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.
