It was a windy, cool morning yesterday and a definite feeling of summer winding down. Still very green, dark and dense but you can sort of sense a slowing down of the woods after the fast pace of spring and early summer. I was there to take delivery of some materials for my new shelter and make plans and preparations for it. The larch poles that I scorched last week and gave them black “socks” were to get a pair of wellies. I figured socks wouldn’t keep their feet dry for long so I coated them with some bitumen. Looking at them afterwards reminded me of giant versions of Sooty’s wand.

I spent a lot of time marking out the position of the shelter. The old shelter relied on three living oak trees as supports but as I don’t like screwing into live trees, all the roof spars etc were lashed to them with nylon rope. I don’t like that either, so the new one will be free standing using these larch poles and treated milled timber for the framework and roof. It’s going to be quite a bit bigger than the old one too but hopefully not too intrusive. The size of it is determined by the roof panels as I don’t want to cut them. There are four of them and they are three metres long and a metre wide, so I need to work out exactly where to place the corner poles allowing for the framing and panels so that the roof fits perfectly with a slight overhang. If you’re struggling to get your head around the concept, how do you think my head felt as I juggled with tape measure, bits of wood and the loose roof panels to try to draw out a plan?

As I sat eating my lunch I noticed a movement in the undergrowth. Eventually a young robin revealed itself. I know it’s a young one because the red breast hasn’t reached it’s full colour yet. I’ve seen it hanging around the last few visits and it looks like it’s going to be my new best woodland friend. It’s still not quite sure when I throw food for it, so I left some on a stone and later it had gone. It’s so special to have a wild creature come to visit you (apart from the ones that bite or sting).

There wasn’t much more for me to do, so I spent some quality time just wandering around with my camera. I’ll leave you with some of my best shots.

I love this photo, it speaks to my soul in a way that is hard to convey to anyone who has not sat around a campfire in the woods and made a brew. It’s partly ancestral (the fire that is, not the kettle). Collecting wood and creating fire goes way back to our hunter gatherer times. The crackle of the wood, smell of the smoke as the fire takes hold and licks around the kettle just says “All is well right now”. I need that simple pleasure and connection with nature and my ability to provide comfort in a wild place. There’s nothing memorable or satisfying about switching on an electric kettle!

I had a few jobs in mind but wanted to have a play too. First job was to shift some big logs down to the ride edge ready for collection. This is another task I enjoy though it’s heavy work. Pitting my ageing body against a heavy inanimate object and winning the battle makes me feel able and strong. The next job was going to be a different challenge – finding the wasp nest in the composting toilet and destroying it. I hate killing anything but sometimes it’s necessary and as I want to camp there soon, I need that facility.

I covered as much of my flesh as possible by putting a mosquito net over my head and hat and wearing gloves. I zipped up my jacket and headed for the toilet. There was little sign of activity coming or going through the hole in the tarp so I uncovered it and lifted the lid on the toilet. I shone a light into it and could see a white ball hanging from the inside of the box lid. I waited but ready to run, expecting a flurry of angry wasps to fly out but nothing! I poked the nest with a long stick and it fell off, still quiet. I speared it and lifted it out onto the woodland floor. Just an odd wasp here and there. I doused it in wasp killer powder and left to return to my fire. It seems to have been abandoned now, there were no grubs in the cells.

Next job up was to scorch the bottom of my larch poles that will be used to support the new shelter. The theory is that by carbonising the outside it reduces the bacterial activity in the soil that attack and rot the wood. I took a blowtorch and charred the bottom few inches. A slow job but quite satisfying and relaxing. They look like they are wearing black socks now.

Time for lunch and I had planned to make a sort of pizza. I made a bannock mix of self raising flour, salt and milk and cooked it slowly in my cast iron skillet. I removed it and fried up some halloumi cheese and tomatoes. Spread the base with red pesto, the cheese and toms, mixed herbs and put it back in the skillet for five minutes to heat up again. It was delicious though probably a bit too thick, so next time I will use less bannock mix and flatten it more.

I wanted to have a go at carving a small spoon for a friend. I don’t have any green, unseasoned wood available so took a piece of scrap sycamore from home. It’s so much harder to carve when it’s seasoned and I didn’t get it finished but I spent some quality time in the sunshine by the fire, carving away. The photo shows my tools. The axe is one I restored. It was just a rusty head at a car boot sale that I bought for 50p. I cleaned it up and sharpened it to a razor edge and fitted an old handle and it’s worked out as a nice little carver. The knife with the round end is one I made from an old ring spanner which was ground and honed to a curved bevel and is used for scooping out the spoon bowl. It didn’t work anywhere near as well as the other two hook knives and I might need to do some more work on it.

Finally I went back to the wasp nest, carried it back to the fire and burned it. They are so fragile and amazing structures but sadly it had to go. There were no living creatures left in it. I guess the queen had stopped laying eggs and left and all the grubs had pupated and left too.