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Stories from Nowhere Wood

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Tag: diversity

The mistletoe bough and New Year’s Eve

Dec 28, 2025

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by

Neil

in flow and recycle

Some of the trees in Trendlewood Park play host to mistletoe, an ancient plant with mythological powers. Mistletoe is easiest to see in winter. when the trees have given up their leaves. When older trees stand bare against the low sky, mistletoe hangs in their branches like dark thoughts. From the ground it looks an…
The tunnelling armies beneath carpets of gold

Nov 12, 2025

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by

Neil

in Adaptation, adventures in time and in space, autumn stories, being and becoming, Cycles, Diversity, flow and recycle, Health, Interdependence, life depends on life, Oneness, organisms are organised, sustainable, the environment, what is life?

It is early November in the park, and carpets of fallen leaves are piling up across the earth in sodden heaps, driven by the autumn winds and rains. The browns of the oak, the sycamore ambers and the golds of the beeches. Beneath the old apple tree, the king of the orchard, fallen apples lie…
Trick or treat?

Oct 31, 2025

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by

Neil

in Adaptation, adventures in time and in space, autumn stories, being and becoming, Cycles, Diversity, flow and recycle, folklore, Health, Interdependence, life depends on life, organisms are organised, sustainable, the environment, what is life?

A traveller on the pathways, weary after many miles of walking, looks up into the hedgerow and sees the silky feathery threads surrounding the dark fruits. The sight brings the traveller an uplifting joy, at least according to John Gerard in his 1597 herbal. He called it ‘travellers joy’. It has other names. It is…
A different kind of woodpecker

Nov 5, 2024

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by

Neil

in Adaptation, adventures in time and in space, being and becoming, Diversity, Geometry and Beauty, Interdependence, spring stories

If you look carefully at this image, you can see another woodpecker, but one that is quite different to the great spotted woodpecker that starred in our last story. This is a green woodpecker. Can you see why? These two kinds of woodpecker are able to live together all year round in…
Hard hats, safety specs and camouflage jackets

Oct 25, 2024

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by

Neil

in adventures in time and in space, Cycles, Diversity, Geometry and Beauty, Interdependence, life depends on life, organisms are organised, spring stories

It is a January morning, misty and still. The air hangs silently in Nowhere Wood. Suddenly close, but just out of sight, a loud and fast drumming shakes the stillness. Then a silent pause, followed by a quieter drumming coming from the other end of the wood. Let’s find the first drummer. He’s hard to…
The fairy ring

Oct 11, 2024

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by

Neil

in Adaptation, Diversity, flow and recycle, folklore, Geometry and Beauty, Oneness, summer stories

Just outside of Nowhere Wood, next to the school playing fields, you can, on a summer evening, sometimes see a fairy ring. The photograph shows parts of this fairy ring: sometimes you can find rings that form a perfect circle. How many fungi can you see here? There are about 15 mushrooms – the…
Fruits of the autumn

Jan 20, 2022

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by

Neil

in Adaptation, autumn stories, Cycles, Diversity, Geometry and Beauty, Interdependence, life depends on life, pass on information

Autumn is the time for fruits to become ripe enough for animals to eat. This time last year, Nowhere Wood was full of ripe acorns and the squirrels and birds had a heyday. This year, there are no acorns, at all. Life is uncertain, in Nowhere Wood. Somewhere, inside a fruit, is a seed and…
If a tree falls….

Sep 12, 2024

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by

Neil

in adventures in time and in space, autumn stories, being and becoming, Cycles, Diversity, flow and recycle, Health, life depends on life

It was a stormy August night in Nowhere Wood. The wind was tearing through the leaves and branches and was strong enough to pull the whole tree down. And so, a tree that had been growing in the Wood for fifty years or more was felled to the floor of the wood. …
Days of gentle ripening

Jul 20, 2025

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by

Neil

in Adaptation, being and becoming, Diversity, Geometry and Beauty, life depends on life, organisms are organised, summer stories, what is life?

It is mid-July and it has rained for the first time in several weeks. Gentle warm rain, interspersed with strong sunshine. These are the days of gentle ripening, to complete the work that started in in the blossom season of the early spring. The orchard in Trendlewood Park has a collection of ripening fruit trees…
Time travellers to Nowhere (1)

Mar 14, 2021

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by

Neil

in Adaptation, adventures in time and in space, Diversity, life depends on life, Oneness, the environment, time travellers to Nowhere

Imagine you had a Time Machine: where and when would you go to? Come with me back to Nowhere Wood, about 310 million years ago. That is long before humans, mammals or even dinosaurs existed, but frogs laid their eggs in pools, much as they do today. Today it is hot, humid and very quiet:…
I bear their homes, too

Jul 9, 2025

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by

Neil

in adventures in time and in space, being and becoming, Diversity, folklore, Interdependence, life depends on life, Oneness, summer stories, what is life?

For Jules Acton, author of Oaklore. The old oak tree said to the traveller passing by: “You know me, you see me everyday. I am that oak tree that has stood here longer than any of can you remember.” “I am on the 1840 Ordnance Survey map and I was a sturdy tree, even back…
What’s in a name?

Oct 11, 2024

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by

Neil

in Adaptation, being and becoming, Diversity, flow and recycle, folklore, Oneness

This fungus grows in Nowhere Wood. It has the glorious scientific name of Polyporus squamous. That’s hard to say, harder to spell and even harder to remember!! Scientific names are important though: they give the accurate name of the organism, and they also tell scientists quite a lot about how the organism lives. These scientific…
A home for the summer

Jul 7, 2025

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by

Neil

in Adaptation, adventures in time and in space, being and becoming, climate change, Diversity, Geometry and Beauty, Interdependence, life depends on life, summer stories

By the high summer of July, the new fresh leaves of the horse chestnut are losing their lustre. The proud spread of leaves are now crumpled and marked—creased with dry, papery wounds edged in rust. At first glance, it looks like disease or drought. But the truth is stranger, and smaller. These are the workings…
Echoes from Nowhere

Jun 24, 2025

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by

Neil

in Adaptation, adventures in time and in space, Diversity, summer stories

It is twilight on the first warm evening after midsummer: a black shape flickers like a dream above our heads. The bat moves quickly, all in a blur, and it is hard to make out its form. We can see the zig-zag patterns it makes in the air. Behind her, in the rafters of an…
The secret of the winter flowers

Jan 20, 2022

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by

Neil

in Adaptation, adventures in time and in space, Cycles, Diversity, Geometry and Beauty, pass on information, winter stories

It’s January 1st and the floor of the wood is covered with fresh new leaves, growing in dense patches. The first flowers are starting to open. Within a week, the air is scented with a sweet fragrance. This is the winter heliotrope, which is just as much at home in Nowhere as it is in…
Goodbye, for now

Oct 22, 2021

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by

Neil

in Adaptation, adventures in time and in space, autumn stories, Cycles, Diversity, the environment

By late October, the last of the visitors are leaving Nowhere Wood. House martins are birds that build nests in the eaves of the surrounding houses. They fly by swooping up and down in the summer skies, feeding on flying insects. Then, suddenly, as the season changes, they leave. But where do they go?…
A tale of two butterflies

May 28, 2025

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by

Neil

in Adaptation, being and becoming, climate change, Cycles, Diversity, Geometry and Beauty, Interdependence, summer stories, the environment

It is a sunny afternoon in May and two butterflies are flying round each other in a shaft of sunlight. The smaller one chases the larger one away. I first thought they were a courting pair, but then realised they are different types. Where do they come from and what are they doing in the…
Time travellers to Nowhere (2)

Mar 13, 2021

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by

Neil

in Adaptation, adventures in time and in space, Diversity, life depends on life, Oneness, the environment, time travellers to Nowhere

We are not alone in Nowhere Wood, about 300 million years ago. We are deep in a forest of tree ferns, towering above us, fifteen metres high. The damp air has a sweet and woody fragrance, heavy with spores, heavy with promise. The plants are silently photosynthesising, growing ever taller and adding oxygen to the…
Climate change and the leavers

Jan 20, 2025

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by

Neil

in Adaptation, climate change, Diversity, Health

We can spot new arrivals in Nowhere Wood, if we have time and patience. Anyone can do this if they walk through the wood often, thinking about what they see. It is much harder to notice species that disappear because the changing climate does not suit them. Species come and go from the wood all…
Time travellers to Nowhere (3)

Mar 13, 2021

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by

Neil

in Adaptation, adventures in time and in space, being and becoming, Diversity, life depends on life, Oneness, the environment, time travellers to Nowhere, what is life?

We are in Nowhere Wood, about 300 million years ago, staring at a forest of tree ferns, watching them make oxygen. Over the years, these tree ferns have made so much oxygen that its concentration in the air has risen to about 35%, (compare that with the 21% found in the 21st century). There is…

Stories from Nowhere Wood

reflections on the world of Nowhere Wood, Nailsea

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