"If you go down to the woods today"

The Boss has said that we can't go to the woods for a while as it's too muddy and I get in a dreadful state, so this afternoon we went to the grassy part of Stanmer park.

From the Boss: This picture shows the buildings of the University of Sussex which nestle in a downland valley between Stanmer and Falmer. The buildings were designed by Sir Basil Spence, who also designed the "new" Coventry Cathedral.

The bottle tree

Now there's a thing! I've never seen those growing on a tree before.

Winter wheat

Earlier this month, we drove to Falmer, the next village along from Stanmer, and went across the Downs from there. The winter wheat was already starting to show.

How did that happen?

This old yew tree seems to be a bit warped and twisted.

Wot, no picnics?

The Boss doesn't often bring me down into this part of the park in the summer. He say's there are too many picnics, but can you have too many picnics, I wonder?

From the Boss: This picture was taken a few weeks ago, which is why it all looks so green. It's far too rainy today to take pictures in the park.

Not guilty

Someone has been painting my initial on trees - and it wasn't me! Most of them are in red, but this one is a very fetching shade of pink. The boss says that all these trees are dead and are marked to be felled.

Bracken

Bracken. That would be a good name for him if I had a brother.

Rather surprising that the bracken has not yet started to turn to brown. I'm also a bit surprised to find it in Stanmer woods as they are, I always thought, on chalky ground and I didn't think bracken liked chalk. But I'm not a naturalist, so what do I know?