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Following the great Loch Shiel cruise, the next expedition
was, not surprisingly, rather less popular. In fairness some
of the reason had to be that people were away on holiday over
the half term. In Acharacle we got Catherine, Bernadette and
David John with Ewen and Mairi to help and when we reached
Ariundle we were joined by Kay and Sally with Mike and Sylvia
so it made up to quite a team in the end.
We started with a walk to the rocky field north of the road
near the Ariundle Centre where John showed everyone an enormous
stone fitted into a dyke but unfortunately failed to find
another stone in the field which had signs of people trying
to cut it for some special purpose. We had a look at the two
small sheep, and they had a look at us, and then we went down
to the forestry block to start the full expedition.
John passed round some maps of the area and explained that,
although the trees were very thick, they were moving up the
hill from the road, so any route which took them down would
take them back to the road. Then he explained how they should
use the compasses to set a course through the forest to an
area he thought would show signs of cultivation. First of
all they had a look at two specimens of the southern beech,
Nothofagus, and also some cypress plantation which they were
able to walk through. We also looked at several very large
oak trees which had lots of acorns scattered about under them.
We all struggled up the hill and finally located the cultivated
area, although the ridges were hard to see. Then we carried
on and looked at the base of an old house and two large cattle
enclosures built against a big wall at the top of the wood.
At the top of the wood we walked for a time along an old road
before coming back down through the woods again. David John
found several puff ball fungi which he was able use to produce
little clouds of spores and on the way down we found a very
spooky tree festooned with strands of moss in a dark clearing.
Around this place the one of the compasses was dropped and
everyone searched until Ewen found it. When we got to the
road, the girls found some good rushes and plaited them into
strands - John explained that many years ago there was a factory
in Strontian where people plaited straw to make straw hats.
The Pictures
Catherine and Bernadette both did pictures of the plaited
rushes, with Catherine adding an acorn on a spiky twig - having
already been told about the difference between the two oak
types, the other one having acorns on a smooth stalk. Sally
and Sylvia both did pictures of the spooky tree with moss
hanging down and Katy drew an acorn and the compass. David
John did two pictures: one a double view showing the turf
house with smoke coming out through the thatch and cultivation
ridges in front, and the other showing the upper side of the
boundary dyke with grass for the animals and a tail tree with
its lower branches cut or browsed off. He also did a picture
showing a witch flying over the spooky tree and a stone enclosure.
Mike did a sketch of the big stone in the field dyke with
the two small sheep nearby.
John
Dye
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