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People
instinctively love woodland. We admire the magnificence
of the trees, delight in the flowers and ferns of the
woodland floor, savour the perfumed air. We can find
serenity in the dappled, green-filtered light and sense
the multiplicity of invisible connections between
ourselves and the life of the forest.
We can benefit simply by being amongst trees, breathing
the woodland air. The Japanese have a word for this:
shinrin-yoku - wood-air bathing. There is scientific
evidence that it can improve mood and produce beneficial
physiological changes. Just looking at trees can help
people recover from illness. We want to encourage
people to spend more time enjoying this type of
life-enhancing activity.
Trees have contributed to human well-being, have fed and
sheltered us alongside a great variety of other
life-forms, for as long as we and they have lived on
this planet.
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Each part of Boduan Sanctuary
Wood has its own unique character.
As you follow the paths from the car park, you
move from light into shade, from young silver
birch, rowan, alder and hazel into areas
dominated by conifers. Here, the dominant
species is spruce, but you can see oak in the
foreground.
(Photo: Terry Mills)
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In summer, the canopy closes overhead,
letting soft dappled light through to the path.
This part of the wood is mainly young silver
birch - pioneers which take over land laid bare
when the established trees have been felled.
On the woodland floor, the debris of fallen
branches and previous summers' leaves is home
to many different life-forms.
(Photo: Terry Mills)
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Look up: and feel your
spirits soar.
Slender silver birches, each tree striving to
grow taller than its neighbour, competing for
the light.
Listen: small birds are busy in the
tree-tops. You may not see them as you walk
through the wood, but you will be able to hear
them calling to each other.
If you're lucky, you'll hear the plaintive cry
of buzzards circling high overhead.
(Photo: Terry Mills) |
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On its western border, the
wood slopes down to a stream which rises from
the base of a long-extinct volcano on the north
coast of the Lleyn Peninsula.
Pause here, let your spirit be soothed by the
gentle gurgle of water and the voices of ewes
calling their lambs in the fields across the
stream.
This is the oldest part of the wood, where we
find the greatest diversity of trees and
flowers.
Beech, oak, chestnut, sycamore and ash grow
here, interspersed with hawthorn, holly and
silver birch.
(Photo: Arabella Melville) |
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This is Amanita Muscaria,
commonly known as fly agaric, one of the glories
of autumn in the wood.
Fly agaric grows in profusion under silver
birch.
We have many different varieties of Amanita in
the wood, all of them beautiful. But they are
also poisonous.This one used to be used to kill
flies, hence its common name.
We have found few edible fungi - apart from the
small puffballs that appear on the paths around
midsummer - but we're still looking!
(Photo: Arabella Melville) |
Boduan Sanctuary is an ancient wood, lovely
despite repeated felling by previous
custodians; one of the signs that it has been
woodland for centuries is the profusion of
bluebells where the soil has not been too deeply
disturbed..
This photograph was taken near the stream, where
the land slopes steeply and is unsuitable for
cultivation by machinery..
Higher up, in the main body of the wood, the
bluebells are starting to return where the
spruces have been felled and light gets through
the canopy in early spring..
(Photo: Arabella Melville) |
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Inebriate of Air am I
And Debauchee of Dew --
Reeling thro endless summer days --
From inns of Molten Blue --
When "Landlords" turn the drunken Bee
Out of the Foxglove's door --
When butterflies - renounce their "drams" --
I shall but drink the more!!
Till Seraphs swing their snowy Hats --
And Saints to windows run --
To see the little Tipplerr
Leaning against the - Sun --
Emily Dickinson (1830 - 86)Emily Dickinson (1830 - 86)
(Photo: Terry Mills)
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With light comes life where paths cut through the darkened wood.
Here
buttercups gild a quiet glade.
(Photo: Terry Mills) |
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Magnificent ferns grow five
feet tall in the depth of the wood, for they
need little light.
There are many different types of fern in Boduan
Sanctuary Wood; this one is the Male Fern, once
valued by farmers for killing parasitic worms in
their stock.
(Photo: Terry Mills) |
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Buttercups, brambles, cranesbill...
wildflowers grow in profusion near the entrance
to the wood.
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Flower cushion |
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The sweet perfume of
honeysuckle suffuses the air on warm summer
evenings.
Honeysuckle grows throughout the wood, except
where thickly-planted spruce blocks out the
light. Over the next few years, we plan to
remove much of the spruce, so more flowers will
bloom where butterflies flutter between scented
trees.
(Photo: Arabella Melville)
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To earth returned.
This is the grave of William Melville, buried in
June 2005. It was a very special day; sad, but
also joyful.
To see a gallery of photographs of this, the
first funeral in Boduan Sanctuary Wood,
click here.
(Photo: Terry Mills)
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When we first walked round
the wood, it was winter and this was an open
clearing.
How diverse and vigorous it has become!
(Photo: Terry Mills)
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Almost back in the car park.
It can be hard to leave this lovely place.
(Photo: Terry Mills) |
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