food source for many bird species and for small mammals such as shrews and hedgehog. You would have to be particularly heartless not to like the shrew with his twitchy nose, or the delightful Mrs Tiggywinkle.

Personally I rather like the various moulds and fungus that live on the wood. I have seen some marvellous yellow bracket fungus and some rather strange shiny orange ones. More common are the plain white or brown brackets, but commonest of all around here, and delightful in the early dew or pale sunshine in the dappled woods, are the silvery types such as agaric, schizophylum commune.

Bluebells, Old Hills, Callow End, Worcester.

Okay so the dandylions were lovely too

Today I took my friends to see the bluebell wood. I was thrilled to see how fabulous they looked. The bluebells are all open and such a deep pure blue. If you have time and live close enough it is the place to be. here a just a few pictures of them.

Daffodil walk through three woods, near Newent, Gloustershire.

View in Betty Daw's Nature Reserve

Betty Daw's Wood

Today I went on a circular Daffodil Trail walk, following a route on a leaflet from Gloustershire Wildlife Trust, (www.gloucestershirewildlifetrust.co.uk ). It is called, "Discover Gwen and Vera's and Betty Daw's Wood nature reserves".  For my sat nav I found that entering "Four Oaks, Newent" got me there.

Also in Betty Daw's nature reserve

Gwen and Veras Field

I hope you can see from the pictures just how magnificent the woods here look at the moment. The daffodils are a bit past their best, but will still look okay for another 7-10 days. The wood anemones look absolutely fantastic, and the carpet effect of the two mixed together is magnificent.

View in Gwen and Veras Fields Nature Reserve

Dymock Wood

Poultry Park opens 10 am daily

 I would recommend, if you had young children, either to start at Dymock Wood, where there is room for about eight cars to park, or at Betty Daw's Wood, where ther is room for three cars. I would then just go round Dymock Wood,Turn right out of Dymock wood and then just along the road on the right is  The Poultry Park, (if your children like looking at a wide variety of chickens and having the chance to feed them). A little further down the road on the same side as the Poultry Park is the entrance to Gwen and Veras Field's Nature reserve. From the far side of this a footpath across an open field brings you to the back entrance of Betty Daws Wood Nature Reserve. The rest of the circular route is along roads and is not as magnificent as this part, so if Ihad young children who liked to run about I would then just turn back the same way I had come and enjoy the whole thing again.

View in Dymock Wood

A native Lent Lily Daffodil

The main point to these three nature reserves so close to one another, is that between them they hope to preserve the native daffodil species, "Wild Daffodil" or "Lent Lily". These are under threat due to fragmentation and neglect of their habitat, climate change, and the many more ornamental daffodil species that have been introduced by gardeners into their home gardens and then cross pollinate with the native species.