Odds and ends

There's a variety of photos that I want to post, but they're not on any specific topic... First off, here's an impressive fungi I found, I've not identified it yet, but will take the fungi ID book up to the wood later on.
Also, the other mystery tree (i.e. not the Alder Buckthorn) is now confirmed as a Crab Apple, as it has some fruit for the first time:
We think it didn't fruit before because it didn't have enough light, but since we coppiced in the area, that's changed.

Another interesting development in the same part of the wood is that heather has started growing, the seeds spread in from the wayleave presumably. Again, this would not have happened before we coppiced this area:
Initially I just saw this one plant, but as I looked around I realised there were lots of plants, this was just the only one flowering.
Here's a couple of butterfly pictures. First, an old favourite: the Speckled Wood, but this time in the coupe we cut two years ago, where I've not seen them before. Perhaps the slowly increasing shade as the coppice grows is making it attractive?
And a Common Blue, one that I've not been able to photograph nicely before:
And finally, a few pictures of people in the woods. A couple of weeks ago our neighbours John and Helen had family visiting, and the kids got a chance to fell a chestnut (we picked one that's shading the Alder Buckthorn, which we'd like to grow better):
and also see birch bark's effectiveness as a firelighter:
I also hosted the men's group form my church for dinner, cooking a curry from raw ingredients up in the wood:
That's all for now. There's another busy week ahead, including a visit by some of my work colleagues to see what the woodland is all about.

Mike