It’s been a very cold April and spring seems to be late but at last it’s warming up. As usual I was awake before 6am yesterday and decided to get an extra-early start to beat some of the traffic. I arrived in glorious sunshine around 8am. The wood anemones are still in flower and the bluebells almost fully open. What an amazing sight to greet me.

My main aims were to cut up, chop and stack more logs, find a possible place to build a small shelter and experiment with some cooking and just enjoy being there. I had previously thought the shelter would be fairly large- high enough to stand and big enough for three or four people and positioned next to my camping area to be handy for the odd shower or sitting when camping. The design and size of it seems to be causing me some issues and so no progress has been made. I’ve had an alternative idea which I very much like. A smaller one in a different location. On the basis that it’s 99% going to be just me using it and maybe one occasional visitor and mainly just for a quick shelter from unexpected showers. Then all I need is a small shelter for two to sit in. I also like the idea of having it in a more secluded area, away from the rides and in the thick of my woodlands for a hideaway and alternative habitat to the open glade where I normally sit. I was looking for a place where there are a small group of close trees to use as the corner posts, where I can lash some roofing poles to and with an interesting view. I found three possible places which was hard to choose but will wait and see how they develop when the trees are in full leaf. Quite an exciting project. This is one possible location where four small oaks could form the corner posts. The ground needs clearing first or course.

And this is the view I would get looking out from it.

Cutting up logs, splitting them and stacking was the main useful job and I interspersed this task with the more fun elements. Nevertheless it’s a job I enjoy. There’s a feeling of satisfaction, first from using your own brute force against an inanimate and sometimes stubborn log. And secondly from organising the split logs into an orderly stack and seeing your winter firewood pile growing. There are still masses of logs to go at and I’ll be surrised if I get then all done before autumn. At the back of my logshed is an upturned dustbin where I discovered a wood mouse nest last time. I just couldn’t resist another look. I was very careful not to disturb it and took a quick photo for this blog.

It would have been an ideal time for a camp-over but I hadn’t planned it. I did want to spend some time practising some outdoor cooking and enjoy a fireside meal. I have to be honest and say I am pretty useless as a cook, not something I have much experience with so I wanted to gain some and just have a bit of fun tryin. I had a whole, raw mackerel and fancied another go at making bannock bread to go with it. I was trying to make the experience as much “bushcraft” as possible. So the plan was to wrap the fish in wild garlic leaves to cook over a fire and eat it off a wooden platter made from some sycamore. I split a log several times to make a rectangular slice about 2 cm thick and roughly trimmed it. Picked some wild garlic leaves and washed them and the fish. I mixed up my bannock mix in a polythene bag. Not very natural but it’s such messy, sticky stuff and it’s the best way. Here’s the food prepared before cooking.

The idea of cooking the fish in leaves was instantly a mistake. Nice idea but they were too small, too floppy and the fish too thick and heavy to be supported by them. Luckily I had a back-up piece of foil to wrap it in. I started the bannock off in my cast iron skillet, then turned it over and propped it next to the fire to cook the other side whislt doing the fish. I had guessed about 15 minutes would do and suspended it on a baking rack balanced on my fire crane and kept turning it. It was no where near done and finally I ended up just placing it on the embers and it took a good half hour. It was pretty much perfect, the bannock came out well (though somewhat chewy) and I enjoyed my fish and bread meal in the sunshine. At the end of it, the wooden platter I made and the fish remains were thrown on the fire.

What a fantastic day in the woods. I’ll leave you with a photo of the two lovely beech trees coming into leaf and a coal tit feeding – these were some of my mealtime views.