Speckled Brown butterfly in neigbours wood.

I was torn weather to go yesterday as the forecast showed a storm the night before followed by a pretty windy day. I would have postponed it a day but there was too much to do at home so I risked it and hey, I’m still here in tact apart from a few mossie bites. I think the rain had encouraged them out, I was pestered by them.

I didn’t have a big itinerary, bring logs back for winter and practice my nettle and bramble processing techniques. Last weekend I attended a bark weaving workshop. I will do another post on that as it was interesting and relevant to my woodland activities. It’s a while since I did any and now is a good time to harvest some. You need to bash the stalks to break the pith so you can strip the outer fibres away. You dry them, then re-moisten and with a reverse twist method, you can make some pretty strong cordage. Took me about an hour to produce this amount, nettles on the left, brambles on the right.

I spent a lot of time just walking and observing, taking note of the ash dieback disease and it’s effect in my woods. I spotted three medium trees completely dead near the ride so they will need to come down in winter for safety. You can see the dead ones in the photo below. Most of the saplings die after reaching a metre or two in height but there are a few taller that so far have escaped. I’m really hoping they have a natural resistance and survive and produce seeds eventually.

Here are some photos from my walkabout

Arum Maculata – aka Cuckoo Pint or Lords and Ladies

Common Sexton Beetle – they eat carrion, dead animals and insects. It’s tucking into a mealworm my neighbours put out for birds!

Tiny Common Puffballs about a third the size of a pea.

As I left and drove down the ride an nice surprise, a young buzzard flew up and landed on a branch a few metres in front and above. Got a good close look at it.