Spruce visiting, July 2024
Date: July 8th to 12th, 2024.
Spruce arrived mid afternoon Monday 8th.
Tuesday 9th July
Our walk on Tuesday was timed to dodge the showers. The original plan was to go into and around Box Wood. But on investigation the recent heavy rain had made parts of the woodland path extremely wet and muddy. We choose plan B, which was to walk around the Great Ashby Park, using relatively dry grass paths and in parts the circular tarmac footpaths, We returned home around the edge of Serpentine wood, again avoiding the muddy paths. The Squirrels tormented us by bouncing around in the entrances to the woods and daring us to chase them. Another Day. What use to be the open grass area in the park is now a huge wild flower meadow, some warmth and sunshine and we should see many more insects and butterflies.
Wednesday 10th July
This is day two of Spruces July holiday in Stevenage. The weather was quite miserable in the morning, and I had a few jobs to do. This meant we left the walk until just after lunch. We headed for the woods, and then crossing the open space into Boxwood. it seemed like a wood from Lord of the Rings, for mid July it was dark and dank. Not much to photograph where we were. There were 6 foot high nettles and the blackberries were in blossom. We met a couple of dogs, one a big black Newfoundland Spruce took a dislike to, he told him what he thought of him. We returned across the park open space with all the wildflowers. A big difference between today and even yesterday, and it might have been the time of day, was that there were a considerable number of small butterflies on the wildflowers. Hopefully with some sunshine later in the week will see some more of these. We were out for about an hour, we took a few pictures, and as usual Spruce was his perfect self, other than disagreeing with the Newfoundland!
Thursday 11th July
The weather was warmer and dry today. Our walk was in the opposite direction, we headed for Great Ashby Park via Serpentine Wood, and the into Claypit Springs Wood. About 2/3 of the way through the wood we exited onto the farmland beyond. This was a fallow area and full of wild floweers. Less butterflies than yesterday, but a more varied array of wild flowers.
Friday 12th July, Flower Dog
This was the last full day that Spruce would be with me in Stevenege. I decided that we would do a full circuit of Box Wood, this would be a longer walk than the previous few days. We headed through Thirlmere Wood, across the open ground to enter Box Wood at its NE corner. We walked the full length of the wood to its southerly edge before turning west. We arrived at the main central pathway, I could see the Foxglove clearing in the distance. I said to Spruce, “find the pretty flowers”, and he walked through the woods ahead of me to where the Foxgloves grow. Hence, Flower Dog. On this walk we met 12 other dogs and their owners, the time was 11am to 12:30am so this was surprising. I took pictures as we went, and have a number today of Spruce in the woods and posing with Foxgloves.