The Old Fence in the Woods

The neighbouring farm, where I've been walking through the woods these past few weeks with Roxie our dog, is the one with the incredible old stone fencerows around the fields.  Some of these are really carefully constructed dry stone walls, with vertical sides as high as 5 feet.  At the edge of the woods is one of these old stone constructions, though it's only 2-3 feet high.

In the shade of the woods the boulders have grown a covering of moss, and it's easier to see at this time of year than after all the leaves come out.

I'm always amazed at the work the original farmers here must have done to build these without machinery.  That granite boulder on top doesn't harbour moss the way all the limestone boulders do.

It runs in quite a straight line all the way across the back field of the farm, although the trees have grown out beyond the fence now, squeezing the edge of the field a little.

It always seems remarkable to me to come across this obviously man-made straight stone wall in the otherwise natural environment of the woods.

But of course there's lots of other things to see as well.  One of my favourites are the ferns; a large patch of Ostrich Fern grows on the edge of a small woodland pond.

I'm not sure what these one are yet, though I suspect they will turn out to be Lady Fern.

And this is a tiny Sensitive Fern, just uncurling.

I made the mistake of sneaking close to the pond for a picture, and guess what the dog did!  She had to stay outside for the day until she completely dried and the dirt could be brushed off.  I went back the next day to try some pictures around the pond - without the dog!

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