Country diary: where Scots pines stand tall

Allendale, Northumberland: Sunlight filters between the trees, flecking the woodland floor and turning it yellow-greenWith its feeling of openness and its regularly spaced trunks, this place makes me think of Winnie the Pooh's "enchanted place on the top of the forest". Scots pines, thinned out some years back, have furrowed boles that are bare and straight. They turn ruddy brown towards the crowns from which swoop graceful dark branches. Sunlight filters between the trees, flecking the mossy woodland floor and turning it yellow-green. There are waist-high fronds of male fern and the ground is spongy with needles.I pick up the remnants of a pine cone. It has been efficiently deconstructed, the scales chewed apart to extract the seeds, a sign of feeding squirrels. These female cones start tightly closed and emerald green. They take two to three years to develop until dispersal stage, when their ripe contents fall to the ground. Take a cone indoors and the warmth of the house will make it expand so the winged seeds can be tapped out. Continue reading...