2024 – CHW
Crataegus aprica still in full leaf with, as yet, unripe fruits.

Carpinus betulus ‘Purpurea’ is only briefly purple as far as its new leaves are concerned. Lower branches are showing some good yellowing leaves.

Stewartia monadelpha putting on an excellent reddish show and, I think, earlier than usual.

Quercus frainetto does not have autumn colour with us.

Neither does Tilia caroliniana subsp. heterophylla. Its huge leaves have been ripped to shreds.

Unusual to see a secondary flower on Magnolia wieseneri. Right at the top of the small tree.

Magnolia ‘Yakeo’ still going strong with yet more flowers despite the gales and heavy rain. What a trooper this variety is!

Even more peculiar is a large terminal flower on Syringa reticulata. Four months later than its first and normal flowering.

Young rhododendrons from the greenhouse now out in Higher Quarry Nursery beds.

Hydrangea paniculata ‘Tardiva’ still with a reasonable show in full shade.

2023 – CHW
More Malus with fruits in the Kitchen Garden.Malus x robusta ‘Red Sentinel’.

Malus ‘Royal Raindrops’.

Malus ‘Butterball’.

Malus transitoria ‘Gulliver’.

Malus ‘Gorgeous’.

Malus toringo ‘Scarlett’.

Malus toringo ‘Freja’ has most attractive leaves.

Malus ‘Marble’.

Malus hupehensis ‘Arie Mauritz’.

Malus hupehensis.

Malus ‘Sun Rival’.

And we wonder why branches break off on young magnolias! Six pheasants drying off on this small tree.

2022 – CHW
Schima superba just out into flower by Donkey Shoe. Earlier than usual.

A pheasant’s futile spring nest uncovered while strimming a bramble patch recently.

The archaeologists are hard at it in the graveyard extension. I had it wrong the other day as this is the stone lined culvert or drain which runs down the front of the church and into the field. Of no consequence as it clearly has not worked for decades.

This is what I thought was the drain but it is a platform of rubble containing bits of pottery from various dates. Since the original church was extended twice, latterly in the 1880’s, it seems pretty obvious that spoil had to be dug out for the foundations and dumped below the churchyard.

This is the far end of the ‘platform’ which is no longer thought to be the walls of a dwelling but more the levelling of a spoil dump. The pottery bits are far to varied and numerous to suggest a dwelling. Pottery presumably from flowers on graves or in the church itself.

So the verbal conclusion on site was that there is nothing significant archeologically in the ground to stop the planners granting permission for the graveyard extension. Let’s hope that is what the archeological report actually says when it arrives.

The huge clump of Hydrangea paniculata ‘Grandiflora’ on the drive has flowers which have turned a gentle pink.

2021 – CHW

Here is the answer to the odd fungus collected during the fungus survey here on 28th September:

I left a specimen on your entrance table by the pine cones, a branch covered in ‘Orange Pore fungus’ or Favolaschia calocera, this is widespread throughout the estate. It is native to Madagascar and was first found in the UK at Enys, it has since spread around the County. It is a saprotroph and not fussy as to diet being found on a wide range of dead trees and shrubs. However at Caerhays it is the first time we have found it on a gymnosperm. I would like to know the tree species, I think it is Cunninghamia lanceolata. There is a mass of the tiny orange ‘ping pong bats’ on a felled trunk just in the woodland above the parking area and there is one standing trunk there.It Has broad lanceolate needles around the stem and rich reddish brown bark.
A large number of pale brown mushrooms growing up in the Castle Wood on soil and pine debris may prove to be an interesting species of Agrocybe. I have sent my notes and photos for an opinion from Kew mycology department.

The full findings of the survey are attached in full. Complaints that the dry September had reduced the number of species found.