WALK 11 BRAHAN ESTATE 8TH APRIL 2024

We shouldn't stop our walks just because the school holidays have come around. So, with Liam and Cameron in tow, we headed out to Brahan Estate for this week's walk.

I wouldn't say Cameron was undecided about the merits of a walk, but he was definitely sitting on the fence.

Jumping off the fence, he next wanted to hug a tree.

Soon, however, we were off down the avenue.

Brahan is one of our favourite places to walk, and today was a good day to go there. Cold, but bright and hinting at Spring.

Even the boys seemed to be keen to get out and about.

Some rhododendrons were coming into bloom. Spring really was just around the corner.

One of the earliest flowers is the Lesser Celandine. These can be found in almost all woodlands and they are very important sources of pollen for early insects and the likes of Queen Bees emerging from their hibernation. It is toxic to livestock, but it has been used as a medicine to cure scurvy, having a very high Vitamin C content in the leaves.

More interestingly, perhaps, is the way it can predict weather by closing the flowers when it is going to rain!

Celandine likes damp conditions and it often spreads when land floods.

Rhododendrons, on the other hand, prefer well drained soils.

There werew plenty of golden daffodils about. People think that daffodils were Wordsworth's favourite flower, but he actually wrote three poems praising the celandine!

Lungwort is another early flowering plant. Indeed, it is one of the earliest flowers that we have in the garden. Like all early flowers, they are an important source of food for insects.

Another early plant that likes the damp is the Skunk cabbage. This is highly invasive. It is also very strange in that it can generate heat on its own, which allows it to break through frozen ground in its native North America.

Much of the water hereabouts drains onto this small pond, where the swans rear their young every year. It is a lovely spot. It was a bit tricky to reach on this trip as some heavy machinery had been used on the access to the pond and it was all a bit guttery, to be honest.

The swans were here, but it was a bit early for cygnets, but not too early to build a nest.

Some of the stones around the pond had marvellous mosaics of lichen on their surface.

Bulrushes, which are more properly called Typha or cattails, grow all around the pond. They also grow almost everywhere in the northern hemisphere. They can remove toxins from polluted water and they can be used as food and insulation in things from life-vests to houses!

It is the seeds that are used for insulation and for buoyancy. They were used in life-vests during the second world war and they remained buoyant even after 100 hours in the water.

Once we had seen the pond, it was time to go back through the woods to the cars and off we went to Munro's for tea and cakes!

The end of another of our varied walks that we really do enjoy.