Yesterday’s visit was dedicated to shelter work. I wanted to fit a rain gutter to my new one and demolish the old one. The recent rain has sparked a lot of fungi activity. This little lot are growing on an old log I placed by my bench a few years ago as a sort of coffee table!

Now that the new shelter is more or less completed I really wanted to demolish the old one and tidy up. I had considered getting my pal to help me as he did such a lot of work building the new one but he said something that seemed odd at first but then made sense when I thought about it. He said I should do it myself as it was sort of spiritual. I believe that when we make something and use it regularly, we sort of imbue it with something of ourselves. I can’t explain it scientifically but you will perhaps understand it when you think about your home. Why does it feel especially comfortable when you have been away from it? What makes it feel like home when clearly a hotel or other person’s home feels alien? So having put a lot of me into the old shelter, it did feel right that I dismantle it on my own. Here’s a last photo before I took it down. It was about to collapse due to the insect damage and rot.

Ive had a lot of pleasure from it but it only lasted three years. It was the second one I built and I expected it to last longer but the sycamore poles just got eaten away. I’ve sat in it during thunderstorms, done woodwork, sat in it in the dark and cooked a meal just for the experience and just enjoyed sitting in it and taking in the beautiful woodland scene. The new one doesn’t have that natural rustic look but is already getting me excited with it’s potential for more activities. As I took the old one apart, at one point a feeling of sadness washed over me for a few seconds, like saying a last goodbye to an old friend. Yeah I know I’m a big softie but I like it that way.

Going

Gone

It was surprising how much timber had to be cleared away and how much stuff I was storing in it which had to be moved to the new shelter. Some of it will eventually be removed or used up. So how does the new shelter look? I haven’t posted any photos of it yet but here it is. I love it!

There’s still some small work to do and it will be an ongoing project for a long time but it will be a fantastic asset to the woods and my work and hobby activities there. I worked pretty solidly all day and didn’t get time for a walk around so didn’t get chance to take many nature photos but here is a marvelous oyster mushroom which I believe is edible, growing on a dead fallen birch tree. Looks like something beat me to it!

It was around 7am and still dark when I left home for the woods yesterday. A reminder that summer has truly gone (my internal calendar is always a month or two behind) and before long we will be changing the clocks back an hour. It’s a day in the year when I feel sad because the dark nights are even longer and it heralds the end of the growing seasons. I was rewarded by a beautiful sunrise. It was a still day with little cloud but as the sun rose, it lit up the underside of the wispy clouds in a palette of beautiful colours.

Yesterday I went specifically to do lots of small jobs on my new shelter but I took some time out to wander around with camera to see what nature had to offer. The photo above is Magpie Inkcap and there were lots growing on a large heap of rotting wood chips just inside the main entrance. I don’t have any in my patch but decided I would like some. I have a pile of wood chips now so decided to take a few of them and transplant into my pile. Hopefully the mycelium (sort of the root system in fungi) will spread and produce some of the fruiting bodies next year.

I came across quite a few small downy feathers. Not sure what bird they are from but suspect wood pigeon and that it had been predated, possibly by a buzzard or fox though I couldn’t find the remains of the body. As I sat eating my lunch I was joined by two woodland friends – a robin and a wood mouse. I put seeds out for the robin on a concrete slab that I sometimes use for a small stove. Suddenly a small furry head popped up to scout for safety before then grabbing a seed and disappearing again. I aimed the camera and waited. A few minutes later it reappeared and I managed to get a couple of shots.

This next creature is a hawthorn shieldbug. They look like beetles but are part of a different family. They don’t scare easily so you can get right up close for a macro shot like this.

My last surprise was finding some sloes on my blackthorn bushes. Shortly after buying the woods, I found a pot of half a dozen saplings in a nursery and bought them. I planted them near my border in a light area not knowing if they would really take to a woodland environment as they normally grow along field edges. I thought it would be nice to have some of those beautiful creamy white flowers in late winter/early spring and wondered if they would ever produce any fruit. For the first time I have some. Quite pleased with that.

Soon it will be time to start doing some tree felling to continue the thinning out of the sycamore. I’m still hoping to get motivated enough to do an overnight camp trip but of course it will be dark all evening then. Let’s see!