Bird thou never wert

Day Ten: Past Watchful Dragons;

and on to the oldest, and most overgrown, part of the walk.



The big ivy-covered oak on your right is looking down through baleful red eyes at a fallen tree on the other side of the path.



The dragon lurking in the space under a fallen tree is well hidden, especially since the weather has given the poor thing a coating of red clay fallen from the roots above.



Follow the path to where a trio of stepping stones (actually slices of treetrunk) cross the next muddy ditch, and up the slope until you emerge amid the brambles at Roes (or Rose, or Roe's – depending on map and local accent) Pond.

This was reputed to be the home of a local witch, and the two carvings of inverted trees on your right may be intended to invoke traditional images of hook-nosed hags.



They're actually rather jolly and I think of them as the Woodwoozes. They stand amid a tangle of brambles, which have probably deterred the worst of the thieves.



In summer this is a good area to find Painted Lady and Red Admiral butterflies. Deer (roe and muntjack) regularly come to drink at the pond, and have been seen in the wood – though most visitors are more likely to see their hoofprints. Walk along between the woodwoozes and the pond and re-join the gravelled path following the marker to the right.