I hadn’t been for almost three weeks and getting withdrawal symptoms. It’s a question of finding a suitable dry day as well as when I am not busy doing other things. I told one of my friends, Alan, about the woodland and he was quite keen to visit, so I took him on Thursday this week. I had collected some more free wooden pallets and wanted to take them there. Also I bought two nice bird feeders on a car boot sale for £3 – a real bargain. I bought two big bags of mixed bird seed from the bargain store for another £2 so was keen to place those somewhere.

The weather was lovely although it had rained a lot this week, so everything was pretty wet, including the sticks I had stored under the picnic bench. So getting a fire going in my Honeystove took some doing. Eventually we succeeded and had a brew. Such simple tasks become quite involved and time consuming but it’s good to remember the main reason you are in your woods. To relax, blend with your environment and just go with the flow. Enjoy the process. I can see the reasoning behind the Japanese tea ceremony and I can see the need for a proper rainproof log shelter. That’s high on my priority list now.

We had a good walk around the wood. Things have changed quite a lot in three weeks. Probably a third of the leaves have dropped now. I found dozens of fallen chestnuts in their cases but sadly, they haven’t filled out enough to be edible. I guess the incredibly dry spring and summer has something to do with it, along with competition from the overcrowding sycamore.

We found two suitable spots for my birdfeeders. One close to the picnic area and one in the glade where most of the birds seem to congregate. I tried to make them as squirrel-proof as possible and my aim is to see how much seed has gone next time I visit, in order to gauge bird activity. Hopefully they will have found them and be using them whilst I am there. Robins, wrens and tits are around.

Alan said he had really enjoyed the visit. I think sitting in the woods was a completely new experience for him and I could tell he was starting to “get it”, feeling the tranquillity and the sense of being in the present. Here he is showing off one of the bird feeders.