John W. finding living treasures on the stone wall

John came to help me with some positive destruction. I needed to break a door down to get into a room which had become blocked by a rogue suitcase falling over behind the door. We decided to take John's dog Theo for a walk before attempting the work, so I guided them up through the cemetery to Horns Road to walk along the valley in to the countryside.

After about quarter of a mile we branched off the road onto an old footpath which was formerly a trackway leading to the  old managed woodlands further up the valley. The hillside was very steep where the old coppice woodland still grows well. We passed several large abandoned quarries where the stone came from for this supporting wall keeping the woods from the track.

Near a huge trunk of a beech tree with massive exposed root systems John noticed this particular patch of what I think are Bryophytes. John knows all their names and said there was a very good varied collection as well as many differing lichens. John is very keen on taking specimens to put under his microscopes, where he makes stereoscopic photographs which are wonderful to view with 3D glasses. This is the sort of image that John creates, in 3D!

After the walk we had coffee and then took up the sledgehammer, jemmy and various wedges and we successfully took the door down, without too much damage I'm pleased to report. John will come back to sort out the repairs next week and another walk is likely.