Just back from a fantastic holiday in St Ives Cornwall and already starting to feel the stress and strains of everyday living in this crazy society we live in. TV, the horrible daily News, impatient and rude car drivers and so on. So a day at the woods yesterday was just the ticket. Just so you know how beautiful and amazing St Ives is, here’s a couple of photos I took there. First the harbour and second Porthmeor beach just around the other side of the headland.

Back to the woods – I invited my pals along on the off-chance of some company and Phil was waiting at the gate as usual. The last visit two weeks ago involved scavenging some nice ash logs to season and use for woodwork projects for us both. We wanted to get a few more pieces and split them down and put them under cover so they could season.

The growth of ground cover plants and leaves on trees in two weeks is phenominal at this time of year.

First job though, a catch-up chat over a nice coffee and feeding the birds. They were waiting expectantly. There should be plenty of natural food for them now but many are rearing chicks and it was obvious they were glad of the extra and easy food supply. Next was a walkabout and to see what nesting activity was still ongoing. The blackbird nest of three eggs we discovered last visit, on top of the logpile, was empty. Plenty of time for them to have fledged and flown and judging by the numerous close-by sightings of blackbirds, I would say they had survived. A nestbox I made from a split log a few years ago was looking a bit worse for wear, with a visible hole near the bottom. What looked like a bluetit was seen entering the nest via that hole. It must be the poshest nest box in the woods, with a front and a back door!

I was pleased to see the box I made specifically for Nuthatches was being used by a pair. It’s slightly larger than the tit boxes with a bigger hole but last year it was used by a great tit. We watched Nuthatch parents in and out and could see the head of an almost fledged chick peering out.

The feral bees in the owl box are still there and very active but I won’t be surprised if they swarm before long, as the colony increases and outgrows the box. I’ll continue monitoring it. Phil got stuck into some log splitting while I cleaved down the ash logs we had collected. They will later be used for stool legs and tool handles etc (if and when I get time to make some!) The woodsman (Phil) took a break for lunch and I couldn’t resist this iconic shot of the logs he had split and axe resting by which looks staged but wasn’t. It’s just as he left it.

We finished the day with a bit of forageing for materials to take to my daughter who is going to build a “bug hotel” for the nursery where she works. I can’t leave it here without a mention of an amazing bug hotel in the woods at The Lost Gardens of Heligan which we visited on holiday in Cornwall last week. I love what they built (photo below) and although the woods are in themselves a huge bug hotel, it gave me an itch to build a smaller version of it in my woods just as another point of interest. Will it happen –  who knows? Not me!

Another thoroughly enjoyable Spring day in the woods, once again we were reluctant to leave. I’m planning a one night, solo camp there soon!

Yesterday’s visit was mainly to collect some logs for future woodworking projects for my pal Phil and I. One of my woodland neighbours had cut several ash trees down and left them at the side of the main track. I know the guy will probably just leave them there to rot eventually. There were some good pieces that would split down to make legs for stools etc so I asked permission to take a few. So the day started with some log forageing.

I checked the blackbird nest that had the young chicks on my birthday visit. It was empty. They fledge around thirteen to fourteen days so hopefully they made it. The nest entrance was quite open so I piled more logs in front to conceal it better in case the blackbirds lay more eggs. Last year the second clutch didn’t make it, probably predated by a grey squirrel or larger bird like a Jay.

I had a few small jobs to do so I set Phil the task of taking a walk around to see which bird nest boxes were showing signs of activity. Most of them were. Phil has a good eye for observation and had also found another blackbird nest on top of a pile of logs covered by a tarp. There were four eggs in it.

He spotted another tiny nest between logs in some crates. It was one of the loveliest I have seen. Dried grass lined with soft white feathers. There were no eggs in it yet and we don’t know what species made it, possibly a wren. Hope there are eggs or chicks there next time I go which will be in about two weeks time. The photo is not very clear but this is it.

I received a new cooking pot for my birthday. I needed something bigger than the Zebra billy can I have been using. This is the 1.8L Pathfinder bush pot, a stainless steel pot based on the Mors Kochanski pot. (Mors is the grand daddy of bushcraft and designed a similar pot way back in time). I christened it by making cowboy coffee.

I wanted to try another recipe from my book The Wilderness Cookbook. It was pizzas cooked in a pan. The cast iron skillets would be great for this. I also wanted to do a bit of wild food identification and foraging with Phil. Some of it to go on the pizzas and some for a small salad. We found most of it along the edges of my tracks – wild garlic, jack by the hedge, wood sorrel, dandelion, wood bittercress and chickweed. Phil had prepared a dressing for the salad but in retrospect, I would have preferred to eat it without, the balsamic vinegar drowned out the subtle flavours.

We prepared the sauce topping in the new bush pot which consisted of chopped onion, wild garlic leaves and tomatoes, sweated down first, then added passata, tomato puree, dried italian herbs, salt and pepper. Meanwhile we had mixed up a packet of pizza dough and cooked it both sides in the skillets. Finally we added our sauce, grated edam cheese and wild garlic flowers to the top, cooked it a while longer till the cheese melted. Delicious.

Once again the day flew by and after we cleared up, sorted the logs and had a nature walk, it was time to go.

This post is a bit belated, I have been waiting for photos from my daughter and been busy with other things too. Look at this beech tree it’s fantastic, one of my favourites in the woods. Well it was my birthday recently and my close family wanted to see the woods in it’s spring glory, so it seemed a nice idea to spend the day with them there. Following on from my last post’s theme of connection with nature and the woods, I wanted to give them a taste of that by having a campfire and cooking. I planned a risotto, cooked in my dutch oven pot along with salmon steaks and a sort of banana split for afters. I set them to, gathering firewood and let some of them have a go at using a flint and steel to ignite it. We soon had a nice fire going and the kettle on.

I showed them the blackbird nest which now had three chicks , then a tour of my woods.

Time to start the meal. I’ve said before that I’m not a good cook and cooking in the woods over a fire is a lot more challenging than at home in the kitchen. But it’s a lot more fun and my repertoire and confidence is increasing, having done quite a bit of campfire cookery now. The cast iron dutch oven is a fantastic piece of kit for a fire. I sweated down some onions, celery and garlic then added the rice. I’d made up some stock which was gradually fed into the mix and near the end added some peas and parmesan cheese. Two cast iron skillets were used to fry the salmon steaks. Miraculously it all came together at the same time and tasted great.

Dessert was the banana split thing. I got the recipe from an excellent little book I bought recently The wilderness Cookbook by Phoebe Smith. You slice the banana skin down one side, open it and stuff it with mini marshmallows and chocolate chips. Wrap it in foil and cook in the hot embers for about 8 minutes. Add a few more marshmallows and some squirty cream and you have a delicious but very naughty dessert. Sorry no photos of that.

After lunch we took a walk around the outer rides to see what other parts of the woods looked like. I’ve never seen so many of the neighbours in on one day and we stopped and chatted to most of them. The afternoon was soon gone and time to pack up and leave. A memorable birthday and one hard to improve on.