#wistman

[world-of-wales]

The Duke of Cornwall (The Prince of Wales) releases a bird which flew to him during a visit to Wistman’s Wood on the duchy land after approving of plans to double the woodland's size in Cornwall as they look to achieve the net zero sustainability goal || 11 July 2023

[thewales-family]

The Duke of Cornwall visits Wistman’s Wood on The Duchy of Cornwall land after plans to double the woodland's size were announced, in Cornwall, England -July 11th 2023.

📷 : Andrew Parsons/Kensington Palace.

[pers-books]

For Autumn: Wistman's Wood, Dartmoor. Photographer: Neil Burnell

[janijones]

[bingwallpaper]

Wistman's Wood, Devon, England

We’re on Dartmoor in Devon, where the twisted oak branches of Wistman’s Wood shelter some of the rarest plant life found in the United Kingdom. This ancient site is one of Britain’s highest oakwoods and is an example of a temperate rainforest, a rare habitat found along the Atlantic coastline. The mild and damp conditions here make it ideal for a number of scarce lichen, mosses and fungi. The wood is home to Horsehair lichen (Bryoria smithii) found at only two sites in Britain.

Wistman’s Wood sits at an altitude of between 380 metres and 435 metres above sea level. The most common type of trees, as seen in our homepage image, are moss and lichen-covered dwarf oaks, which twist between rocks and along the forest floor in places. It is thought that Wistman’s Wood is the ancestor of an ancient forest that covered much of Dartmoor around 7000 BCE. The oldest oaks here are thought to be between 400 and 500 years old.

[expressions-of-nature]

Wistman's Wood, Dartmoor by Dr Stanislav Edward

[1five1two]

Wistman's Wood, Dartmoor, England.

[solivagants]

wistman's wood, dartmoor

—neil burnell

[requiem-on-water]

Wistmans by Neil Burnell

[theemeraldforesthideout]

Sat atop Mynydd Carningli (Angel Mountain). I got a tad emotional here because at the mouth of the river, down there in Newport, there is a dolmen weirdly sat in a garden on its own (in a cul-de-sac between houses) then further up the valley is an impressive stone circle, then the famous Pentre Ifan, then a Wistman's wood-like fairy forest and finally several ancient hillforts. Those hillforts surround a site that has been said to be the origins of the stones used in the construction of Stonehenge. Basically the entire journey from the coast to the high terrain has been marked by ancient monuments. From one liminal space, all the way to another via an old growth forest. And it's those spaces I feel most at home in, so I felt a strong connection to it all at that moment.

[theroyalsandi]

The Prince of Wales visited Wistman’s Wood on Duchy of Cornwall land after plans to double the woodland's size were announced. The Duchy's Sustainable Stewardship vision means they are working to their sustainability goal of net zero | July 11, 2023

[world-of-wales]

THE PRINCE DIARIES ♚

11 JULY 2023 || DUCHY OF CORNWALL - WISTMAN’S WOOD, DARTMOOR

The Duke of Cornwall visted the Wistman’s Wood on the duchy land after plans were announced to double the woodland's size in Cornwall as they look to achieve the net zero sustainability goal.

The the nine-acre ancient oak woodland site, which is home to very rare Atlantic mosses and lichen is under threat from fire, disease and climate change. It's regeneration and expansion will play a huge part in The Duchy of Cornwall’s vision of Sustainable Stewardship – for Communities, Enterprise and Nature.

Encompassing much of Dartmoor National Park, the Dutchy Estate has been continuing to work to achieve its sustainability goal of a net zero and nature-rich Estate with farming playing an instrumental role in the delivery, driven forward by Prince William.

The Duchy of Cornwall has been working with agricultural tenants, Natural England and the Dartmoor National Park Authority to develop a plan for Wistman's Wood.

It has been announced that the duchy intends to double the cover of the temperate rainforest by 2040.

[thebennettdiaries]

the oak king (v)

( directly follows this drabble )

Bonnie doesn't think she will ever get used to driving on the other side of the road. It's funny --- she hasn't even been in the United States in nearly a year but she still cringes as the car careens around a corner.

"You look a little green, witch," Klaus comments dryly. He drums his fingers on the steering wheel and then for good measure, stamps his foot down on the gas. The engine protests for a moment (this car had been the best they could find given the circumstances) but eventually gives in, pressing Bonnie's back against her seat.

She resists the urge to give him a look for that move. Instead she takes a deep breath, eyes fluttering close. "How long have you been back on this side of life?" she asks, deciding to change the subject.

"Since yesterday."

A 'day old' and already driving. How fast they grow up.

"Where did you come to?" She opens one eye and sees another car barreling at them, wheels gripping the snow covered pavement precariously. She squeaks and then squeezes her eyes tightly. She can hear Klaus chuckle next to her. "Stop enjoying this."

"Forgive me," he drawls. "But it has been so long since I had any fun." She can feel the car slow some and nearly breathes a sigh of relief. "To answer your question, when I became aware I was in Wistman's Wood."

Bonnie's eyes open for good and she finds herself staring at him, taken aback. "Wistman's Wood? Are you sure?"

"So said the farmer I ate soon after," Klaus confirms and simply shrugs at the look she gives him for his confession of murder.

Bonnie's teeth catch her bottom lip as she considers what he has told her. Wistman's Wood is known to her. On the surface, it is a oak forest --- but it has a long history of being connected to the mystical, especially the Wild Hunt. She knows what that symbolizes. Catastrophe. If the Wild Hunt appears, death soon follows. It can't be a coincidence that he woke there.

"And you were alone?"

"Yes, just me, the frozen ground and snow softly following. Poetic if you think about it," Klaus muses before growing serious. "What is the importance of this place?"

"Wistman's Wood is attached to a lot of folklore: dangerous omens, hauntings, hellhounds --- it's supernaturally charged so I think there is a reason you were pulled through the veil there. The spell probably had to be anchored in nature somehow. It takes a lot of power to bring back the dead. Especially when the dead is..." She trails off, refusing to point out how his unique status makes his resurrection all that more difficult. She has a feeling he might just preen and she would rather he concentrate on the road. "The real question becomes why were you allowed to get from there to here. To me." She pauses for a moment and then furrows her brows. "How did you find me by the way?"

Klaus opens his mouth and then he closes it. There is silence as he appears to consider his answer. "I just...did."

"Helpful," she quips but she doesn't doubt him. There is something much bigger at play here. She has a feeling that they are only touching the edges of it and before it is all said and done, they will have to wade in deep. She feels something claw in her stomach. She has long thought she left that kind of magic behind. She had spent far too much of her childhood, her teen years, wrestling things so big they swallowed her whole. The life she has carved out for her now is meant to be something small, something manageable. She hasn't had to give up her magic and she is still helping people but she is not putting herself through the wringer to do so.

The days of self sacrifice are long over.

She looks out the window, noting how the city has given way to outskirts. Christmas lights blaze in the windows and she thinks she can even make out a few families crowded around their trees despite the late hour. For the first time, she finds herself missing her family (the one she found throughout her life thus far). She wonders what it would be like to sit next to Caroline, sipping a hot cocoa as the twins argued over whether or not the packages on the tree were the newest iPhones. She knows she could have been there (her invitation is open and longstanding) and now she wishes she was.

"How come you haven't gone to see your family?" she asks, the very act of missing hers making her realize a glaring error in his ways. He is all about family --- that infamous always and forever. Add to that, he has a daughter. A very strong willed powerful daughter.

Klaus' mouth is pressed thin and she can see the way he tenses even in the dim light. She thinks he is going to ignore her but then he is speaking, voice low. "I am a danger to them."

She furrows her brows. It is not like Klaus to be introspective. He has always been a danger to them --- his temper, his jealously, his paranoia...all traits that have led to destructive moments when it came to his siblings. She doubts that he sees it that way. So, he must be speaking literally. She thinks for a moment, her head turning so she is looking out the window. "When I heard you had died, I almost didn't believe it --- especially when the rumor came around that you staked yourself. For someone who values immortality, it seemed out of place. But..."

"I had to," Klaus tells her. "I had no other choice." The words tumble out of him like running water, quick and close together. "There is something in me that wants my daughter --- and I won't go near her until I can be sure I am rid of it." Bonnie is confused. She is about to say more when Klaus jerks the wheel down a narrow road. "You said one of clients lives down here? Let's go wish her a Merry Christmas, shall we?"

End of discussion.

For now.

[lionfloss]

Wistman's Wood by Mark Ainsley

[wildkinwitch]

For so long I had wanted to visit Wistmans Woods. On Dartmoor (National Park, UK) this is one of the last remaining patches of ancient woodland before the land was cleared for agriculture. Old gnarly oaks are huddled stunted together like a moot of elder ents, swathed in mossy beards and clad in lichen patches. If you have the fortune to tread these wild woods, go softly of foot. Piskies and fellow Good Neighbours will remember if you don't!