A proper forest walk!

Tuesday brought something a little unexpected...a walk in a forest! Now I admit that may not sound the *most* unexpected thing you might have imagined, but this is the Western Isles remember, where landscapes commonly look a little like this...

...not many trees to be seen there, eh? In a place this exposed, mostly they simply don't survive, so you can almost count on the fingers of one hand how many patches of woodland there are on the islands. The only places where any quantity of trees can be found in one place are the plantations, and it was to one of these that we headed - the Langass Plantation on north Uist. It was originally planted as an experiment to see how the two types of tree originally planted would cope with growing in such a harsh environment - the answer was pretty well, surprisingly, and the plantation is now owned by a community organisation who are working to not only expand the number of tree species growing there but also to make it "visitor friendly" with paths being laid, a small visitor centre, and benches.

In some places where trees have been felled some imagination has been used on the remains...

Less obvious, but still everywhere you look are the amazing mosses and lichens that you see everywhere up here - they grow on anything, pretty much, even the twigs of the trees aren't safe...

 The stars of the show though are the trees themselves - from the tall pines which were the original inhabitants of the plantation, to the slender, fragile new Rowans that have been added recently - it just feels like such a novelty to be walking around under a canopy of real trees! It's reassuring to know that as and when we're here for good, I'll be able to combine the wonderful views with a bit of forest to stomp around, too!

Robyn