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Fontmell Down
Deciding that we needed a break and that visiting nature reserves is far more fun than trying to persuade people to financially support them, we decided to visit Fontmell Down.
It's cowslip time of year. They're starting to come out now, but another week and they'll be really lovely.
Fontmell down has a wonderful feeling of space. It's chalk grassland with a fantastic view from the top. You can stand against the sky and listen to the skylarks, while watching the drift of the shadows of the clouds bring the whole landscape to life with softly changing patterns of light.
There's a sense of freedom that comes with so much open space. Troubles fade. Here, you can stretch out and feel unconfined.
This place is good for the soul.
If you sit down and look in the grass that appears so plain from a distace, there are small flowers and herbs of every kind. There are anthills all over the place and the fine soil there supports different plants again. We saw a wonderful black hairy caterpillar working his way across the sward. We've no idea what he'll grow up into, but I'll ask![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
waveney to post a photo.
Little mysteries. The grass in some places is strewn with empty snail shells. They haven't been broken and they are empty. Who ate the snails? Was it the ants?
Even the empty shells themselves are a delight. We collected 20 or so (all the same species) just where we were sitting and every one was subtly different. I spent ages, just looking at the stripes and the shape of the spiral; they really were rather pretty.
Birds can be perfectly hidden in spite of the apparant lack of cover. If I see a skylark land, I can tell where he is, but I will totally fail to spot the one a few metres away until he rises into the air. For once, I even managed to use the binoculars and watched one moving about on the ground - they're beautiful birds: a lovely texture of brown and white. Their song is one long flowing movement. They never pause for breath and the pattern of the song is irregular - it never seems to become repetative. I'd love to have it as a relaxation CD.
It was a beautiful morning.
After lunch, we went to Ashley Wood and fell in love with the wood anenomoes scattered like white stars under the trees. Bright yellow celandines and primroses, the paler yellow-green of wood spurge and the deep blue of the first bluebells. If we go back in a week or two, parts of the wood will be a complete carpet of blue.
Some places are good for the soul. There's a reason why Richard and I go out and recruit members for the Wildlife Trusts and places like this are the reason.
Someone once said "Access to wildlife is a human right."
I couldn't have put it better myself. There are places where one can simply unwind, and everyone should have access to such places.
It's cowslip time of year. They're starting to come out now, but another week and they'll be really lovely.
Fontmell down has a wonderful feeling of space. It's chalk grassland with a fantastic view from the top. You can stand against the sky and listen to the skylarks, while watching the drift of the shadows of the clouds bring the whole landscape to life with softly changing patterns of light.
There's a sense of freedom that comes with so much open space. Troubles fade. Here, you can stretch out and feel unconfined.
This place is good for the soul.
If you sit down and look in the grass that appears so plain from a distace, there are small flowers and herbs of every kind. There are anthills all over the place and the fine soil there supports different plants again. We saw a wonderful black hairy caterpillar working his way across the sward. We've no idea what he'll grow up into, but I'll ask
waveney to post a photo.Little mysteries. The grass in some places is strewn with empty snail shells. They haven't been broken and they are empty. Who ate the snails? Was it the ants?
Even the empty shells themselves are a delight. We collected 20 or so (all the same species) just where we were sitting and every one was subtly different. I spent ages, just looking at the stripes and the shape of the spiral; they really were rather pretty.
Birds can be perfectly hidden in spite of the apparant lack of cover. If I see a skylark land, I can tell where he is, but I will totally fail to spot the one a few metres away until he rises into the air. For once, I even managed to use the binoculars and watched one moving about on the ground - they're beautiful birds: a lovely texture of brown and white. Their song is one long flowing movement. They never pause for breath and the pattern of the song is irregular - it never seems to become repetative. I'd love to have it as a relaxation CD.
It was a beautiful morning.
After lunch, we went to Ashley Wood and fell in love with the wood anenomoes scattered like white stars under the trees. Bright yellow celandines and primroses, the paler yellow-green of wood spurge and the deep blue of the first bluebells. If we go back in a week or two, parts of the wood will be a complete carpet of blue.
Some places are good for the soul. There's a reason why Richard and I go out and recruit members for the Wildlife Trusts and places like this are the reason.
Someone once said "Access to wildlife is a human right."
I couldn't have put it better myself. There are places where one can simply unwind, and everyone should have access to such places.
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