Dorsington Wood

No Skype today as our son was travelling back to Taiwan from Manila in the Philippines where he's been working for a few days. If we miss our "Sunday Slot" that's it until the following Sunday, so we therefore decided to go out for the day.
Someone suggested to us recently that we might enjoy Dorsington Wood, which is about 5 miles from where we live. 
It is part of The Heart of England Forest which is a charity founded by the late Felix Dennis. He died in 2014, but the charity continues, and to date they have planted well over a million trees over about 1,000 acres. His idea was to establish a Iarge native broadleaf forest, and its mission is "the plantation, re-plantation, conservation and establishment of trees for the benefit of the public, together with the education of the public by the promulgation of knowledge and the appreciation of trees".   The forest also includes a small percentage of ancient woodland. Trees include native varieties of Oak, Ash, Lime, Beech Hornbeam, Hazel, Field Maple, Aspen, Hawthorn, Willow, Alder, Black Poplar, Holly, Wild Cherry, Rowan and occasional stands of Scots pine, along with numerous shrubs and bushes. Where possible, saplings are sourced from locally collected seed. The planting of saplings will continue indefinitely with the aim of eventually providing between 10,000 and 20,000 acres. Dennis has bequeathed a reported 80% of his fortune to ensure that the project will continue. 
(I copied  the text in italics from Wikipedia.)
We met a couple walking in the forest and they said that they have been enjoying walks there for years. I said that I really hoped that someone thanked Felix Dennis before he died, for his legacy, and the lady replied that she had written to him shortly before his death, to do just that.  The hairs on the back of my neck stood up when she said that, and I'm sure Felix was looking down, and smiling - probably with a glass of the finest red in his hand. (One of his poetry reading tours was entitled "Did I Mention the Free Wine?", and audiences were offered fine French wine from Dennis’s personal cellar while watching him perform his poetry on stage.)
It's a beautiful place for the public just to wander about and enjoy nature at its British finest.
We walked for about 4 hours altogether, and ate a most enjoyable picnic lunch in the sunshine. As well as the trees, there are hundreds of benches dotted here and there for visitors to enjoy the surroundings and rest a while. 
My blip is of a very old bench that was rotting away, and covered in moss, with one lonely acorn on it.