What could that title mean for heavens sake? Bear with me as I relate my latest visit on Tuesday. I met with a pal to help me with some more felling but the morning started too windy to cut trees. There were still two on the ground that I cut last time but needed moving and stacking. That’s where the log dolly comes in. Some pieces I leave about four feet long and are pretty heavy to simply carry or drag along the floor. A log dolly is a sort of two wheeled cart for pulling them and I had an opportunity to make one. A neighbour down our street has been clearing their garage full of old stuff – tools, pieces of metal and all sorts of interesting junk. I bagged a pair of wheels and some old timber and set-to making one. It’s an experiment that might not work but worth a try. It looks like a Heath Robinson contraption but it works reasonably well. The balance point (where the wheels are) could do with being further forward to lessen the weight on the front and the addition of a bungee or rope to hold the logs in place as they tend to bounce and fall off. Here it is –

After using the chainsaw to cut up a few logs, it jammed. It’s happened a few times now despite a new chain and bar and it meant no more felling was possible. We spent our time usefully employed shifting, splitting and stacking logs for seasoning which is a job I tend to leave till spring but it was rewarding to get it all done in one hit. The new log pile for use at home is looking healthy and always gives a sense of fulfillment – rather like cooking and baking and filling your freezer or pantry (who has a pantry these days?)

So what about the reference to Narnia? Well I have often mused over the shift in perspective of my environment when I enter the woods. It’s one that is so radical. When I arrive and open the gate to the woods, I leave behind all the high tech world that we live in 99% of the time – traffic, industry, electronic gadgetry, tv, the internet, radio and the incessant bad news media we are pounded with. I enter a different world where virtually none of this is evident. It’s a small piece of natural wilderness where countless non-human lives co-exist in harmony. A whole different world just simply getting on with their own survival. Yes there are mini dramas – competition for food and mates, predators that will kill and eat others but it’s simple and natural and local. It’s a place where we once lived before we developed and over complicated our world. The gate is like the wardrobe in the Chronicles of Narnia. You step immediately from one world into another. It’s a magical world. From the outside, it’s just a load of trees to the vast majority of people. For those of us who are lucky enough to access and spend time in it, it’s a wonderful alternative community where, for a while, we can leave behind all the modern nonsense and rejoin our natural habitat. Sadly these places are disappearing fast due to human greed and over population, so we need to look after what we have left, nurture it and enjoy it while we can.

Spring is around the corner. Birds are getting more vocal, bluebell tips are pushing through the leaf litter and I saw a Red Admiral butterfly. I’m looking froward to a year where we can start to regain some fun and adventure after two years of confinement. I’m hungry for some camping when it warms up a bit. Sitting around a camp fire enjoying woodland tv and chatting with some mates. Bring it on!