Dappled Sunlight in a Magical Wood.
Mere Sands Wood Nature Reserve is a small wood of about 100 acres in West Lancashire.
The reserve comprises lakes, mature broadleaved and conifer woodland, sandy, wet meadows and heaths.
It’s described on Lancashire Wildlife Trust’s website as
A wildlife-rich haven in the heart of agricultural west Lancashire.
It is also one of the most magical places I’ve ever been. It reminds me of the illustrations in the books of my childhood, showing elves living in toadstool houses, woodland creatures sharing midnight picnics with fairies and baby unicorns……
………….the stuff of which a child’s dreams are made – or used to be in the (g)olden days of my childhood!
We wandered around the reserve this week with our macro lenses looking for butterflies in the wild flower meadow. I did photograph a gorgeous Common Blue butterfly which I’ll post later (maybe along with a picture of a baby unicorn if I can find that frame!)
This week I want to share these woodland pictures for MONDAY is MACRO DAY: WEEK 7
Narrow beams of sunlight filtering through the dense foliage of the tall trees highlighted these wee gems:

MERE SANDS WOOD: Dappled Sunlight on Fungus ©HelenBushe

MERE SANDS WOOD:Dappled Sunlight on Berries ©HelenBushe
Like I said, it’s a magical place.
To see more from MONDAY is MACRO DAY, please follow these links:
13 Comments
bushboy · 22 August 2017 at 03:01
Beautiful photos Helen 🙂
HMB · 22 August 2017 at 07:03
Thank you. That’s so kind of you to say.
Emilio Pasquale · 21 August 2017 at 23:17
Beautiful, elen. The lighting is unbelievable.
HMB · 22 August 2017 at 07:02
Thanks Emilio. It is a magical place.
Emilio Pasquale · 22 August 2017 at 17:55
And that should have been ‘Helen’ in my comment above!
HMB · 22 August 2017 at 18:11
paulfraser11 · 21 August 2017 at 21:25
Stunning pictures Helen 🙂
HMB · 21 August 2017 at 21:32
Thank you Paul. The light was just right .
Laurie Graves · 21 August 2017 at 13:55
So very, very nice!
hbs1991 · 21 August 2017 at 13:29
I love the dappled sunlight photos, the first thing that came to mind is did you scare the fairies away ? I would love to go up on to the mountain behind my house just 10 miles from me to the top and try to take some pictures of dappled sunlight.
HMB · 21 August 2017 at 15:06
I could sense the fairies were watching me. I just couldn’t see them. The sunbeams were like a beam from a laser pen. I also narrowed down the exposure to the same pinpoint as the point of focus. When I took an average reading for exposure the background had too much light.
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