If You Went Down To The Woods Today

BALLYYAHOO WOODS

The woods I describe in my Ballyyahoo books are inspired by different woodlands. Many of them are in Wicklow where I lived most of my life, one in Wexford and several in Galway.

We went to Kilcolgan woods today. We are regular visitors to this woods as it is not too far away from our home. We have had such stormy weather lately we weren't sure what we would find but we were very pleasantly surprised. The dark relentless rain of the morning gave way to scattered showers by mid-morning. As we began walking, the sun trickled through the treetops and dropped a dappled chain of light throughout the trails.

The rain seems to have given rise to a lush growth of ivy, ferns and moss everywhere we looked. This tree below had fallen, yet it appeared to have given birth to two baby trees that were growing vertically despite their position on the sunny diagonal of the trunk.

BIRTH OF A TREE

ON THE FOREST BED

These two pictures show different portions of a rather graceful looking piece of trunk. This rested on the forest bed as though gently placed there by nature herself while she decided how best to depict their beauty.

FERN

As we walked through the paths we passed a great deal of ferns like this one below. I think these ferns are looking more fully formed and lush than their sisters of last years.

LESSER KNOWN ROSES

Nature placed the branch to which these little brown cones were attached gently across a bed of ivy and moss. She couldn't have positioned them any more perfect in my opinion because the cones look like little brown flowers from a lesser known species of rose. 

THE CHOPPED DOWN TREE

The contrast between the sharp cut of the chopped down tree and nature's own tangle of branches caught my eye. 

MOSS ON A ROCK

Behind this moss covered rock, the bare trunks of the trees seem to have sprang from another, more barren climate, yet they can only exist together. I love the way the fern hangs down like feathers.

FAIRY GLADES

It is easy to see how the idea of fairies came about when you look at these glades. Who else could you imagine living here other than those tiny translucent creatures. Fairies could hide so easily in the small crevices in the rocks, take shelter from the rain underneath the ferns and of course sit down on the softest of seats made from moss!

FLOOD POND

At the end of one of the trails we came to this recently formed pond. This is the only part of the woods that flooded. This was surprising considering the amount of nearby fields that have been transformed into lakes, complete with confused looking cows clinging to their boundary hedgerows.The line across the water is a row of wooden slats placed there for cyclists, none of whom braved the woods today.

A REST FOR THE WEARY

There are always plenty of resting places in the woods but this is my favourite. The soft blanket of moss shields you from the coldness of the rock below.

If rocks could whisper I would have heard it say 'sit down.'