Search the Climate

20th December Yesterday I decided to return to Hothfields to where I went for my first independent survey to check on the things I recorded on 28th November. I went with my Mum and my cousin who was visiting us. But this time we decided to go in the opposite direction of the trip we took. The first thing we found was the log caked in fungi. This was on November 28th. This is what it looks like now. I couldn't find the hollowed-out stump where I found tiny mushrooms in time but I did find a tree with fungi that was much closer to the tree's colour. As if it was trying to camouflage itself by blending into the tree. The area was very muddy and I'm grateful that I put on my steel toe-capped boots which helped keep my feet dry. I remembered to take photos of the flora around me, but it was difficult not to catch up with Mum. What caught my attention, in particular, was that there were these fungi growing out of this dead tree.  There were rabbit holes at the near end of our wal...

14th December Originally I planned to go back to Hothfields Heathlands near Ashford to retread my steps to see what else has developed but my parents needed my car for something else and had no time to come with me. So instead I've gone to the Charing Playing Fields as there is a nature reserve called the Charing Alderbed, a boggy area that gets its name from the number of Alder trees that grow there. In Springtime an abundance of wild garlic grows and it is beautiful. For several months the Alderbed was closed off as an outbreak of Ash dieback made the trees unsafe and 50 Ash trees were cut down. It was reopened 10 days ago and I just found out. So I went inside on my own. The first thing I noticed was that there were logs tied together with metal string and this was to give beetles a home. As I walked around the Alderbed I noticed a lot of stumps and logs around, some of which were hollowed out completely. This was because the trees rotted from the inside, was this a result of th...