Winter birch

Glorious winter sunshine, ideal for a walk round Old Sulehay, where I photographed the birches using in-camera movement to bring out the glorious warm colours and simplify the shapes. I then spent a happy hour or so pottering in the forest and was excited to find a huge population of the slime mould Badhamia utricularis whose fruiting bodies look like bunches of tiny greyish grapes hanging down on yellow threads.

The forest always brings peace and a sense of perspective - the ancient trees have seen many periods of turmoil in our history and still flourish. Indeed, in parts of the wood, you can still detect concrete footings from the time when the area was used as a military camp in World War 2. 

At this time of year death and decay are the main themes, with fungi extravagantly spreading over fallen trunks. But as these decomposers do their work, they are replacing nutrients in the soil, and helping to ensure that in a few months there will be a glorious display of bluebells and wild garlic. And under the soil, fungal hyphae allow trees to communicate and share resources - an amazing thought. 

As we approach the end of an awful year in UK history, we must hope that during the next decade we will see moves towards reformation of the UK into a more mutualistic and supportive society, more like the forest. Perhaps we all need to take a few lessons from Paddington Bear, who always saw the good in everyone and made life around him better. We watched the second Paddington film this evening - definitely the high-spot of our Christmas viewing!