photo – Male Fern

Yesterday was all about just relaxing again and enjoying the healing quality of spending a day in a woodland. There were no particular jobs on my agenda. The lockdown situation has ramped up my stress and anxiety levels and this is the medicine I need – we all need. Scientists are now recognizing that there are actual chemical reasons why being in woodlands makes us feel so much better. There are certain chemicals given off by trees and plants that trigger the production of seratonin and dopamine in our systems, the hormones that make us feel good. For me though, the beauty and peace I experience does that anyway.

One of my objectives was to have a fire and cook a simple lunch but … to light the fire using my home made bow-drill. Sorry no new photos but this photo shows the kit used when I first learned about them. The bow turns the spindle rapidly in the hole, causing friction which creates charred sawdust and eventually starts to glow as an ember. That is then used in a ball of some combustible material – eg dried grass, honeysuckle bark, natural twine etc to create a flame to light your fire.

Two woodland neighbour friends called around whilst I attempted to use my bowdrill. I have to say it is very very difficult to do. Firstly the spindle and bow have a regular tendency to part company. Secondly, it takes a lot of energy to reach the point where you have a pile of charred dust (known as the coal) and then to get it hot enough to ignite. My bushcraft teacher and now friend told me at the time, “When you reach a point where you are tired, keep going. When you reach exhaustion, keep going and when you feel like you are about to pass out, go even faster”. How right he was! After several failed attempts where I got close to an ember, my friends decided to part company, joking that when someone is watching you try to perform something, it often seems to “put the mocker’s on it”. A few minutes after they left, I had my ember and fire and a welcome coffee break.

One of the woodlandy things I have struggled with is identifying the two types of native oak. There is Pendunculate Oak (also know as English Oak) and Sessile Oak (Quercus Petraea). I have numerous oak trees but never sure which variety and I wanted to know. So a bit of Googling told me that there are two main recognisable differences. The acorns and the leaves. The word sessile refers to the acorn and means without a stalk. So the acorns are attached directly to the twig in a small bunch with no visible stalks. With English Oak, the acorns are at the end of a stalk. At the moment there are no acorns so the next way to ID them is the way the leaf is attached to the twig. It’s the opposite way around. On the English oak there is virtually no stalk to the leaf but on Sessile oak there is. So armed with that knowledge I examined some of my trees and found both species present. Here is a photo for comparison. Notice the one on the left, the base of the leaves have no stalk (English Oak) and one on the right has small stalks (Sessile Oak). Now if only I can retain that knowledge!

 

Sometime later ….. it was lunchtime. A veggie bean burger and fried egg on a bed of ketchup in a breadcake was the only thing on the menu. Yummie. The cast iron skillet performed well as usual though the beanburger was rather fragile. Tasty though. Lighting a fire using only a bow drill and your own energy then cooking a meal over is so satisfying.

Some other neighbours arrived too and it was good to catch up and swap notes. They agreed that sometimes, as woodland owners, we can get too focussed on work and doing jobs. It’s simply enthusiasm that drives but we need to take a step back now and then and just enjoy our woods for what it is and that’s just what yesterday was all about for me. here’s a few more photos from the day.