Thorn studded armoured bark of Ceiba specious?

If I remember correctly this one is a Ceiba speciosa in the Giardini La Mortella, Botanical Garden, Ischia. The garden dates back to the 1950s

A large Beech baring extended moss and algae covered buttress roots above a leaf littered ground. Other Beech trees and parkland in the background. Unfortunately the trunks have graffiti on them some dating back to 1963. The trees are situated in Belmount, part of the extensive parkland that overlooks and surrounds Belton House, Grantham, Lincolnshire.

Beech buttress roots. #ThickTrunkTuesday

Common Snowdrops growing amongst and around the bare winter stems of Snowberry. A shrub that is likely have been planted in the past in this Lincolnshire estate woodland as cover for gamebirds.

Common Snowdrops drifting their way through a thicket of Snowberry #WildflowerHour

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Three Hawthorn “pleachers” or “plashers” cut by volunteers using hand tools including an axe and bow saw. The axe pared cuts leave a hinge of bark and cambium connected to a “heel”which can be seen in the foreground. Wood chips from the gradual axe paring surround it. New shoots will eventually emerge upwards from the heel adding to those that will also shoot from the pleached stems. The intact bark covered hinge is vital for the continued production of phloem and xylem cells for structural support and transportation of water and minerals.

A hedgerow structure produced from what was a line of tall thin gappy tangled trees that were originally planted as shrub whips some twenty years ago. The pleacher hinge allows the tree to be “laid” and weaved into supporting stakes, lowering the overall canopy and closing the gaps. The stakes in the foreground coppiced on site ready to be cut to the required height. The Herris fencing in the background a typical urban barrier installed by the neighbouring landowner in an attempt to prevent access and trespass.

Hawthorn pleachers in a farmland hedge cut using a chainsaw. The general rule for cutting the pleacher being to start the cut on the stem at a height equal to 2-3 times the diameter of stem at its base. A quick modern method of pleaching but perhaps with less room for error than using hand tools. This is a 2 stroke petrol fuelled chainsaw but battery powered ones are often used too.

My finished 25metre section of hedge for the day. A plantation woodland in the background. Staked with sawn timber stakes and bound with willow for strength. Whether staked, bound or not, cut with hand tools or a chainsaw the ultimate aim of laying a hedge is rejuvenation of its growth habit creating a thick robust barrier whilst providing improved habitat for birds, small mammals and insects.

My working week started last Sunday with an enjoyable day with volunteers, in the main, using hand tools to lay a hedge on an urban green space. Rounded it off today with an enjoyable day off in lieu, laying part of a Lincolnshire farmland hedge under the guidance of an experienced hedge layer.

A small ladder leaning against a willow screen (mainly Salix viminalis) with last years growth emerging from the top. A boardwalk and trees in the background.

A view from the top of the ladder whilst looking down the previously completed length of the screen. A sturdy twenty years old pair of Bahco loppers used for pruning hooked in the willow. Bowsaw and pruning saw on the ground.

The completed final section with some of the larger diameter whips stacked against the ladder, loppers hooked on the ladder and orange secateurs hooked on the willow.

A panoramic view of the screen. It will not be long before leaf buds are bursting again restarting the cycle of swirling and pruning this years upward growth next autumn. In the meantime providing nesting cover for birds that have in the past included Collared Dove, Wren, Blackbird and Long-tailed tit

A nippy start to the fingers this cold misty morning finishing off the last swirling of a living willow screen on The Nettles. A shared effort between a local monthly volunteer group and myself, fortunate enough to be able to pick up this enjoyable work as and when I can in between other jobs.

Young man sitting in field with plant ID books, recording wild flowers in the sunshine

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A rare patch of sunshine from the past in week in Lincolnshire with some naturalised Double Snowdrops in it #WildflowerHour

Truck stopping Sowbread. Luckily this eye catching patch of magenta was on a quiet rural hamlet road junction enabling me to pull up and check it out. #WildflowerHour

Wooden nest box with the roof off. At the bottom a nest of dried grasses, moss and dog hair. Spiders webs attached to the sides. A dark patch in the corner.

The Blue Tit nest removed from the box. The dark patch concealing the remains of two chicks that did not fledge. They are well advanced, the closed yellow gape visible on one of them.

A wooden bird nest box with its side panel removed. Inside the profile of a nest constructed with dried grasses, moss dog hair and occasional feather can be seen.

The Great Tit nest removed. The hair lined nest cup takes up most of the nest structure. There is a dark red insect pupae in it. All the chicks may have fledged successfully. Dog hair is an undesirable nesting material. It can potentially harbour residual chemicals from flea treatments that can be harmful to young chicks. In a Suburban setting where these boxes are, with high dog ownership nesting birds will find it in abundance. There are no dogs in my own garden.

Part of the afternoon spent cleaning the garden bird nest boxes out. Having last Spring, watched the parent Blue and Great Tits build their nests, frantically flying back and forth feeding their young, there is always hope that all survived. For any number of reasons two of the Blues did not fledge.

A cluster of Oyster mushrooms emerging from a wet Horse Chestnut tree trunk

Oyster mushroom nestled in the wet creviced bark of a Horse Chestnut tree trunk #FungiFriday #FungiFriends

Hues of blue across a water filled former sand and gravel pit now urban green space lake. A late afternoon sunlit tree lined horizon in the distance

Probably for today only and for the rest of the week but it has been good while it lasted

A pile of stakes of varied straightness and thickness ready to be pointed. Coppiced and thinned in woodland on an urban green space for hedge laying on the same site on Sunday. A mixture of Hazel, Aspen and Field Maple.

Some stakes are straighter than others.

The bare branched winter silhouette of a tall Sycamore tree surrounded by fenced off parkland and open farmland in the distance.

Sycamore silhouette, Culverthorpe Estate, Lincolnshire #ThickTrunkTuesday

Two variants of Red Bull. Crushed and tossed over the fence from a roadside footpath onto a nature reserve.

Crushing the Environment whilst vitalising the body and tiny mind. The Blue Edition, Lollycocks Field Local Nature Reserve, Lincolnshire

A clump of Common Snowdrops emerging in the foreground of planted lay-by woodland surrounded by leaf litter, moss and Ground Ivy leaves, possibly Campion levels to the left. In the far background the blurred litter debris left by a succession of uncaring vehicle drivers and passengers.

A clump of Common Snowdrops looking away in utter dismay from the badly littered roadside layby woodland that they have found themselves in. #WildflowerHour

The sound of the #BigGardenBirdwatch in next doors Ash tree after a mini murmuration of Starlings flew in. But it won’t be a zero count in my own garden with two Collared Doves, seven House Sparrows a Robin and Dunnock a couple of minutes in.

A skyline silhouette of an Ash tree in a field hedgerow at the edge of the village of Norton Disney

A hedgerow Ash, Norton Disney, Lincolnshire #ThickTrunkTuesday

Bright red and orangey red Guelder Rose berries.

A Guelder Rose shrub bearing the weight of its bright red berries.

These Guelder Rose berries really stood out amongst the gloom of a grey damp drizzly day. I planted this shrub amongst others fourteen years ago on the local nature reserve that I was working on with volunteers today. (My brilliant volunteers stood out on a grey damp drizzly day too) #WildflowerHour

A nodding Sweet Violet above a tangle if stems and leaves including Common Ivy

I last posted a Sweet Violet on #WildflowerHour twenty seven days ago and this go to south facing patch on an urban local nature reserve, has been flowering long before and since then through snow, frost, rain and shine.

Yes but unfortunately you’ll have some litter coming your way too!

A ditch culvert, Welbourn.

Velvet Shank fungi emerging from a splintered stump surrounded by leaf litter, Bramble and Common Ivy

Glistening wet, orangey brown. Thawed out Velvet Shank. #fungifriday #fungifriends

Cushion cake like fungi lumps on the deeply creviced bark of a fallen Ash tree. As the fungi ages it hardens black like coal. Frosted snow can be seen on one of the “cakes” in the background.

Frosted King Alfred’s Cakes #fungifriday #fungifriends

The canopy boughs of an English Oak against the backdrop of a cold blue Lincolnshire sky. It will have stood in farmland, at the outer edge of a sand and gravel pit and now within the boundary of a Millennium Green urban green space.

Cold Blue Sky #ThickTrunkTuesday

Bring on The Dancing Horses. Halifax The Piece Hall, Halifax, 9 August 2025

To be fair this small build project being built on the site of a derelict care home has solar panels and everything else including the proverbial German kitchen sink thrown at it. Sadly the double garage and log burner spec also says it all. Warm efficient homes should be affordable for everybody

A vivid orange plate like fungus amongst moss, and previously cut crop detritus on bare farmland soil

Whether it is Cup or Peel, a striking vivid Orange fungus highly visible on bare Lincolnshire farmland soil #fungifriday #fungifriends

Silvery grey, deeply gilled Oysterling emerging from a moss covered tree stump

Oysterling, Nidd Gorge, North Yorkshire #fungifriday #fungifriends