A walk in Coppetts Wood

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A walk in Coppets Wood, nature reserve.

I’m in Enfield, waiting for 40 minutes for a bus that doesn’t come… 45 minutes… where is that bus that is going to take me to Golders Green, and then to Hendon?

A girl approaches me, asking me: do you wait for 232? Yeah, I say, half exasperated by the wait. Buses in London…. So unreliable, I say. I skipped a full course plus seminar three days ago because of a @£$%^& bus and a nightmare of traffic! Now it’s a little bit of history repeating. I have to get to a meeting at 10:30. Now it’s ten. Impossible to get there in 30 minutes, unless you have a helicopter. I should remember to get one next time!

I announce my absence. And, since it is a fine day, what to do? Let’s go to Hendon, by foot! Enfield to Hendon doesn’t sound like walking distance, but , breathing slowly and with confidence, I take the challenge. Walking slowly along the North Circular Road, I’m looking at the Sun, my daytime compass. It’s eleven, so it must be close to the south. Glancing at the map, here I go – to Finchley!

But wait! After I almost put my map in the backpack, my unconscious mind says: “Hey, did it say ‘Natural reserve’?” And indeed it is! I turn left and, following an old habit, I get out my binder I take everywhere with me… and there I go.

Date: 10 Oct 2008. Time: 12:30

Weather: feels like 17C, a bit windy, clear sky with scattered cirrus clouds.

Location: London, Barnet Borough. Coppetts Wood Local Nature Reserve. Nice, for the first time I can see an English Nature Reserve! With rigor, I write down the stuff written on the board at the entrance… such as it was a part of the Finchley Wood that is now almost gone, sports and games in 17^th 18^th century: bare-knuckle boxing, horse racing and pigeon shooting. Sewage systems installed in 1872, closed and demolished 100 years after.

I copy the map and decide not to go too far. I’m beginning to write down species. Trees and shrubs: poplar (Populus sp.), lime (Tilia sp.), elder (Sambucus nigra), hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) and ivy (Hedera helix). The hawthorn has red, tasty fruits but I resist the temptation of eating them. I just saw something yucky in the bush… it’s not very clean you know. Next… white deadnettle (Lamium album), some other deadnettle with purple flowers possibly L. amplexicaule; I don’t remember seeing it before. Some burdock (Arctium lappa), that’s a fat guy, taking up space. And not to forget the nettle! (Urtica sp.) It’s full of nettles here. Next is poison hemlock (Conium maculatum), looking like innocent parsley. Some morning glory (Convolvulus sp.) ties the shrubs around. Shrubs made up by some aggressive Rubus species, rapidly growing everywhere. Some dandelions (Taraxacum off.), dock (Rumex), Salvia, hypericums. So far, I’d say, nothing special. Just weeds, indicating that the soil is indeed quite nutritious!

I see a kind of a small pond. I go there. Besides a few species belonging to the Asteraceae family, which I cannot tell, I see some young Sycamore maples, and some sedges (Carex), plants I hate because they are sometimes hard to collect and definitively hard to determine. This one has no seeds or flowers so I feel a bit relieved. I see some modest-looking mullein (Verbascum). I draw some of the plants I don’t know so now, while in front of the Mac, I can determine their genera from memory… I get increasingly disappointed with what I see…

In the bushes there are a few species of willow (Salix) and thistle (Cirsium for sure, Carduus?). I see two species of rose (Rosa), one with really big thorns the other looking relatively harmless. I don’t know what species might be. Roses and some other shrubs are very diverse. I see at least two kinds of fleabanes (Erigeron) growing really big! Some little snails I know nothing about. And, among all the weeds, I see my nightmare plant: Japanese Knotweed (Fallopia japonica) a notorious invader plant I would like to see exterminated from Europe. Its shrubs grow thick, allowing nothing more to grow. I wonder who takes care of the reserve? I read that this green pest could be useful in medicine. I would be really happy to cut it down.

I go closer to the pond, where I get utterly disappointed. The pond is artificial. So far, whatever pond I’ve seen, was natural, with no man-made material on its bottom. Regular knotweed (Polygonum) around…

I am going to something pretending to look like a forest. I am more disappointed with what I see, looking like a wasteland. I see something I never expected to se in a reserve: a cherry plum! (Prunus cerasifera). But the worse was yet to come. Some ash (Fraxinus) and dogwood (Cornus sanguinea) were things I expected to see in a forest. But wait! Mmmmmmm….. smells Good! I smell apples! And indeed, on the forest floor, a great spill of apples (Malus domestica). More hungry, but this time even more determined not to eat them. I see a pear tree, fruitless, next to the apple tree. And something looking like a small Carpinus, but I am not sure. I will check the big book at home.

I get out of the fake wood again. Shrubs, but that looked for sure like a deserted land, where no animals would pasture. Where I come from, places like there were kept under control by deer. The shrubs were inaccessible due to plant overgrowth. I could not go there, not for even a few centimetres, in the bush. There were again juicy plants growing on a highly nutritious soil: nettle, willow, dandelion, elder, danewort (Sambucus ebulus) looking quite depressed. Again, sycamore maple. And plenty, plenty of fleabanes! I made an almost unrecognisable sketch of the landscape. Among the things in the bush:

comfrey (Symphytum officinale), yarrow (Achillea millefolium), and some not-very-impressive oak and ash.

Back in the forest! I notice the aspens (Populus tremula) with their leaves trembling in the wind. Some big shrubs of hawthorn full of red fruits; ash again; something looking like a cherry tree (Prunus sp.), and some poplar (Populus sp.). Among the flowers, a member of the Rosaceae family with yellow flowers.

The forest looks much better than the so-called forest I saw previously. On the way, there is broken glass. Didn’t look very nice L. Moreover, all of the way, the noise is terrible. There is some constructionwork going on down there, plus the noise made by the numerous airplanes going round. Like there was always something wrong going on down there, police sirens keep going on and on and on. I see a little gray guy/gal – a squirrel. It disspears quickly, as there was a man approaching with his dog. Another guy with a dog – I met some other dog guy before. The dog starts chasing the squirrel…

I notice a strange, sweet smell – something like glucose, or who knows? And there it is! It’s ochre, a field of brackens (Pteridium aquilinum), huge ferns measuring from 50 to more than 200 centimeters. I know that this plant is toxic and has no consumers. It is dry. What crawls on the ground beneath? It’s blackberry, some little mushrooms and some shrub looking bad. And ivy. I go on and I see some things looking like big concrete barrels, like 1,3-1,5 m height and diameter, probably from the systems that were demolished. A pigeon. Surprised because I see acacia (Robinia pseudacacia), I go further, where the forest looks really good! It’s green and nice, made out of oaks. I see yew (Taxus baccata) looking shublike in the shade. And ivy. I’ve never seen yew and oak together before. I notice that, in October, the forest is still green! Another man with dog. I get hungry seeing so many fruits! Some trees cut down. Caprifolium, a plant usually seen in parks. That smell again.

I am going out. On the way out I notice some interesting Norway maple (Acer platanoides). It had some interesting features: some bunches of leafs are green and healty. Some other bunches are red and/or yellow.

Now I get out of the reserve. It’s 13:17. I have spent here 47 minutes. I’m heading to Finchley and then to Hendon, by walking! The bus drivers are on strike and I have no interest in taking the tube. It’s a nice day today.