Ashridge Forest | - Click on the image above to view gallery
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When I visited Ashridge Forest back in early May I thought wouldn’t it be lovely to come back in the autumn time, visit the same places and see how different the locations looked. I’d been watching forecasts as we’d had some horrid wet and windy weather and planned a trip when I thought I would have suitable weather. Really though I’d left it quite late in the season so wasn’t exactly sure there would be many leaves would be left on the trees.  Aldbury village pond The day started frosty with a beautiful blue sky and once I scraped the frost of the car I programmed my Sat Nav to get me to the visitor centre looked after by the National trust on the Ashridge Estate. My Tom Tom always takes me through the delightful village of Aldbury and when I saw the village pond I had to stop and take some pictures just like I did back in May.
One place I definitely wanted to visit once again was a copse of densely planted beech trees called Dockey woods. Back in May when I first went there I was stunned by the sight of the bluebells that grew there too. I really had never seen bluebells growing in that way before and would be very interested in finding out more about the history of the woods. I’ve no idea how old the trees are likely to be but they are so densely planted all the trunks are straight and tall as they reach for the light.
Once inside Dockey woods it felt very dark as there were still plenty of leaves on the trees I can’t imagine how dark it must feel there in mid summer. The promised blue sky forecast however never quite lived up to the forecast I’d seen the day before. There was plenty of blue sky but there was also some low cloud cover and as the sun never really rises that high in the sky at this time of year I had to be content with sunny intervals to really bring out the bright autumnal colours and as soon as I got one I worked quickly to get as many shots as I could.
In Dockey woods there is a chair at the top of a ladder that I sat in back in May and I was hoping it would still be there for me to climb up once more. It was and I tucked my camera inside my fleece so I was able to hang on tight as I climbed up and sat in the chair. You really do get a completely different perspective on the woods from the seat and it had took me back many years to when I was much younger and would climb trees. I sat there for a while waiting for the sun to make an appearance and eventually it did.
 Image taken from chair in May  image taken from chair in November Having finished taking pictures at Dockey woods I went next to find the main visitor centre on the estate mainly because I knew there is a café there where I could find a warm drink and also I had a delicious hot Cornish Pasty too which really filled me up. This set me up for the afternoon and a walk in the main part of the forest following exactly the places I’d visited back in May.
I met one other person all day out taking pictures and he was in exactly the place I knew I wanted to go which was another area where I’d found some lovely Beech trees earlier in the year. He told me he had visited the woods two weeks earlier and there had been little colour change in the leaves, now this visit and most of the leaves were on the ground blown off by the gales we’d had. He’d been watching the forecasts the same as me it seems. He’d been frustrated by the lack of sun all day too. It just so happened though that at the same time I was talking to him the low sun made an appearance from under some low cloud as it was getting very low in the sky toward sunset and lit up some beech leaves with a beautiful yellow glow. We both took lots of pictures but he was using a film camera. I was fascinated by this as you hardly ever meet anyone still using film these days.
 Pretty pink fungi  Yellow stagshorn fungi
All in all it had been another lovely day the weather has been somewhat disappointing given the forecast but as usual I find plenty to take pictures of including several fungi which I’d found. Ashridge is always worth a visit and I’m certain I’ll return another time
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