UnaOculusAperta

I've not written anything in a while. I'm not thus feeling that fluent in my writing, presently. So here goes... I'll start with that I've been photographing lately; of which I have, also, neither been doing too fluently.

Regardless of the above and to paraphrase Humphrey Bogart's Charater – Rick Blaine – in the movie Casablanca
[This] “don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world”.

There: having got that out of the way; back to the ancient Weston Wood.

Monochrome Photograph: An off cut of tree trunk with the words Weston Woods carved into the bark.

I'll begin with the walk I took 31st October 2022 and, well, did it pour down.

Colour Photograph: Looking out towards the access road in a deluge of rain, whilst sheltering under trees. Weston Wood, Worlebury, W-s-M, Somerset, UK.

I returned the following day. One of the things that strikes me about this historical woodland is the number of trees that have been, literally, uprooted and toppled onto the ground; sometimes even into the branches of adjacent trees!

Monochrome Photograph: A toppled tree complete with its wrenched out rock filled root-ball.

Note: that its longer main roots have been snapped off and are left in-situ.

The effected trees seem to have been wrenched from the floor; which consists of a thin layer of soil or leaf mulch covering bedrock. Indeed in amongst the root-ball of the fallen tree, one can see pieces of rock entwined in the network of roots. Roots don't so much penetrate down here as simply spread along the surface, kind of allowing the tree to balance.

Note: There just isn't enough substrate to allow a sufficient root-ball and main arteries to form that would support the trees in high winds and saturated, softened earth.

Monochrome Photograph: Of a tree that has been toppled and has fallen into adjacent trees and bushes thus toppling them also.

No wonder the resilience of the trees to gale force winds and destabilising rains isn't great. Yet the woodland has persisted for millennia. In all of this though the fallen trees can look strangely attractive in certain aspects or situations.

Monochrome Photograph: A fallen tree has been moved aside a woodland footpath and with a bench seat having been installed opposite, for ones restful contemplation.

Of course the trees do decompose over time, forming a [temporary] home for some woodland wildlife and providing slow release nutrients in to the habitat. Just as importantly – they in their turn keep adding depth to the floor covering!

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