GREENWOOD
Nature and the neighbourhood
Sunny Misty Morning
Posted on October 19, 2022
As the sun rose yesterday after a cold night, the warmth burned off the dew – creating gently floating clouds of vapour and a misty mid-October morning.
The Lone Pine 1
Posted on July 4, 2022
The solitary pine tree that stands in the field now bearing a crop of wheat (see yesterday’s images and below) wasn’t always alone. Looking through some of my archive of pictures from the winter of 2010, I discovered a photograph of it with a companion tree – which was uprooted unnoticed and unrecorded in winter storm winds some years later.
How the tree looks now (3 July 2022):
Holm Oak 2
Posted on May 30, 2022
It is that time of year again, and our splendid Holm Oak, also known as an Evergreen Oak, is in flower by the village hall in Charlton Down. It loses leaves at any time throughout the year, and so it is not unusual for dead leaves to carpet the ground beneath the tree while new leaves and flowers appear in the canopy.
The species was first introduced in the 1500’s from the Eastern Mediterranean. Although it is not adapted as much as our native oaks, it supports plenty of our wildlife. A good tree for surviving hot and dry summers, but not so good at coping with severe frosts and cold. That’s why it mostly grows on the coast and in Southern England.
Maybe we should all be thinking of planting more sun-loving and drought tolerant trees and shrubs around Greenwood House to allow for the fact that weather patterns are changing. I think that future generations would be grateful to inherit plants that withstand the warmer climate and need less intensive management and watering. (There are lots of much smaller options than this magnificent tree).
Lime Tree By The Village Shop
Posted on November 30, 2021
The centre of Charlton Down is marked by the presence of a large lime tree. People come and go every day beneath its canopy to visit the village shop and post office, to meet friends, to sit in the shade, to catch the bus. They pass beneath its branches on their way to the village hall, the playing fields, the cricket ground, to buy from the hot food vans that park nearby, and use it as a rendezvous point for walks into the surrounding countryside. I do not suppose that many villagers notice the tree very much at all. But I like it, and delight in the changes it undergoes from season to season.
Oak Spangle galls
Posted on September 12, 2021
Galls smother the undersides of oak leaves this September in and around Charlton Down and further afield. The oaks in the Nature Reserve and in the grounds on the south side of Greenwood House are affected. The galls are common and I have often seen them in other years too. The exact shape is dictated by the type of wasp that has laid its eggs in the leaf. The ones like small rough brown discs with a raised centre are Spangle Galls made by the Cynipid wasp Neuroterus quercusbaccarum. The small round golden galls with a depressed centre, a donut-shape of silk threads, are made by the wasp Neuroterus nimismalis. Some leaves have both species of gall.
Click on any image to enlarge and view in a gallery.
Pine Flowers
Posted on June 6, 2021
At this time of year, if you crane your neck to look upwards as you pass the tall pine trees in the village, you will be able to see the flowers that later develop into the cones. I think the pines are all Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris). There is one very close to Greenwood House near the boundary with the cricket pitch. Another notable one is positioned near the top of Herrison Road, just on the corner of the lane leading to the allotments. The trees bear both male and female flowers in May. The male flowers are easier to see and consist of clusters of golden anthers set some way back from the tips of the twigs. The female flowers are present at the same time but difficult to spot as two, tiny, crimson-tinted globes at the very tip of a newly expanded shoot.
Information from Know Your Conifers by Herbert L. Edlin,, Forestry Commission Booklet No. 15, HMSO 1970.
CD Nature Reserve 1
Posted on June 1, 2021
Some views of the Charlton Down Nature Reserve yesterday evening when the sun was still bright and warm and the light brought out all the colours.
Whitebeam
Posted on May 31, 2021
I call these the ‘lollipop’ trees because of the way they are pruned with a rounded crown on a narrow trunk. They are like an architectural or sculptural feature around Greenwood House and stand in complete contrast to the large, established, and free-growing trees. Their silvery grey/green, and decoratively-textured leaves are bursting out right now – a bit later on those trees that were recently pruned.
These trees line up in rows parallel to the length of the building, a single one on the car park side of the building , and a double row either side of the gravel path on the south side. I wondered for years what these were but someone told me they were Whitebeam trees. The white flowers appear in flat clusters and are replaced by red berries in autumn. They are a very formal addition to the landscape. looking good against the strong red or purple colours of the copper beeches and the terracotta bricks of the building.
Spring Greens
Posted on May 27, 2021
Green and more green. Vibrant, fresh, golden. All photographed around 8pm 22 May 2021, in a place I call The Meadow (but some people call it The Triangle). It is on the north edge of the village, just off the public footpath that leads to Forston Grange from the allotments. It is a great place that is managed more like a nature reserve than our official nature reserve. It is a small field of various grasses, brambles, and wild flowers that I think may be cut once a year allowing everything to bloom and seed in perpetuity; allowing ground cover to recover each year providing food for insects and birds and without disturbing overwintering invertebrates. Appropriately narrow mown pathways circle and cross this small grassland patch which is surrounded by an almost continuous belt of native species of trees. Paths inter-connect the area with the open fields outside, and children can make dens in the wooded areas. In summer, the grasses are spectacular. A lovely place to visit especially for its tranquillity.
Birch Leaves
Posted on May 26, 2021
I think it is Silver Birch trees (Betula pendula) growing between the west end of Greenwood House and Herrison Hall, and again the other side near the east end of Redwood House. They have fine elegant drooping branches borne on a trunk with a characteristic cracked white bark. In April as the leaves begin to open there are dangling catkins too. On my evening walks I look up into the gently waving foliage and gain a sense of calm; and I like the patterns that they make silhouetted against the sky.
GREENWOOD 