Where fairytales are born...

More Wytham Woods photographs today (further ones to come - I took a lot!). Idaho Beauty http://idahobeautyquilts.blogspot.com commented that my previous pictures made you see where fairytales came from and I must admit that Wytham Woods make me think of books such as The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings as well as a whole series of myths, legends and folktales.



Trees have always seemed to me like characters in their own right, usually benign but occasionally scary - I remember one day, when I was about eighteen, when I'd walked further than I intended and was still in the woods, on my own, as it began to get dark and began to feel as if the trees were alive and I was an intruder into a different world ...


Different times of day and differences in light make the woods change mood and colour...

and there are magical places, like these, where the water has been culverted so as not to drain the path...

or in the broad rides, soft underfoot, mossy, and often full of dappled light like the path below which on the sunday after Christmas reminded me of Rivendell - it is so easy to imagine elves just out of eyeshot watching your every move...