Not the most exciting blog title but that’s mainly what I was doing yesterday at the woods. It was fine but very windy. Close by I kept hearing a weird sound, somewhere between a small yapping dog and a goose and it was driving me nuts. There is a smallish dead oak tree which blew over in the gales last winter. It landed on a sycamore and their branches lodged together. As the big sycamore moved in the wind, the oak branch was rubbing against it making this noise. I will have to take it down just for peace of mind and ears but it’s going to be tricky as the branches are locked together. If you look at the photo below you can see one branch of the oak in front and one behind the sycamore in a sort of embrace.

For seasoning and keeping logs dry, I have a big plastic tarp draped over a ridge pole lashed to two large oaks. It forms a sort of tent shape over the logs but I don’t like it. I’m trying to reduce the use of plastic and it’s unsightly. I was given some pale green metal panels that were part of a small shed so I am planning to replace the plastic with those. Rather than try to fasten them over the existing logs, I intend extending the small log store I made out of pallets when I first got the woods. Originally it was mainly for logs but over the years it’s filled up with other useful stuff that I use regularly. Nothing of value, just handy to keep there. The sides and back were covered with old branches to keep rain off and disguise it’s ugly appearance. I will extend it backwards by building some side and roof spars with the larch poles. Then fasten the metal panels on top. So the first job was to remove the old branches and this is how it looked after. I might even extend it sideways on the left as well.

I hadn’t brought any screws or tools for that job so spent time measuring up and working out which pieces of larch would be suitable. Some needed splitting down into halves and quarters and that was a hot and energetic task made worse by the numerous flies and mosquitoes that found my perspiration attractive! The six uprights were chosen and I have simply leaned them there to keep separate from the rest.

One of my neighbours, a fellow bushcrafter and keen nature lover, came around for a chat. He knows of my bereavement and was very supportive when we talked last week. I enjoy his company and we walked around my woods and swapped notes and it was just great to have conversations that weren’t all about my awful situation at home. The day went well and it was the first time in weeks I felt reasonably OK mentally and emotionally. I know it won’t last long but one good day a week is a step in the right direction. I am really liking the idea of selling the car and getting a camper van. I could spend more nights here not worrying about the weather and wet tents to sort out and also have some mini adventures in other beautiful parts of the country.

Hope to start building the log store next visit. Plenty of material now.

Regular readers will remember I mentioned my wife passed away recently. I don’t intend to go on about it in my blogs but it is affecting my days spent at the woods and that might reflect in the tone of the posts or lack of content occasionally. I would just say that unless you have experienced the loss of a long term partner personally, then you won’t understand how deep grief can be and the huge mix of emotions you will experience. Some you cannot even put a name to. It’s not the same as losing a parent or close friend, it’s way bigger than that. Hence the title of this. As you know I consider visits to the woods as a huge boost to my mental health but yesterdays visit barely scratched the surface in alleviating the sadness and loneliness that I am experiencing.

I only had one job in mind which was to continue stripping the bark off the larch logs. The rest of the day I would spend doing whatever felt right, walking around observing and taking photos. Without the work it would have been hard to fill my time without getting hugely morose. There’s also something very therapeutic and satisfying about doing some simple but energetic task. By the end of the day I had stripped the rest of the logs and stacked them ready for use for building various structures, mainly a log store.

This next photo is a wild raspberry leaf covered in greenfly. The second photo is the juvenile ladybird beetle which feeds on them. It was just a few feet away from them but on a nettle which had very few. It occurred to me how random and disconnected life can sometimes be. If the beetle had enough awareness and intelligence to know they were there it would have meals for life. The greenfly are just as unaware of the danger lurking so close that could gobble them up.

I had a walk round and took some photos. This nest box has started to rot and the woodpeckers have tried to get into it. I think a new one is in order for next year.

As I don’t have much else to say, I’ll just leave you with a few more photos

Yesterday was just what I needed, a day of doing rather than thinking. Being connected to the earth and the healing energy of the woodlands. It’s got a lot of work to do to mend my shattered life but it will be one of my main supports. It was surprisingly quiet, few birds came to the feeders but I guess there is such an abundance of insects and seeds that they don’t particularly need my food. I was sorry to see that my usual friendly robin that hangs around was absent. I’m hoping it might just be too busy with egg sitting or feeding chicks.

I was keen to carry on with processing the larch logs by splitting some and removing the bark ,hence the mention of stripping in the title. Sorry to disappoint if you thought it was something else! I rigged up a temporary support to lean them on to make the bark stripping more comfortable, doing it standing rather than bent over.

Various people have said splitting larch is almost impossible because of all the side branches that cause knots inside. I had a go out of curiosity last time and I found it is possible. It doesn’t cleave very clean but they are pretty straight grained unlike my hazel and sycamore which have a twist or “wind” in them.

I met some of my lovely neighbours and we had a walk around their plot, mainly to see their badger sett. It looks like it is abandoned now but there were lots of bones and feathers scattered around and I wondered if a fox might have subsequently used it to rear cubs. Not sure when my next visit will be but I’m looking forward to it and many more.