The Great Yew Tree of Ormiston...

...Revisited.

As Miss Flum has been staying over we all went to the Great Yew which Mr Flum and I visited on the 19th of last month. Her previous attempts to locate the tree had been unsuccessful, realising afterwards that she had been close but had missed the correct path. Today the weather was perfect for a walk so we parked a little way along the track and took the route past the ruins of Ormiston Hall.

Top left in the collage is the exterior of the tree canopy (more correctly of two trees, close together). Bearing in mind that Miss Flum is 6ft 2 in tall. you can estimate the full height of the tree, which is not obvious from within the canopy. Top right - under the canopy, next to the trunk.

From there we continued up the track to the south east, noting the old doocote (dovecote) (bottom left in the collage) and into the wooded area. We also noted many varieties of fungus, in particular that in the collage, which I think might be a slime mould - I am happy to be corrected. This specimen has a little friend or two.

There was evidence of damage from our recent storms, Arwen and Barra, many branches ripped off mature trees, some beheaded, although there are indications that some of them were diseased. Such a pity we could not collect some fallen timber for Miss Flum's wood-burning stove!

Retracing our steps towards the car we had a nice chat with a resident out for her walk in the late afternoon; we were among the few other walkers who were not accompanied by a dog.