I’ve been suffering with an upset digestive system all week – and no it wasn’t Christmas over-indulgence! In fact I have eaten and drunk less then I normally do but as a result, I planned an easy day yesterday. First job as usual was to download the trail-cam vids. 122 captures but lots of them squirrels. There are some tasty bits though so check out the latest compilation here. The camera was starting to mist up inside so I brought it home to dry out so no more for a couple of weeks.

I spent lots of time just walking around with a critical eye towards what needs felling next and marking them up with a splodge of paint. I have one year left on my felling license before having to renew, so I want to make some progress. I decided to blitz the sycamore plantation, the area that needs most attention. So far I have spent felling time, opening up a small coupe to replant with other species but the rest of it badly needs thinning. There are lots of tall but very weak specimens which will never make good trees. They won’t be difficult to take down and deal with so I can probably get a fair bit done over winter. The hazel coppice can be left, as can the rest of the mixed area.

As I stood assessing them, I spotted something moving very fast down my path toward me. A hare, it had been spooked by a dog. It ran straight toward me then stopped about ten feet away. I moved slightly and it was off again. Hares are a rare sight nowadays so I was really excited to see one so close. Later in the morning whilst walking around the hazel, another one (or could have been the same) bolted out from some dense bramble. Two treats in one day!

I have been meaning to replant some small holly and box saplings into the sycamore area to add interest. There’s an area which is also overshadowed by a neighbour’s massive beech trees. Even if I fell some sycamore, it will still be dingy but these species can tolerate that.

Two Holly saplings, let’s see how they do?

Box sapling.

I decided to fell, by handsaw, one of the weak sycamore trees. It had a nice fork in it which I wanted to use to make a support frame for stacking long logs when I start with the real work. It was much harder than I expected, the wind kept blowing it around and trapping the saw. A small wedge hammered into the cut sorted it out and I found another forked log to make my stacking frame.

I met some of my neighbours, always a pleasure and we enjoyed a good catch-up. They spent Christmas Day at the woods with their little boy. Fantastic! All in all it was a nice relaxing day and a useful one, taking stock and planning the year ahead. I’ll finish with a few atmospheric photos of the winter woodland. Hope 2019 continues to be a good one here at the woods and for everyone who reads this blog. Happy New Year.

The forecast was good but wrong, it was a damp day at the woods yesterday but still very enjoyable. I planned to fill up with logs for the woodburner at home, inspect the bird boxes and do a little cooking, trying out my new kitchen tool roll. After downloading my trailcam files to the laptop, I sat in my shelter and made a nice coffee with my Vietnamese filter kit. This was the view. Some might think it dreary but all the other elements of sitting in your own bit of nature, exploring it, working with it, doing a bit of cooking etc make it far from dull. I spotted a car coming up the track and headed off to visit them at their plot. A&J are doing amazing things, felling huge larch trees and crafting things with some of the timber and making a real difference. I always enjoy chatting to them and hearing their next plans.

The trailcam did not disappoint. No Muntjac deer this time but plenty of fox footage, the bonus being the shot taken in daylight. Have a look.

https://vimeo.com/user53171439

Lunchtime came around quick and my plan was to cook pasta parcels with mushrooms in tomato sauce. I mentioned the kitchen utensil kit earlier. I have been putting it together this week. A while ago I bought an ex-military roll-up pouch and decided to make it into a kit for small scale cooking at my woods or if out for the day on a bushcraft style bimble. It holds the minimum equipment for simple cooking (excluding pans and stoves etc). I love useful kits and it just helps to smooth it if you have everything in one place – easy to find and keep track of.

Most of the contents are obvious but left to right I have – vintage oxo tin and veggie cubes, wire pan scrubber, compressed dishcloth (soak it and it expands). The thin stick is a blowpipe made out of a car aeriel for blowing into a struggling fire, spatula made from my own sycamore, a slim whiskey flask full of cooking oil, spork, knife, pan holder, two spoons (one on the left I carved) ketchup and washing up liquid and some kitchen towel. The small green thing is a salt and pepper pot made from the tops of two drinks bottles cut off and glued together with a spacer between them.

Now for the cooking itself, I set my kitchen up on my shavehorse, it makes a useful worktop. I cooked the mushrooms first, adding some dried Italian herbs. I boiled the pasta parcels and drained them leaving a little bit of water, then added some tomato paste, mixing it to make a sauce, then the mushrooms. Looks o.k. doesn’t it?

Well looks can be deceptive it tasted crap! The pasta parcels just tasted of pasta (whatever the filling was I couldn’t taste) and the tomato paste was harsh – metallic and acidic.  Yes I know I should have used a proper pasta sauce but I was experimenting with what we already had in the cupboard at home. I enjoyed the process but not the food. It was good to practice and being positive, along the lines of Thomas Edison when trying to invent the light bulb, “I have just discovered another way not to make a pasta”.

Earlier I had been dismantling part of a log-pile to take home. In no time, a robin appeared and landed on it hoping for an insect lunch. I stood still as it edged it’s way nearer, sussing me out. I never fail to be overawed by these beautiful and plucky little birds. They fill me with that wonderful feeling when an animal trusts you enough to get close. There’s an unspoken communication of eye contact and mutual respect that is often absent from meetings with other humans!

The last job was to go around the bird nest boxes, open them and clear out the debris. I found that about nine of them had been used, one of then containing four infertile eggs. It was late afternoon and as we have just reached the winter solstic, the light was starting to fade, so job done then pack up and go. I want to say thank you to those who follow my blog, wish you all a Happy Yuletide and leave you with a photo that is a nod to my blacksmith mate for showing me how to make this beautiful hand forged “S” hook.

One of my mates, Simon, was needing some logs and as I was planning to go yesterday, it seemed a good time to invite our other mutual mate, Phil, as well and make it a threesome. We have a special friendship which came about indirectly from my interest in woodlands and bushcraft. Phil was running a bushcraft course and Simon and I were attending. We just sort of hit it off, sharing similar senses of humour. We discovered we had a lot in common and I think it’s O.K. to say that one of those is a difficulty dealing with stress, anxiety and sometimes depression. We named our little group The Tripod because we support each other, each one of us is a supporting leg, which is a very stable arrangement. We have mini adventures every so often and always have a good laugh. We don’t get a lot done workwise but having a wood of your own shouldn’t just be about work. We did get a decent amount of logs split and stacked, so that was a great help. Here are my mates chatting about something whilst brewing coffee.

And here’s Simon’s coffee pot brewing some “cowboy” coffee. You simply add ground coffee to the water, bring to the boil then “settle” the grounds which will be floating on top. There are two simple ways. You can add a little cold water or you can swing the whole pot over your head, making several full circles with it and let centrifugal force do the job. Simon likes to dance with danger now and then and opted for the latter. Phil and I stood back wondering which was more painful, scalding from a shower of hot coffee or conscussion from a falling pot. Gladly neither happened and the coffee was fantastic.

There’s not a lot more to tell about the day other than the new footage on my trailcam. I had moved it to a new location where the Muntjac deer seem to be heading on previous footage. Not as many clips as I expected but some nice shots of a fox which looks very healthy.

https://vimeo.com/306352841

Well Christmas is just around the corner. I’m hoping to make one more visit before then but if I don’t, then I wish you all a Happy Christmas and thanks for reading my woodland ramblings. Time to start some felling again soon.

Sunday was looking fine and as soon as I arrived I went to check the trailcam. Not as many captures as last time but some good ones nonetheless. The muntjac deer seem to like that area a lot and a fox is seen again following a scent. I have repositioned the camera further down the ditch now to see where the deer are going to or coming from. I have a feeling that they are perhaps doing a circular route from the hazel copse and back again.

I bought a new large plastic tarp to cover some of my logpiles. The piles are situated between two large trees, so the plan was to lash a horizontal pole between them to act as a ridge for the tarps which are then pegged down. One of them already had a pole in place but mice had bitten through the lashings so I needed to start again. I decided to de-bark the poles and set to with a drawknife. I am really pleased with it. Whilst visiting my sister in law in the South of France, I spotted two old and rusty ones in a junk shop which cost a total of just seven euros – a bargain. I spent a fair bit of time derusting and resharpening them but it was worth it. The knife was fantastic to use, I found it worked best upside down (bevel downwards). They are probably at least a hundred years old and I found myself imagining previous owners of these tools, possibly in the Black Mountain forests in France, who had eked out a modest living with his hands and timber to make simple rustic furniture. There is something subtle about the way old handtools feel that you don’t get with new ones. A pleasure just to use.

Here are the two log piles nicely tucked up for the winter. The extra space around them and open ends will allow air to circulate and dry the logs.

Once again I had fallen short of completing my job list. Time just flies when you are busy in the woods and the shorter days of winter are here. Next visit will be at least two weeks away when I shall probably start some more felling to thin the sycamore plantation.