Decaying forest

The cold wind was annoying for a walk along my usual trail so I drove to The Garden instead, to see how it looks. Everything is resting, waiting for temperatures to rise so the soil can be warmer, with help of the sun to start the process of whatever is supposed to grow there. 

I took the path through the forest, a good choice on a windy day. The forest looks a mess, it's part of a protected area so nothing is allowed to be removed or cleared. The ash-trees are infected by a fungus that affect their roots so that they gradually disappear and the tree will fall eventually over. Many will get stuck in other trees and branches while falling, which makes the forest look very unstructured, and a bit dangerous to walk through since nobody knows when a tree is ready to fall. I haven't heard of anybody being injured yet but I've heard big ones fall not far from the path. 

After a while the path leads to the old railway that connected east and west and north and south of the island between early 1900 until the rails were removed in 1961. Many of the banks are used as popular bicycle trails and for walking, it's a big tourist thing. Looking along the track this time of year is also a bit depressing, because of all the debris from the dying trees, in the spring, summer and autumn it looks more like a green tunnel or corridor, much more delightful but I think it has some charm even now, in February.