It’s been almost three weeks since the last visit. It’s hard to explain but if I leave it more than a couple of weeks, I start to lose that very close and intimate connection I have with it. It starts to feel like just any old wood. Maybe it’s because the memories of the small details that I noticed last visit and the memory of the feelings I had had, started to dissipate. I’m glad to say that as soon as I step out of the car and into the woods, the connection is immediately re-made and the fantastic feeling of having a whole day to explore and work close to nature washes over me once again.

I spent a good hour and a half just walking around and looking at things and surprised that autumn is still only just kicking in there. At home and in other areas, the last two weeks has shown a sudden change in the tree colours. Some of the species’ leaves in my woods don’t turn into amazing colours, they simply go a duller yellowy green or dirty brown and drop off. Ash went a pale green and was one of the first to start shedding. Sycamore (which I have a lot of) is the most disappointing. The best trees for colour are the beech and oak and as yet they are not at their prime.

I decided my main tasks for the day were sorting out logs. I needed some for home and really need to get on with the job of splitting and stacking the huge pile that I cut down last winter. I split and filled two of these large wooden crates. Hard work but very satisfying.

Lunch was going to be veggie burgers and fried halloumi cheese, cooked on my rocket stove. The stove is fantastic but I’m still learning how to control it. It takes small sticks which initially will produce big flames but die down fairly quickly too. So regulating the heat is tricky. Feeding it little and often is probably the trick. The skillet got hotter than expected and as you can see, I burnt the food slightly but it still tasted great. Washed down with a mug of fresh coffee made in my Vietnamese coffee filter device and an amazing view to boot, what a restaurant!

One of my many woodland related hobbies, is finding rusty old tools at car boot sales and restoring them to a workable condition. I brought my latest axe to try it out. It’s purpose will be mainly for bushcraft activities, splitting small logs and sticks for the fire, roughing out small logs for spoon or bowl carving. It worked very well. I paid about £1 for the rusty head and another two for the handle. I derusted the head in white vinegar and reshaped the head with angle grinder and files to add a cutaway underneath which allows your hand to sit closer to it for fine carving work. The handle was given an aged look by scorching with a blow torch. The yellow paracord wrapping protects the shaft from damage when overstriking and adds a bit of bling. The leather blade mask is essential as the axe is razor sharp. I made that from some old worn out sandals. I’m pleased with it.

We associate autumn with fungi so I shall end with some. I was pleased to find this cluster of small common puffballs. I have only found the odd one or two before so hopefully they will spread. I believe they are edible but I’m not brave enough to try them. You really need expert advice on identifying fungi before eating any. As my friend said “All fungi are edible, but some only once!”

In part one I promised you some vids taken from my trail camera. This is the second location I’ve tried and hoped for some action. There were 79 clips captured in a week! Some were blank, presumably from birds flying past, many were squirrels and some wood pidgeons eating the acorns that had blown off the small oak trees above. My prize was three shots of a fox. I’ve edited several shots together to create something of a “movie” from each category of animals. Apologies for the low resolution but the camera is not one of the best but it serves to show me what is going on at my woods when I’m not around.

Look out at the beginning of the Squirrel video for the two crazies. It looks speeded up but I promise you it isn’t.

How many Wood Pidgeons can you count on the ground? I made it six.

As for the fox – watch carefully at the very beginning. It flashes past in a couple of seconds but it’s carrying something. The action is blurred and I can’t make it out but it’s relatively large. Rabbit maybe? It disappears to the left then returns a few minutes later empty handed. Did it stash the prey away or just a fast eater? But the last part is the best. We get a good look at the fox as it seems to be looking straight at the camera. Then we see a blurry image at the top of the frame which looks like it might be an owl flying low. Maybe the fox was clocking the owl and not the camera.

I had planned to go on Sunday but the thought of just working was putting me off. There’s a huge stack of big logs from last winter that still needs cutting up, splitting and stacking but I couldn’t face it. I remind myself now and then, that the reason for buying the wood was to have a private place to practice bushcraft, wild camp, observe nature etc and not just to be a lumberjack. There were a few small jobs to do but I decided I would give myself the luxury of “playing”. I’m wanting to have some mini adventures back home too. I plan to have some local walks into woodlands, moorlands etc, take a small cooking kit, set up a mini camp and cook a modest meal – just for the fun of doing it and as a learning experience. I’m no Ray Mears, the likelihood of an extended bushcraft trip to Alaska or Northern Sweden is zero. It doesn’t mean I can’t have fun and practice some survival skills though. It just means I have to be realistically modest with my ambitions.

I’ve been toying with buying a Trangia cookset. A lovely piece of kit based on a simple alcohol/spirit burner which sits in a windproof shield and comes with various pans that pack up neatly and can be popped in a ruscksack. Then I remembered my £3 car boot sale find – a Swedish ex-miltary cook set made by Trangia. Not quite so comprehensive but basically does the same job and built like a tank! So far I had only used it to boil water for a brew. I wanted to try cooking with it. It would test it’s usefulness and give me some practice at cooking in the wild with minimal facilities. I made a plan to pretend I didn’t know my woods, not use any of my facilities like tables, seats etc but find a suitable secluded spot to set up my mini tarp, brew coffee and later cook a small meal. I shortlisted three possible locations. I needed a log to sit on and some suitable small trees to attach the tarp to. I settled on this one, liking the bowed branch that might be useful and sort of frames the scene.

It needed a little tidy up to remove brambles and create a clear space to work. Time for a brew. Here’s the oval shaped cookset which comprises a large and small billy can, a windshield and spirit burner. It’s boiling some water for my Vietnamese filter coffee maker. I featured this when I bought it a few months ago and can report that it is a fantastic bit of kit for making really nice coffee.

I tried the mini tarp and after a few variations, managed to get it to cover enough of the log for me to sit on. There was little chance of rain but it was an exercise and actually proved useful at keeping falling leaves and debris off me while cooking.

The meal was to be packet noodles boiled up in the large billy, mushrooms, onion, garlic and veggie Quorn pieces fried in the small one to go with it. I set the noodles to boil in the large billy while preparing the veg. Once done, I set it to oneside and fried the veg, then combined both in the small one to heat up again.

The kit worked well. The food didn’t stick to the bare aluminium surface as I suspected it might do and the food was good. An enjoyable and useful learning experience and what a fantastic location too. I cleaned and packed everything away before heading off to do my small chores and more exploring. I liked the location and will use it again but next time will try one of the others.

There were some amazing flushes of fungi, mostly growing on dead birch trunks.

Had a fantastic day and will do this exercise again. At the start of my day I retrieved my trail camera from it’s new location. What would it reveal? Come back in a day or two for part two and a few short videos.