It was Saturday the 20th and I’ve only just got around to writing this post. I missed out on this spring greenery last year due to my wife’s illness so I am making the most of it this time. Everything is bounding ahead with growth and it’s absolutely the best time of year for me. But it goes so fast, it’s nearing the end of May already. I didn’t have many jobs in mind so not an awful lot to write about.

If you remember a previous post, a rotten sycamore had gone over and was sitting on it’s stump. It looked like a hefty whack with a sledge hammer would dislodge it and make it safe, so that was my first task. Well that was an error of judgement. To be safe as possible, I tried first to pull it sideways with a rope at a safe distance. Nope, all I could do was wobble it slightly. A few hefty thumps with the sledgehammer said it’s going nowhere pal. So I started nibbling away with a hand saw at the part that was still attached. Several attempts at pulling and hammering again failed until finally with more sawing and pulling, it came off. Disappointingly it’s still hung up though but stable. It can stay there till winter now.

I had a good walkabout, the Hawthorn everywhere this year is laden with flowers. I only just found out the old adage “Ne’er cast a clout till May is out” actually refers to the Mayflower coming out and not the end of the month as most people thought. Pleased to see my old crab apple has set some fruit. Haven’t had much from it for a few years so hopefully it will be a good year for them.

I love wild garlic (aka ramsons). Such an aesthetically pleasing plant, big green strappy leaves and the flower, like a a firework explosion at night. I love this photo of a single flower against the dark background.

I collected some logs to take home, then just to pass time usefully, decided to trim down a a rather rotten oak log. The sapwood rots fairly easy but the darker heartwood will last for years outside. I know it will come in useful at some point as a post for something. It was hard work and not quite finished yet, even the sapwood was tough where it hadn’t yet rotted.

So that’s it for today, just a couple more photos of the day

Yesterday I just wanted to spend some quality time in the woods. It’s the absolute best time of the year for me. Everything fresh and bursting into life and I missed out on this last year. I’ve booked to go away for another wood craft themed course next weekend so it would have been three weeks between visits next time and I didn’t want to lose out again. I spent a good long time simply walking around with my camera, here are a few photos from the shoot. Below are the flowers of a young Rowan or Mountain Ash

An oak leaf just opened.

Wild garlic or Ramsons in flower. A few years ago I transplanted a small clump of these from another area in the woods to a few places where there were none at all and they have done really well, spreading and creating new clumps from the seeds. They are one of my favourite wild plants.

I had nothing much in mind job wise other than to bring logs home to start filling the store ready for next winter and suss out a few projects. I think I need to build another extension to the one at the woods to store next winter’s felling so I have two years worth continually being seasoned. I haven’t decided how or when yet. I did a few other maintenance jobs, some of the trees I planted a few years ago needed new stakes to support them. I took the rare occasion to leave my woods and walk around the nearby rides just to see what other developments were in flow. This shot is a nearby plot which is almost exclusively beech. The tall strong trunks create an almost cathedral like vibe.

On my way back I met some neighbours I hadn’t seen for a long time. It was great to have a good catch up. There’s not much else to tell so just a few more photos and I hope you have enjoyed seeing them.if there are woods near you, get out and enjoy the spring growth, it will soon morph into a darker and less vibrant looking place as the the canopy closes over for summer.

Loads of these big black slugs around after a night of rain. In the garden I would be concerned but in the woods they are part of the vital ecosystem of breaking down materials and recycling the nutrients.

I think this is one of the solitary bees

As promised, I am writing about the Northern Bowl meet that I attended two weeks ago. It’s an annual three-day weekend event close to Durham city, held on a smallholding co-operative called Abundant Earth. You can buy day tickets or one for the whole weekend and there is space available for tents and small campers. Various courses are run by individuals which you pay extra for. The theme is green wood bowl making and skills associated with it. Some of the courses were bowl turning on a pole lathe; bowl carving with axe and gouge; blacksmithing to make tools for turning and knives; spoon carving; chip carving and more. I arrived the afternoon before the event and set up my micro camper. A beautiful warm sunny day that wouldn’t last long. I was one of the first campers but that would change the next day and the site was crammed.

It was my first long camping trip in the van and it was all off grid. A chance to test my resources and get to know the van better. It was a clear cold night and I felt it. Note to self – buy a better sleeping bag. I woke early and as usual needed the loo. There were two long-drop compost toilets (the little sheds behind the van). The first one looked the poshest – uh uh. There was a hole in the floor over a pit which you were meant to squat over. Not possible with my achy old bones, I was praying the other one had a seat and fortunately it did. Phew, panic over.

I’d booked a half day course with a lovely young lady called Nadine. We were shown how to make a wooden case sheath to hold the blade of special knives. Mine was to be a challenge as she had not made this type before, it was a spoon shaped carving gouge. The box is made up of a base with a shape carved out for the blade and a lid which pivots to close it and then locked in place with a pin. I then had the option to carve a relief design on the lid. We ran out of time to totally finish it so I did some work back home to include painting the leaf carving.

If you had booked a course you were entitled to a lovely home cooked meal in the evening. I was aware that everyone was carrying hand made bowls for their food and that my plastic white and pink flowery one in the camper just wouldn’t look the part. There was a small shop where demonstrators could display their products for sale so I invested in a lovely one made by a guy from Israel made from loquat wood. It’s a tree originating in the far east with fruit similar to a medlar.

These were some of the products for sale. The bottom right one is the one I bought.

There was a communal fire under a huge tarp where folks could sit, drink and at times make music. An opportunity to chat and make a few new friends.

Saturday morning arrived after a rainy night which continued wet on and off through the day. I had a full day booked with Nadine again to hand carve a bowl. It was a long and exhausting day on my arthritic bones. The bowl didn’t quite get finished again, it’s a big challenge to complete one in the time given. I have done more work on it since but I am now waiting for it to dry to finish it off. It has to be done slowly or it might split. This is it roughly finished at the end of the day but it will look tons better in a few weeks. The wood is cherry. Nadine was a great tutor and a lovely person too.

Sunday and the weather was good again. I had a short course booked in the morning – chip carving. It’s a method of taking small (usually triangular) pieces of wood out with a small sharp knife to create decorative patterns. We were given a sample piece of lime wood with various patterns drawn on to practice. At first looked impossibly difficult to do neatly but by the end I felt reasonably competent. A new skill and an enjoyable one.

It was a great weekend and I’ll leave you with a few random images.

Crab apple flower.

It’s over three weeks since I last went, so yesterday it looked so much greener with the spring growth bursting out all over. Sadly I missed the peak of the wood anemones but the bluebells are out full. The smell of the flowers pervaded the woods as I walked about. This is not a great photo of them, I didn’t realise that they are slightly out of focus but am including it just because I want to show them to you.

There were no job lists, it was just a day to chill out and chat with my pal. We did one small job which was to tidy up the old log pile so that I can dispense with one of the horrible green plastic tarps. I’m working my way to dispensing with them completely. My log store extension is full but I really need to build another for next winters felling so that I always have two years worth seasoning. They will be a year apart but then I will leapfrog their usage, as one gets emptied, it then gets refilled for two years time.

It was clear that there had been some very strong winds since my last visit. The top of a sickly horse chestnut tree appears to have broken off, fallen onto the ride and been cut and moved onto a pile by a neighbour. There’s a huge double limbed dead sycamore near to the area I park. The smaller limb has broken and fallen but for now hung up. You can see it is totally rotten and eaten by bugs inside. It won’t take much effort to knock it off the stump and hopefully fall to the floor. The larger trunk is giving me some concern. I don’t think it’s in danger of falling yet but ideally I would like it down. Because it has a severe lean and is dead and probably partly rotten, it will be quite dangerous to fell. There’s a strong chance it will “barber chair” if just felled in the usual way so I need to give it some thought and perhaps tackle it this winter.

The nettles are lovely and fresh now and ideal for picking to make nettle tea. You just take the top two pairs of leaves. I will dry them so they keep. It’s a very healthy drink and not unpleasant in any way. You can see some cleavers among the nettles and they are good edibles too when fresh.

The beech trees are my favourites at this time of year. The new leaves a sort of lime green and delicate looking.

The Male Ferns are emerging with their fiddle-head curly tops.

And there are a few fungi around too.

That’s all for now. One of the reasons that I haven’t been for a while is because I went to a three day event last weekend called The Northern Bowl. I stayed in my camper, all off grid with mixed weather, so it was a good learning curve for using it. The event was based on bowl carving and associated skills. You could pay for courses, some half day and some full. I intend to write a post here about the event, I think most of you will find it interesting.