Snowy spectacle leaves residents of Gloucestershire, England baffled: High Strangeness

Dog walker Freddie Holding could not believe her eyes when she came upon this wintry woodland scene on Leckhampton Hill. She and her black Labrador Guinness stopped and stared as they found themselves surrounded by a labyrinth of ring marks in the snow.

The beguiling effect, in woods off Daisy Bank Road, was created by dozens of contour marks encircling tree trunks.

"I couldn't believe it," she said, "I have never seen anything like it before. "It was an incredibly beautiful sight so I went straight home to get my camera."
In a bid to find out the cause of the mysterious pattern, Freddie sent the photo to the Echo. But when we asked specialists at Cheltenham Tree Services, they were also left scratching their heads. Managing director Adrian Phillips said: "This is not something I have come across before. "There is no reason for any kind of fungus to affect the trees in the cold weather, and it seems unlikely things falling from the branches could create such a pattern. "The most likely answer is that the pattern is manmade."

Source: Earth Matters