Shaw Wood

We had a fantastic day on Tuesday, the sun shone and the rain stayed away. We went to explore Shaw Wood, a small area of woodland at Oakerthorpe in Derbyshire that has been turned into a Nature Reserve. From the road it looks pretty nondescript, bare Sycamore trees, mud, waterlogged footpaths and marsh in the making. It could have something to do with the amount of rain we’ve had this month!

The driest footpath led uphill through the trees over a spoil heap from the colliery that was here many years ago. The trees here have been planted in nice neat rows giving a feel of walking through a crop which is about to harvested, obviously manmade! The woodland floor was very bare as well, no green shoots, dead wood or fungi.

This all changed over the top, it was real wild woodland here and the footpath snaked it’s way along the top of a steep wooded hill. You can see the start of the Derbyshire hills that make up The Peak District through the bare trees across the valley. We were now on the edge of the woodland bordering a field and there were older trees here including Holly, Oak, Beech and Silver Birch, lots of Bluebell shoots, Fungi, dead and rotting tree stumps, a rope swing for the local kids and a den, in fact everything a wood should have. I felt so good, the birds were singing a Great Tit was shouting out his ’Teacher teacher’ call and it certainly felt like Spring.

This is living and I was having a great time photographing different Fungi when Pat noticed a bright yellow blob on a tree trunk which turned out to be ‘Yellow Brain Fungus’ Tremella mesenterica, something I’ve been looking for, for a number of years. Back home I’ve identified all but one of the fungi we found so I’m quite pleased.

Here are a few photos of the more unknown and unnoticed fungi.....

Candlesuff - Xylaria hypoxylon .

Black Bulgar - Bulgaria inquinans

Jew's Ear - Auricularia auricula-judae.

Edible so we cut thin slivers and fried it in butter. It spat and kept leaping out of the frying pan onto the floor, I'm sure you don't have to kill it first, anyway it tasted OK but I didn't like the rubbery texture so we won't be eating that again!

Oyster Mushroom - Pleurotus ostreatus.

Edible but we've not tried this one.

The wood is certainly bigger than we first thought and we’re planning on a few more trips. It should be beautiful in a month or two when the Bluebells are flowering and the leaves on the trees are still the gorgeous fresh spring green.

We’ve made another visit since then, this time walking from South Wingfield. The footpath across the bottom of the football pitch was a quagmire and we could only pity the poor chap who had to take a corner kick! We followed the footpath along the bottom of the hillside and went into the reserve through a little gate. This led onto a what is obviously a very old sunken track way which gently climbed the hill and emerged at an old quarry. It’s a very small quarry and we could only think it was used for the houses below, I’ll have to check out the local library to see if I can find any more information on it.

It was windy on the second visit but we managed to find a sheltered spot to have a brew, a little solid hexamine stove, a pan of water, one cuppa soup and hey presto, heaven, well the Savoy hasn’t got a view like this.

The storm yesterday (Thursday) was obviously cross with us because we have had our roof tiles glued on with an insulating foam and because it couldn’t find a way in it took our letter box lid off at the roots! Now we’ve got a lovely oblong hole in the door, anyone know where we can get just a letter box without having to replace the whole door?

The weather got it’s calm in the wrong place this time, usually it’s before the storm but today, the day after the day before, was beautiful. Slight breeze, blue sky with a few cumulus clouds (yes, I’m still studying clouds, in fact I’ve got a new book about clouds and Pat’s reading it at the moment) warm sunshine and a trip to Hardwick Hall to get some aerial photos. For such a lovely day it was a shame we failed, not only were the photos blurred but they weren’t of the hall, we only got the parkland which is not very interesting.

So we moved over to Rufford park where the birds were all singing and the couple behind us in the car park likened it to a Spring day in March, we couldn’t disagree it was beautiful. We found some Horses Hoof fungus - Fomes fomentarius, on the silver birch tree trunks and we’re going to experiment lighting fires with them. Part of it can be roughed up and used as a tinder that will take a spark, so I’ll let you know how we get on.

We also bought a book on Bugs, it’s brilliant, it’s a kids book but it shows you how to catch Moths with sugar water and how to make a bee house, both of which we’ll give a go but the recipe for Earthworm Meatloaf using 750g of ground beef and I cup of boiled Earthworms finely chopped, I think we’ll give a miss!

My new hooked rug is nearly finished and I’ve only got the flowers to put on Laura’s hat and then I can start on a bag for Jayne and a bag handle for Becky, so if you read this Susan you can let them know I haven’t forgotten them.

Next week is forecast cold so hopefully it will be bright sunshine and we can get out to do some photography and explore a few more of the Derbyshire villages.