Enjoying sunny Westonbirt

Several days ago we decided to return to Westonbirt Arboretum today, as our member's passes had arrived in the post. We can now visit at any time for more than a year which seems a very good deal to me. We can also visit other selected gardens including Kew, in London, as well as an arboretum in Massachusetts, USA, which seems very unlikely.

It was a magnificent sunny autumn day for an expedition and Helena organised a thermos of hot water, tea and sundries including yummy biscuits. The Westonbirt is huge and when we last visited we went to the area called the Old Arboretum, so today we chose the Silk Wood. I have always wanted to visit a particular tree, the 2,000 year old Small Lime tree, which has survived in the area of traditionally managed coppice woodland. Beside the enormous complex of old stools is a plaque commemorating when in June 2002, the Tree Council designated 'The Westonbirt Lime' as one of the fifty Great British Trees, in recognition of its place in the national heritage. I will return to see it again very soon, because before Christmas its twenty foot high branches will be coppiced down to the ground again, which happens in a twenty year cycle.

T o get there we chose one of the main avenues which took us for about a quarter of a mile through so many varied mixed species of mixtures of both coniferous and deciduous trees. The beeches in particular were still well clothed with brilliant yellow and brown colours and forms. There were also quite few maples throughout, with particularly stunning ones in the Japanese collection. I also loved a Weeping Pyrenean Oak, (Quercus Pyrenaica 'Pendula'), as well as a tall and elegant Weeping Beech, (Fagus Sylvatica f. Purpurea).

I took far too many pictures and after a quick glance I can see I need to be more careful with my exposures, and ideally should be using a tripod more often. But as I can return whenever I want, I shall endeavour to practice. I will probably add some other views of the trees to my Blipfolio in the next day or so, and maybe include the buzzard that idled round and round, just above the open canopy for a short while.

We spoke to several people as we wandered, including a fellow Canon user and her friend, who seemed interested in Blipfoto. Hello, if you pop by here! Then a little further on in an coniferous grove, we spotted some pretty mushroom like fungi and both decided to photograph them. Woodpeckers was down on her hands and knees, when I looked up and spotted a couple relaxing comfortably on a bench in the dappled sunshine. I noticed two red maple leaves poking from the sides of the man's hat and I laughed. I walked up to them and asked if I could take a photo of them and they agreed. I didn't speak to them and just took two pictures , and then the woman asked if I would take a picture for them with their camera, which I was delighted to do.

In the second picture, the man smiled, but his friend had turned her head away, so I chose this picture because I liked the way the light had fallen both on and behind them, whilst Woodpeckers can be seen in the background involved with the fungi at the base of a tree. Her smile is gorgeous too. If you go large you can see the red maple leaves on his hat, as well as a brown one on the top of his head.

Woodpeckers post today is a more colourful and classic view of this vibrant woodland.

If you want to see some other tree pictures from our last trip to Westonbirt, look here on my Blipfolio