IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Buckshaft Road, CINDERFORD, GL14 3DT

A set of robustly constructed play items make this playground, just off Buckshaft road, ideal for children of all ages. The colour coded logs in the foreground are the results of Forestry Commission 'thinning' operations.

Some council semis on the edge of the Forest of Dean.

Looking down the unmettale portion of Hewlett Way, Ruspidge towards Grindles Lane, which is the local name for the hand-railed footpath connecting Buckshaft Road with Tramway Road.

Coal tit (Periparus ater) in my garden in Ruspidge, in the Forest of Dean.

Standing in Tramway Road looking up Granny Weavings Lane (with Grindles Lane running to the left this side of the hedge). Granny Weavings Lane gets steeper yet and at the top forms the link to the two, otherwise disconnected, portions of Bucskhaft Road ... one of the few roads that is metalled, becomes a hand-railed footpath and then re-invents itself as a rough tarmac/gravel single track road. You will see that it is 'No Cycling' down this somewhat steep footpath.

As you can see from the photograph, the Gatekeeper butterfly has an interesting type of eye. Each ocellus (simple eye) has two pupils one pointing upwards and the other down. These butterflies are quite common in the Forest and like brambles and bushes which are separated from each other by 3 or 4 metres or so.

Between the two power poles is the uphill unadopted footpath known as Granny Weavings Lane. It link Tramway at the bottom with Buckshaft about 150 yards higher up the slope. Somewhat uniquely the footpath cuts into Buckshaft (which is shaped like a horizontal Z) and replaces the road surface with this one and a half metre wide hand-railed footpath. You cannot drive from one end of Buckshaft to the other because of the 'footpath' section in the middle !

We have one soft stemmed tree in one of our hedges that the ants just love. They farm aphids at the base of the thumb-thick trunk and daily escort them up to the juicy leaves at the top. There they encourage the aphids to extrude a sweet-tasting juice as they feed off the sugary sap. How do the ants encourage the aphids ? By stroking them with their antennae, of course.

An overwintering Brambling (Fringilla montifringilla) at one of my bird feeding sites in the garden.

Originally built in 1857 the Bible Christian Chapel was one of the many small chapels built in the Forest. For a while it housed a mixture of fashion clothes and artworks and received its present name plate of 'Rainforest Chapel.'