Sim Elliott

Balcombe, West Sussex, High Weald. Quercus robur, Pedunculate Oak, the "Sussex Weed". The ferruginous Weald and Wadhurst Clay "is to Oak as mustard is to beef". John Hardcastle. Regeneration of Oak with a historical incentive. Quarterly Journal of Forestry 93:2, 1999. @thekentacorn.bsky.social

"The grandest scenery is not that in which man is altogether absent, nor that which he has tamed and broken, but that in which his victories have been won by submission" Leslie Stephen, on Landscape 1974 quoted by Peter Brandon, in The Kent & Sussex Weald, 2003, as the distinctive quality the Weald.

Fabulous pollarded boundary Beach, Fagus Sylvatica, which, along with others, marks the boundary between an area ancient woodland and heathland in Ashdown Forest.

A Drovers' Road between Furnance Wood and Fairwarp, edged with coppiced Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) on banks. A relatively common phenomenon in the Low and High wealds of Sussex.

Dark Honey Fungus, Armillaria ostoyae, growing on fallen Goat Willow, Salix caprea, in a depression in Furnace Wood, related to the iron industry; near Fairwarp (Fayre Wharp). In the Early Modern period the main occupation of locals was charcoal burning, for the iron produced at nearby Oldlands Farm

The High Weald outcrops of sandrock often have little "caves". In front of this one on a ridge (Furnace Wood) are some modern "magical" relicts; including bones, a tiny reptile jaw (?) in a glass pot, sea shells, a painted Ostrich egg (?), and words on love and friendship. The Weald is often weird!

Beech growing on Ardingly sandrock (Tunbridge Wells Sand Formation) surrounding a depression (possible the Pond Bay marked on OS map); in Rock Wood (one of few rock woods), below Furnace Wood (one of a few furnace woods); just above the ghyll. Quintessential High Weald ghyll-wood landscape, Fairwarp

Happy Caturday from Herons Ghyll, High Weald National Landscape, Sussex.

Really interesting (probably) medeival braided trackways in the ancient woodland north of Fairwarp. Part of the Saxon Andredsweald. The Weald was the stronghold of pannage in Britain; around 150,000 pigs would have been driven to and from the woods of the High and Low Weald to munch acorns.

Lots of fungi out in woods nr. Duddleswell inc. Orange Boletes, Leccinum aurantiacum & Violet Webcaps, Cortinarius violaceus on Weald Way, Ashdown Forest SSSI, High Weald. Needed to remind a couple with 4 large bags of fungi (ca. 200 fruiting bodies) that foraging for fungi is prohibited in SSSIs!

Side by side photos of a person looking at a picture of lichen on an app and comparing it to lichen on a tree trunk

Many lichen species are sensitive to nitrogen pollution, making them natural indicators of air quality.

📱LicheN is a new app enabling people to help monitor air quality using lichens. Data gathered will improve understanding of N pollution and its impacts on ecosystems.

buff.ly/AmWAOQB

🧪 1/

Crown Court introduced me to the 4th movement of Janacek's Synfonietta in 1972 when I was 10. I have loved it ever since.

The Palestinian photojournalist who Israel killed an hour ago, Yahia Barzaq, was a newborn photographer.
I’m sharing here some of his photography.

Random Act of Kindness. The hands belong to a homeless man asleep in a chair in Greggs. A builder walked in to buy food; he bought an extra baguette for the homeless guy and left it on his table. He didn't wake. This act had a ripple effect because I felt happier too because of his kindness.

Just found 4 young Ulmus sp. trees growing healthily, one with Elm Leaf Gall Mite. I think they're U. minor. Whitebeam Woods, Goring (ancient woodland). I have 19th century U. minor growing in my road (Brighton). I have never seen U. minor in ancient woodland or anywhere in Sussex outside Brighton.

Met officers suspended over alleged abuse of suspects and support for Tommy Robinson BBC’s Panorama to broadcast allegations about Charing Cross station after sending evidence to police chiefs

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025... When the police support fascists our country is in deep trouble. I fear for the future.

Thanks. I see from your photos that you are a giant aphid fan too. I don't think I have seen something so extraordinary for ages - those Jet Black Ants seem in charge.

It is indeed. Thanks. Allotments are a great boon.

A three-panel comic. The first panel is a scrap from a dictionary that says crypsis, noun: patterning or coloration that allows a bird to remain concealed by blending in to its environment. In panel 2, labeled effective crypsis, an american bittern blends in with a marsh full of tall plants. In panel 2, labeled ineffective crypsis, an american bittern fails to blend in among some short plants, next to a wet floor sign, and behind a stop sign.

I do a comic about ornithological vocabulary for every issue of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's wonderful Living Bird magazine. Here's the latest one, featuring the American Bittern.

Whitebeam Wood (1.2 acres); the only ancient woodland within Worthing; entirely surrounded by 1970s houses. The soils of the Coastal Plain are very productive, so woods were cleared for farming; there is very little woodland left. It has oak & healthy Ash & Elm; perhaps because the wood is isolated

Weirdness in suburban Worhing 2. Next to the Midsummer Oak, Offington Avenue has a number of huge pollarded Q. robur. Look like deer park Oaks & they definitely predate the building of the road. One has Lecanactis abietina (an old tree lichen) on it, which I haven't seen in a town. Research needed

Weirdness in suburban Worthing 1. The Midsummer Oak. "This tree, believed to be over 300 years old was once celebrated in local folklore. Every year, at midnight on Midsummers Eve, it was believed that skeletons would rise up from its roots & dance to the rattling of their own bones until daybreak."

How to maintain your sanity when spending long days every weekday supporting your mum with cancer treatment? Spend as much time in nature as possible when you can! This Saturday. Ancient Yew, Red Kite and Willow Carr Woodland (Coldwaltham) and Butcher's Broom (Bramber) All West Sussex.

Commisioned art works in the Cancer Centre, to take your mind of treatment. Angela Bulloch, Radiance (lights). Various artists, Hanging Gardens (video tracking a 35m tree in Equador). Liz Rideal, Mind Blooms (photos that name the radiotherapy machines). My mum is almost blind; she can't see them.

For last 4 wks I've been with my mum at Guys Cancer Centre, London Bridge, every day. The radiotherapy takes 10 mins; trip takes 4 hrs 'coz of Thameslink unreliability. Like sculptures in a gallery, a trolley of head moulds, including my mum's, to keep patients still. Necessary modern-day torture.

The very long rostrum of a Giant Oak Aphid on a Sussex Quercus robur. Aphid found by my naturalist friend Dave Bangs; I was just the photographer! You'll need to click on the photo to see it all as it's tall and thin. Now appearing on the Aphid website. influentialpoints.com/Gallery/Stom...

influentialpoints.com/Gallery/Stom... Should you be interested in Giant Oak Aphids (e.g. @brianecambs.bsky.social) one of my photos has just been published on the Influentialpoints.com Aphid website. I didn't find these aphids in this Sussex location, my friend Dave did; I just took the photos.

'Tween Hardham & Coldwaltham the Wey South path passes 'tween 2 small brooks on Adur flood plain. Not marked as woodland on OS map. It's Alder-Wiĺlow Carr woodland, with trees festooned in Usnea cornuta, Ramalina spp. & Polypodium sp. A rare habitat in Sussex, but I can't find any literature on it.

St Botolph's Church, Hardham, a tiny hamlet in Arun valley, West Sussex, has its walls entirely covered in early Norman (late C11/early C12) wall paintings of the "Lewes School". One of the most important examples Norman church painting in the UK. And very few people ever go there!