The wonders and magic of Ridley Wood.

Today, I embraced the wonders of Ridley Wood, in preparation for the smugglers walk in May.

There are some places that are magical to all of us and this is one of mine. Ridley Wood is dominantly ancient, pollarded beech trees, and the sprawling, old boughs allow the sunlight to dapple through the trees and bring life to the ground. Bracken and bilberry are ground level shelter for the fairies, and hollow trees, homes for the hobbits, or at least that's how it feels!

I sat in awe on a fallen tree with the sun on my face and the warm breeze wafting in the delicious smell of gorse from the nearby heath. Once I had settled into the rhythm of the ancient land, I could hear a hungry nest of chicks nearby and started to try and home in on the sound. It wasn't long before I spotted a treecreeper making its way up a tree and into a hole in an old branch where the demands cried out once more.

While feeling so grateful to be in this moment, observing the calls of new life, three fallow deer appeared in the wood, barelymaking a sound with their gentle steps as the foraged amongst the fallen branches and the sound of a cuckoo flitted between nearby and distant, in search of an admirer of his eccentric call.

This ancient site of smuggling activity and secret meeting places, is filled with their residual energy and tree etchings. Stopping and breathing and listening, smelling and feeling, amongst these trees, you will feel it too. I feel very humbled and grateful to be amongst these ancient pollarded trees who tell so many stories and support each other, knowing these trees had absorbed the energy of these historical events, and with the trees no longer being pollarded, within a relatively short space of time, these majestic structures will no longer be seen in our woodlands.

#springtimewalks #naturetherapy #guidedwalks #ancientwoodlands #arborglyphs #smugglers #localhistory #newforest #storytelling #folklore #NatureConnections #earthenergies