It may be a grey Sunday but the upside is that a short sharp shower has deterred most people from walking and the paths are relatively clear. Not the best of time for flowers and butterflies but certainly it’s a good time for trees.
Along the Bluebell path there are plenty of relatively small, gnarled oak trees that cause the path to wind around them. Between them are a numerous sweet chestnuts; apparently they are part of the same family as Oaks, maybe that’s why they get on so well together. They were introduced by the Romans, who had such a strong presence in the area, it’s not impossible to believe that these specimines originated from those times a generation or two ago in tree terms.
Back on the Centurion Way one of the few flowers to make it’s presence known is this Red Campion, although not especially red. Few others are very noticeable apart from the Greater stitchwort seen earlier that’s still in an abundance in many places.
There are plenty of Sycamore Trees along the railway banks, along with he Oak it’s one of the most plentiful. They have a reputation for being highly fertile which is certainly the case here as there are huge numbers of small trees; clearly the little winged seeds have performed well!