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.