Dear Readers, on Sunday Friends of Coldfall Wood organised a photography walk, led by local photographer Mike Segal. This isn’t a tech-y kind of walk – it’s more an opportunity to walk slowly and pay attention to what’s going on. It being spring, everything is bursting out in a most hopeful way. This is a Norway Maple – not a native tree, but it’s been here since the late 17th Century. Note the yellow flowers and the shiny pointy leaves.

And judging by the catkins, the hornbeams might be about to have a good year too….

The horse chestnut candles are just starting to erupt…

and I rather like the way that the leaves are attached to the stems…

It’s easy to forget that oak trees have flowers, but they do…

There are lots of bluebells in the woods, mostly hybrids but pretty nonetheless.

This hollow tree was being used by a pair of stock doves a few weeks ago. I’m not sure who’s in there now, but there are some leaves and some debris, so fingers crossed…

This fallen tree reminds me of a dragon.

Spring is such a lovely time in the wood, with the young leaves like green smoke.

But this is definitely the most heart-warming thing I’ve seen in the wood in quite a while.

At the base of this young tree is a pool of wood anemones. I used to see them in tiny groups in the wood when I first came to East Finchley fifteen years ago, but they were trampled out of existence during Covid. Or so it seemed. With just a dead-hedge to protect them, they’ve resurrected themselves. What a wonderful sight.

The wood used to be regularly coppiced, and some of the hornbeams have grown rather erratically as a result.

And I love the view from the bridge into the wet woodland.

Alongside the boardwalk there are willows in flower – these can be very difficult to identify to species level, but the bees won’t mind, they’ll collect the pollen anyway,

And then it started to drizzle, and so we headed home. It’s easy to forget how lucky I am to live so close to such a wonderful place as Coldfall Wood, but taking the time to walk slowly and to pay attention has reminded me of what a precious place this is.