The weather continues warm and dry so yesterday was a good day to just relax without too many jobs, spend time taking a very detailed look at what’s going on and reconnect with my woodland on a deep level. There are two ways that lockdown has affected my relationship with it and my love of nature in general. Not having been able to visit the woods for several weeks has driven a small wedge in my connection with it. I have been denied watching how the woods came to life through spring and the lack of recharging my familiarity with it, tends to loosen that connection that makes these woods special above any other woodland that I might visit. But that has pushed me to doing daily walks in my own neighbourhood woodland and riverside and becoming much more familiar with what trees and other flora are there on my doorstep.

The second affect it has had is in encouraging slower walks, taking more time to stop and examine unfamiliar species then trying to identify them back home. So my local knowledge of wildlife has increased and my range of ID skills too. There are two tree species which do not exist in my woods and which I was not familiar with, not knowingly having seen them anywhere before. Neither are particularly common around here but I wanted to find some – the Field Maple and Aspen. I have found three Maples and a grove of Aspen in my home locality, so now I am familiar with them on a first hand basis, I shall know them easily when I encounter them again.

Another aspect of taking more time to study wildlife at close quarters has been to increase my awareness and appreciation of the small things which are often overlooked. Having built a small pond at home, I am enjoying watching the process of the aquatic food chain building up. First the small insect larvae – midges and mosquitoes, now a couple of tiny beetles have arrived and the best so far was a Large Damselfly landing on a Marsh Marigold leaf.

With that extra keen awareness now, I wanted to take a really detailed look at my woods, maybe find some birds nests. There was plenty of birdsong going on around but I failed to find any natural nests. The bramble and nettles have grown very abundantly, so to be honest I didn’t spend much time looking and just enjoyed the whole experience. The coppiced hazel area is still very light and open and the long tailed tits seem to love it there. I spotted what looked like a family group of them preening and sunning themselves in a tall Hawthorn tree. I counted at least eight of them. Hard to get good photos from that distance but here are two of them. They are such pretty and delicate looking birds.

One of my main plans was to have another practice at erecting my new tarp/tent. Last week I struggled to work out some of the fancy fittings so didn’t get the whole thing configured properly. I’ve worked out most of it but still playing with methods of securing and tensioning the two pieces onto the ridgeline. The weight and pressure of them both, tends to make the line sag. I’m using paracord which is very strong but has some stretch to it. So I have a few more things to try before committing to camping with it. Below a better set-up than last week with the flaps and sides guyed out.

Well I spent loads of time just sitting, looking and drinking in the whole place and it was just the medicine I needed. Fantastic to be able to go when I want again. How long will this warm dry weather last I wonder. To be honest I wish we had a good few days of rain again to water the woods and top up the pond.

Yesterday was my second visit to the woods since the lockdown rules were eased and I went to meet a good friend for a nice chillout day. He’s an expert bushcrafter and fellow spirit of the woods and nature. He’s suffered much stress and anxiety and I know how a day in the woods surrounded by all it’s natural goodness gives us a boost. I know he loves to sit around a fire, boil the kettle and have a brew and chat. So that was the main reason for the visit and pretty much what we mostly did. It was a beautiful sunny day. The birds were singing their little hearts out and for a while, all seemed good and wholesome. A world apart from our fear-ridden, uncertain and restricted lifestyles that we are having to deal with at the moment.

I had an objective too. My wife bought me a new tent for my recent birthday. It’s unique in style, having no poles to thread through awkward loops etc. It’s basically a fine mesh tent with a specially shaped tarp to cover it. It seems the perfect all round solution to camping solo in all seasons. The mesh tent allows maximum ventilation whilst keeping flying, biting insects out, but also allows clear vision out into your surrounding if you want, by lifting one half of the tarp. It can be configured in lots of variations and seems easy to erect. Before embarking on my first camping trip with it, I wanted to do a dummy set-up run just to see if it would fit my my preferred location (between several oak trees) and accustom myself to how it all fits together and what extra pieces of kit I might need to get it right.

So while I cleared the area of brambles, dead leaves and branches, I left my able friend to make a fire and get the kettle on. As a bushcrafter and wild camper, it’s one of the most enjoyable aspects of starting your trip. The smell of the woodsmoke, the flames dancing on the black kettle is sure to trigger some feelgood.  Photo above is the area for my tent after some serious clearing work. Here’s the tent roughly set up. We had a few issues figuring out how some of the fancy tensioning clips worked on the guy lines, so it’s not fully set up here but it was mainly to see how it would fit into the space and I’m pleased to say it just fits nicely and has a good feeling to it as a place to sleep.

This will be the main entrance. I like the positioning of the three trees there. The flaps on the tarp can be stretched out to form a small canopy so you could sit in the entrance with a small stove and cook or have a brew, nicely protected from any rain. What I really like is that the long side seen on the first photo, can also be lifted and with the use of two or three poles, create a much larger canopy. The mesh tent inside (you can’t see it here) will unzip too opening the whole side of it up. If anyone is really interested to see the whole thing in it’s various configurations, this is a good video to show it off.

Not much else to tell you, just how good it felt to be back in there enjoying my little piece of woodland.

Yesterday was my first visit since lockdown and how much it has changed. I arrived early, eager to have a good look around and absorb the vitality of the woods. It’s a different place to what it was two months ago. At first it was like discovering a new woodland, there was an unfamiliarity about it that at times disoriented me. The colours so vibrant and the clarity of the air seemed to make every shape seem crystal clear. The wood was full of birdsong and I spotted a couple of nest boxes had blue tits popping in and out, feeding their young.

The pond looked somewhat stagnant. We have had a run of weeks of dry weather and the level had dropped about three inches. I topped it up from the water barrel which was still full. The beech trees around it make it a very dark area which is not ideal for a pond, so it may never be a particularly thriving place for pond creatures but it is serving the bird population as a place to drink and bathe. I couldn’t spot anything living in it.

I didn’t intend doing much work but couldn’t resist retrieving and stacking a few more logs from the winter’s felling sessions. It was just so good to be back in there and now that we have been given more freedom to drive and exercise, I shall aim to start more regular visits and maybe an odd camping over-nighter.

Ash dieback disease is raising it’s ugly head again. In the past few years it has tended to show up in mid summer rather than spring but here’s a sapling showing typical symptoms – healthy new shoots suddenly wilting and drooping, later turning almost black. There are a number of still healthy saplings around so I’m hoping some will show resilience to resist the disease. I can’t help feeling a kind of sympathetic link to the species as our human one also faces a devastating disease at the moment.

There’s not much more I can tell you about the day so I’ll just add some more photos to show how lush and green and beautiful nature is right now. My local short walks through woodlands and riversides recently has certainly helped me through this horrible situation we find ourselves in, so get out there and enjoy it, you will feel better for sure.