I hope you all had a nice Christmas. After sitting around, eating, drinking and being lazy for the last few days, I was keen to get back to the woods and burn off some calories. Yesterday started out very frosty but the drive was a good one. Despite a fog warning, there was none and I arrived as the sun was rising and all was still. A hard frost covered everything and it was good to walk around and just take in the beauty of the woods.

I love the woods in winter, no biting insects and easy to stay cool when working. You can see the actual structure easily and where certain features lie in relation to each other. The place looks so much smaller though. As the New Year approaches, it reminds me how quickly time goes and that I need to get a move on with my plans. The sap will start rising again in a few months and I panic slightly as I know there are far more jobs than I can handle in the time left. More sycamore thinning and hazel coppicing to do before Spring. My main objectives were to extend the dead hedge I started a few weeks ago which will take the brash from the last felling and tidy up the ground. It might seem like a low priority when there is so much felling to do but it will make clearing up afterwards easier. The hedge building took up most of my day as it is very labour intensive. First I needed to find suitable poles for the stakes and bash them into the ground. Then it’s a case of dragging the brash from here and there and rough weaving it between the posts. Here’s a shot of the posts ready for the brash. Not much to see yet.

But then several hours later, it became this. I can add to it as I do further fellings.

I stopped for a coffee break and a robin soon came to investigate the new works. No doubt, sussing out that there might be some insects disturbed and a ready meal to be had. I put some dried mealworms on my chopping block to encourage it and hid behind a tree with camera ready at full zoom. Robin cautiously approached and gave me the opportunity for some lovely shots. Appropriatley festive eh?

As promised here’s some photos of some of the items I made from my woods. The greenery came from foraging by the river near where I live. I can assure there is no Leylandii in my woods.

So just to say a Happy Christmas to you all and thanks for the kind comments many of you have made about the blog. I’m looking forward to another fantastic year in the woods in 2017.

Another lovely sunny morning for a day in the woods yesterday. Jobs for the day were to finish chopping and stacking the pile I started last week, clear some brash and build up the dead hedge and hopefully burn some brambles I had pulled and piled up a few weeks ago. I was a bit “miffed” on my initial walkabout to discover something has been playing on my log pile.

Partly my own fault because I didn’t build it well enough. Not enough cross pieces to give it stability. So my first hour was spent repairing it before chopping and stacking the rest. It should be stable now but I’d love to have been a fly on the wall when it happened. What type of animal did it? I doubt it was a squirrel, too light. I don’t think deer would be interested so how about a fox or maybe a badger (surprisingly good climbers)? I can imagine a cartoon scenario with the animal rapidly trying to advance up a pile of rolling logs, like a treadmill and getting nowhere, accompanied by a suitable loony toon. Here’s the new rebuilt pile.

My new neighbour friends were there and had asked if I would mind cutting in half, an old railway sleeper they had found, to make a couple of benches. The newly sharpened chainsaw blade went through the beefy sleeper like butter. My other neighbour friends arrived too and we lit their oil-drum brazier so I could burn the dead bramble piles. I took the opportunity to clear up some dead brash that’s been lying around and tripping me up. Whilst clearing the piles I discovered a lovely ball of dried grass. Sorry Mr (or Mrs) woodmouse, I just demolished your home. I hate it when that happens but it’s unavoidable. I helped the neighbours fell a couple of their cherry trees and they gave me some small logs to make something with (probably spoons). The wood has a lovely orangey colour to it and displays fantastic rings when sliced. They would make nice drinks coasters.

Two years ago, I found one of the beech trees virtually ring barked by a squirrel. There were a few narrow strips of bark left and I covered the wound with some plastic sheet to protect it from further damage. The sheet had come loose and when I removed it, I was given a nice surprise. Remarkably, it has started to heal itself with some new bark growth. I know trees have this ability to grow around a cut branch when it’s close to the trunk but I didn’t think this one would survive long enough to make this amount of repair. Isn’t nature amazing?

These tiny fungi were growing in some moss on an oak tree.

It will be after Christmas before I can go again, so here’s wishing all my readers a Happy Christmas. I might add a short post with some photos of the decorations I built from materials gathered from the woods. So pop back in a few days and see what you think.

For some years now, the thought of Christmas has left me flat. At the risk of sounding like a grumpy old sod (probably am already). Since the children have grown up and all my elders have passed away, the excitement has gone out of it. The shops seem to start selling their Christmas crap earlier every year. One of our local charity shops converted all their stock, to Christmas stuff way back in September. TV adverts are relentless and why they hell do we want a sofa for Christmas? So by the time Christmas Day actually arrives, I’m sick to the back teeth of it. So why am I banging on about this here? Well this year I decided to bring a little of the true spirit back and make some hand-crafted gifts and decorations from materials gleaned from my woods. I love making things and being creative and there is something very special about a gift that someone has made themselves. So the last visit on Sunday was to find some materials to make some decorations. Good old Google Images was the source of my inspiration. One idea was to make a wreath base from honeysuckle vines as they are very flexible and I have quite a bit growing up trees, that are nicely twisted. Another idea involves the use of some thin straight sticks and I have plenty of hazel that will fit that bill. I spent an enjoyable hour foraging for the stuff which also gave me time to get to know my woods better.

The first job however, was to set up camp at the shelter and light a fire. Remember last week I found the fox skull had been moved and placed on a tree stump? I had put it back in it’s usual place but this week it had completely gone. I searched the immediate area and no joy. I’m imagining a smug squirrel sat in it’s drey with a fox skull hanging on it’s wall. Maybe that’s their idea of a Christmas decoration. Anyway, whilst on my true Christmas revival journey I had bought some chestnuts to roast on my open fire. Jack Frost wasn’t nipping at my nose but the fire was still welcome anyway. My lunch was going to be chestnuts, figs, dates (notice the Christmas theme) and fried haloumi and a banana (OK not so festive). I put my cast iron skillet on hot embers and cooked the chestnuts  in it for about 15 minutes which seemed about right. I’d forgotten how difficult it is to get the little buggers out of the shells. You end up with sharp bits of it poking down the back of your thumbnail and then there’s still a tough skin to try to get off before you can eat them. So that’s a bit of tradition that’s not going to be repeated.

I spent the rest of the day sawing up logs from recently felled trees and chatting to neighbours. Time to get busy with the decorations now so if they turn out any good, I’ll post some photos next time.

I had a nasty stomach bug that completely knocked me out mid week but still wanted a day in the woods. Still feeling washed out, I decided to take advantage and just get some respite and basically have a “play day” rather than do any heavy work. Weather was looking good too.

At my shelter I have a fox skull on one of the supporting spars as a souvenir. It had been moved and sat neatly in the middle of the tree stump I use as a chopping block. There’s no way it could have blown there and it amused me to think that some small creature had taken it there to investigate (most likely a squirrel). I often find these small signs of activity where the little ones have been playing in my absence. Reminds me of the childrens’ tv program The Flowerpot Men where they come to life and get up to mini-mischief once the gardener has left.

The shelter roof is a plastic tarp and starting to sag, holding water. I’ll eventually replace it with something more substantial but decided to try fix it. As I messed about with it, a robin landed on the side window opposite me, checking me out. When I eventually moved to the other side, it flew to the other window to have another look. It’s a simple act but one that gives me a great feeling of warmth and comfort. Most other wildlife are fearful of us and will flee when they see us. In a garden, it’s not unusual for robins to share their company but woodland birds are not familiar with humans, so it surprised me. It’s nice to know they trust us enough to get close. It’s the second time one has appeared when I was at the shelter, so I want to encouarge future visits. I moved one of the feeders to this location to encourage more birdy visits and plan to take some dried mealworms to offer robin should he/she return next time. It would be fantastic to get it feeding off my hand.

Time for a fire and a brew.

The pot hanger I’m using can be a bit fiddly and precarious. You stand the risk of knocking the pot off and dousing the fire. I do have the lovely adjustable irons that my blacksmith mate made but don’t want to leave them out permanently. I wanted to do some bushcaft things during my play-day so decided to make a more stable pot hanging system. Simple but effective and looks nicely rustic. I made some hooks from wire I had found lurking in undergrowth and a hazel branch. This will give me the option of hanging more than one utensil over the fire.

Earlier in the week I went to a Woodland Trust, volunteers induction day. I really love what the charity does. Basically they are committed to saving our ancient woodland in the UK. We only have 2% cover of ancient woodland left, the least in Europe. They sometimes buy up woodlands to protect them from developers and have been helping small landowners like me, with free advice on improving and restoring our old woods to a more semi-natural state. I wanted to give a little back and get involved. I saw a new opportunity as a Fixed Point Photographer. Basically you take photos from the very same position four times a year, recording areas that are being retored, in order to monitor the progress. It’s “right up my street” as we say here. It requires a GPS sateliite tracking device to get accurate map co-ordinates and at the meeting I was loaned one to be having a play with. I took it to the woods and walked the boundaries and paths. You can record your walk and set “waypoints” at specific places which will keep those co-ords. You can edit and name them so that later you know what they represent. I took advantage of the opportunity and recorded various features. I have wanted to make an accurate map of the woods but without a device like this, it’s very difficult to position the features correctly. So this might be a fun project during the winter evenings.

I had a lovely day which flew by as usual. I achieved a few interesting objectives that were a refreshing change from felling and chopping. Thanks for reading.