DECEMBER 2023 · GROUNDED
Nash Woods, Presteigne
Radnor Forest, Wales
Christmas Day. Nash Woods sits above Presteigne on the Powys-Herefordshire border, part of the Radnor Forest complex. In December the birch trunks go pale — almost white — and the bracken below them goes rust-brown, and there's a mist that sits in the valley and doesn't lift. The woodland reads like a two-tone photograph of itself.
Winter takes the canopy and gives you the structure. You can see where trees have fallen, where the ground has been disrupted, where stone has been buried under decades of moss growth. A large rock near the path was entirely encrusted — vivid green over ancient grey, the original surface visible only in fragments. Whatever the stone is, it's been there long enough that the moss has decided it's a permanent feature worth investing in.
Whatever the stone is, it's been there long enough that the moss has decided it's a permanent feature worth investing in.
Nash Woods — December 2023
The branches of older trees have acquired their own biome. Lichen drapes the twisted limbs in filaments, grey against grey, each branch holding a different arrangement of growth. Twisted moss-covered branches reach through the upper canopy in layers. Dead fern fills the understorey, orange-brown and flattened, the structure of the living plant visible in the collapsed version.
Mist filled the higher section of the wood. A lone birch sapling stood against it, backlit, its thin trunk catching the diffuse light and standing out against the soft grey background. Several saplings together made a different image: delicate verticals in a horizontal landscape, the bracken making a warm floor below them.
Tall moss-draped trunks beneath the main canopy held rust-coloured bracken at their feet. Looking down the slope through those trunks, the forest receded in layers of pale and dark, the mist softening the distances.
On the border of two countries. Christmas. No one else there.
Weathered stone covered with thick moss and lichen, detail of ancient woodland masonry
Sparse birch trees in winter with pale trunks, dense conifer backdrop in soft focus
Twisted moss-covered branches reaching through woodland canopy, layers of decay
Eroded stone surfaces with vivid moss and plant growth, woodland ground detail
Moss-covered tree trunk with dead fern undergrowth, monochromatic winter palette
Tall moss-draped trunks beneath forest canopy with rust-colored bracken below
Lone birch tree emerging from mist, hillside forest shrouded in fog and cloud
Delicate birch saplings in winter woodland with brown bracken, pastoral quiet mood
Single birch sapling backlit by mist, solitary tree in brooding forest landscape
Birch trunks in row with reddish bracken below, winter woodland understory