Yesterday, my priority was to take the summer season fixed point photographs for my Woodland Trust volunteering role. I have three sets now – Winter, Spring, Summer and comparing photos of each location it’s quite interesting. Some areas look hugely different either due to work having been done or the seasonal change in foliage etc. Whereas some areas, where no work has been done and where they tend to be dark and dingy, there is very little change over the seasons. I can’t show you them now because the files are too big for this blog but at some stage I would like to edit a few down and post them.

As usual I had intended doing all sorts of jobs but it ended up mainly doing some “housekeeping” for my logs. I have piles of  logs on the ground waiting for a place to stack so they can dry out and season ready for fuel. I had a tidy up in the log shed so that I could move some of last years logs into it and make way for this years stack. In the coppice area I wanted to create a new stack for the logs I cut up last visit. I did some bramble pulling, laid an old wooden pallet down and started building the stack. It’s one of those labour intensive jobs but a satisfying one. Here’s how it’s looking so far. I shall be adding to it later.

Lunchtime and a chance to get a bit creative. I wanted to make a hanging hook for my rucksack and jacket or hat. An easy project, just need some pieces of forked branch and some twine. I thinned and flattened the tops, then drilled a hole through using the cranked awl that my blacksmith mate made for me. (Hope you see this S.R.) Then threaded two hooks onto the twine and fastened it around a small tree next to my table and work area. Nice to have some home comforts in the woods. As my bushcraft mate says “we are not roughing it, we are smoothing it”. These little things that we can do, can make time spent in the woods so much easier.

For a few weeks I have kept smelling the familiar gassy smell of stinkhorn fungi (phallus impudicus). Even though they are white, they are hard to spot, usually lurking under some thick bramble. Whilst making my coathook I spotted one nearby. It has fallen or been pushed over but still pristine and attracting a fair bit of attention from the fly residents. It’s a beauty – small but as we know, size doesn’t matter!