The forecast was good but wrong, it was a damp day at the woods yesterday but still very enjoyable. I planned to fill up with logs for the woodburner at home, inspect the bird boxes and do a little cooking, trying out my new kitchen tool roll. After downloading my trailcam files to the laptop, I sat in my shelter and made a nice coffee with my Vietnamese filter kit. This was the view. Some might think it dreary but all the other elements of sitting in your own bit of nature, exploring it, working with it, doing a bit of cooking etc make it far from dull. I spotted a car coming up the track and headed off to visit them at their plot. A&J are doing amazing things, felling huge larch trees and crafting things with some of the timber and making a real difference. I always enjoy chatting to them and hearing their next plans.

The trailcam did not disappoint. No Muntjac deer this time but plenty of fox footage, the bonus being the shot taken in daylight. Have a look.

https://vimeo.com/user53171439

Lunchtime came around quick and my plan was to cook pasta parcels with mushrooms in tomato sauce. I mentioned the kitchen utensil kit earlier. I have been putting it together this week. A while ago I bought an ex-military roll-up pouch and decided to make it into a kit for small scale cooking at my woods or if out for the day on a bushcraft style bimble. It holds the minimum equipment for simple cooking (excluding pans and stoves etc). I love useful kits and it just helps to smooth it if you have everything in one place – easy to find and keep track of.

Most of the contents are obvious but left to right I have – vintage oxo tin and veggie cubes, wire pan scrubber, compressed dishcloth (soak it and it expands). The thin stick is a blowpipe made out of a car aeriel for blowing into a struggling fire, spatula made from my own sycamore, a slim whiskey flask full of cooking oil, spork, knife, pan holder, two spoons (one on the left I carved) ketchup and washing up liquid and some kitchen towel. The small green thing is a salt and pepper pot made from the tops of two drinks bottles cut off and glued together with a spacer between them.

Now for the cooking itself, I set my kitchen up on my shavehorse, it makes a useful worktop. I cooked the mushrooms first, adding some dried Italian herbs. I boiled the pasta parcels and drained them leaving a little bit of water, then added some tomato paste, mixing it to make a sauce, then the mushrooms. Looks o.k. doesn’t it?

Well looks can be deceptive it tasted crap! The pasta parcels just tasted of pasta (whatever the filling was I couldn’t taste) and the tomato paste was harsh – metallic and acidic.  Yes I know I should have used a proper pasta sauce but I was experimenting with what we already had in the cupboard at home. I enjoyed the process but not the food. It was good to practice and being positive, along the lines of Thomas Edison when trying to invent the light bulb, “I have just discovered another way not to make a pasta”.

Earlier I had been dismantling part of a log-pile to take home. In no time, a robin appeared and landed on it hoping for an insect lunch. I stood still as it edged it’s way nearer, sussing me out. I never fail to be overawed by these beautiful and plucky little birds. They fill me with that wonderful feeling when an animal trusts you enough to get close. There’s an unspoken communication of eye contact and mutual respect that is often absent from meetings with other humans!

The last job was to go around the bird nest boxes, open them and clear out the debris. I found that about nine of them had been used, one of then containing four infertile eggs. It was late afternoon and as we have just reached the winter solstic, the light was starting to fade, so job done then pack up and go. I want to say thank you to those who follow my blog, wish you all a Happy Yuletide and leave you with a photo that is a nod to my blacksmith mate for showing me how to make this beautiful hand forged “S” hook.

One of my mates, Simon, was needing some logs and as I was planning to go yesterday, it seemed a good time to invite our other mutual mate, Phil, as well and make it a threesome. We have a special friendship which came about indirectly from my interest in woodlands and bushcraft. Phil was running a bushcraft course and Simon and I were attending. We just sort of hit it off, sharing similar senses of humour. We discovered we had a lot in common and I think it’s O.K. to say that one of those is a difficulty dealing with stress, anxiety and sometimes depression. We named our little group The Tripod because we support each other, each one of us is a supporting leg, which is a very stable arrangement. We have mini adventures every so often and always have a good laugh. We don’t get a lot done workwise but having a wood of your own shouldn’t just be about work. We did get a decent amount of logs split and stacked, so that was a great help. Here are my mates chatting about something whilst brewing coffee.

And here’s Simon’s coffee pot brewing some “cowboy” coffee. You simply add ground coffee to the water, bring to the boil then “settle” the grounds which will be floating on top. There are two simple ways. You can add a little cold water or you can swing the whole pot over your head, making several full circles with it and let centrifugal force do the job. Simon likes to dance with danger now and then and opted for the latter. Phil and I stood back wondering which was more painful, scalding from a shower of hot coffee or conscussion from a falling pot. Gladly neither happened and the coffee was fantastic.

There’s not a lot more to tell about the day other than the new footage on my trailcam. I had moved it to a new location where the Muntjac deer seem to be heading on previous footage. Not as many clips as I expected but some nice shots of a fox which looks very healthy.

https://vimeo.com/306352841

Well Christmas is just around the corner. I’m hoping to make one more visit before then but if I don’t, then I wish you all a Happy Christmas and thanks for reading my woodland ramblings. Time to start some felling again soon.

Sunday was looking fine and as soon as I arrived I went to check the trailcam. Not as many captures as last time but some good ones nonetheless. The muntjac deer seem to like that area a lot and a fox is seen again following a scent. I have repositioned the camera further down the ditch now to see where the deer are going to or coming from. I have a feeling that they are perhaps doing a circular route from the hazel copse and back again.

I bought a new large plastic tarp to cover some of my logpiles. The piles are situated between two large trees, so the plan was to lash a horizontal pole between them to act as a ridge for the tarps which are then pegged down. One of them already had a pole in place but mice had bitten through the lashings so I needed to start again. I decided to de-bark the poles and set to with a drawknife. I am really pleased with it. Whilst visiting my sister in law in the South of France, I spotted two old and rusty ones in a junk shop which cost a total of just seven euros – a bargain. I spent a fair bit of time derusting and resharpening them but it was worth it. The knife was fantastic to use, I found it worked best upside down (bevel downwards). They are probably at least a hundred years old and I found myself imagining previous owners of these tools, possibly in the Black Mountain forests in France, who had eked out a modest living with his hands and timber to make simple rustic furniture. There is something subtle about the way old handtools feel that you don’t get with new ones. A pleasure just to use.

Here are the two log piles nicely tucked up for the winter. The extra space around them and open ends will allow air to circulate and dry the logs.

Once again I had fallen short of completing my job list. Time just flies when you are busy in the woods and the shorter days of winter are here. Next visit will be at least two weeks away when I shall probably start some more felling to thin the sycamore plantation.

It was a very dull, damp, dreary day yesterday – in fact just what you expect for November in England! I had a long list of tasks – plant some saplings, clean out birds’ nest boxes, bring logs back and a few others to boot. As it turned out it wasn’t all that productive. The first task was to recover the trailcam and see what’s been around during the last two weeks. I was not going to be disappointed – just the opposite. As the files downloaded to my laptop, I could see thumbnail shots that were clearly deer and was that a very small one I just spotted? Excitedly I opened the night-time clips and found that our muntjac pair have now got a baby! Wow. Not particularly good for UK woodlands, as I said last time, they are on the list of undesirable and harmful non-natives. But taking my forestry manager’s hat off and putting my wildlife photgrapher’s one on, it’s incredibly exciting. Lot’s of clips too. It just got better and better, other clips showed a fox and some roe deer. I have edited the clips and uploaded them here.

https://vimeo.com/302851931

I texted one of my neighbours (Steve) to see if he was around. He’s an enthusiastic wildlife spotter and excellent photographer and I hoped he might be at his woods. By chance he was, he came around and we were able to share notes on our woodlands. Soon my next door neighbours arrived and we looked at the footage over a nice cup of coffee. Who said it was dull in the woods?

I had brought some oak saplings that I grew from acorns and a few silver birch and set-to planting them up. There are a few failures in the cleared area where I had planted a year or two ago, so I filled the gaps. In forestry terminolgy it’s called “beating up”. It’s ideal weather, the ground was moist and frost free.

The woods are very wet now, refreshed after the long dry summer and my water butt is full to the brim. The oveflow was dripping and I hit on the idea of connecting a pipe to it, laid below the ground and running it to small pond. There is no natural water course anywhere near but this might just work.

Lunch was another cooking experiment. An idea I got from watching Steve’s latest wild camping video. He made a simple but tasty looking meal from shrink wrapped fresh pasta parcels and instant cuppa soup. I brought ricotta and basil pasta parcels and cream of mushroom soup. Just to be a bit more adventurous I also brought fresh mushrooms and garlic powder (we ran out of garlic cloves). I was going to use the rocket stove but it started drizzling and time was getting on. So I retired to the shelter with my gas stove. I cooked the mushrooms in my Zebra billy pot and set them aside, the pasta was boiled for around 6 minutes then drained. The soup just needed boiling water. Then put the lot together. The meal was a success, easy and enjoyable.

My neighbours had felled a tall cherry tree which got well and truly hung up in a small oak tree. It took us about half an hour of cutting and pulling sideways with a rope to free it. I finished my planting and filled some trugs with logs and by then it was getting dark and drizzly and time to pack up. One last walk about and I spotted this small fungus growing on a twig, latin name Auricularia auricula-judae . It used to be known as Judas’s Ear, then corrupted to Jew’s Ear but in today’s world of political correctness it’s renamed Jelly Ear or Wood Ear. They are edible but to be honest you wouldn’t want to eat it.

Hot on the heels of my last visit, I returned yesterday. The main reason was that my Woodland Trust volunteering role as a fixed point photographer was due. I get my travel expenses paid, the weather looked good, so why not take the opportunity and get a few jobs done too. Since we altered the clocks I have been waking up between five and six am so I headed off early to beat the traffic. It was cold but the sun was coming up. Fill the bird feeders and get busy finishing the guttering on the shelter. I needed to fit the new piece that was broken and attach a downpipe and position the water barrel. The pipe was some old grey waste pipe I had in my cellar but it’s slightly too small in diameter for the black fittings, so I bodged it with some gaffer tape. I shall take some mastic next time and do a better job. The grey pipe and barrel look a bit naff to be honest but I might add some camouflage later. The shelter is almost complete now but it needs a few “homely” touches to bring it to life. Not sure what they will be yet, maybe some fire accessories – chain and hooks, billy can and a few woodworking aids like a mallet etc.

I set my trailcam up in a new location so looking forward to seeing the results next time. Can you spot it?

I took my W.T. photos then made lunch. I love the rocket stove and wanted to use it again.  This time I decided on Indian spiced veggie burger, fried onions and cheese in a breakcake. (How ambitious is that?) My pal gave me two pieces of good advice when cooking over a fire – prepare everything first and control the heat by pulling the sticks or embers in and out. Seems simple enough but they are crucial to success and worth emphasising. Preparation isn’t just about having your raw food ingredients ready and cut up but also having all the utensils out of their bags and ready to use, condiments to hand etc. Also getting the fire going and having enough prepared logs or sticks next to your fire or stove. Last time I struggled a bit to control the heat. The rocket stove needs constant attention because the small sticks will flare up at first and die down quickly. So a steady but small supply of sticks are necessary. I found that three or four is all you need once the fire is established. If the flames get too hot, simply pull a couple of sticks back out of the opening slightly. Push them back in to increase the heat. It’s just like turning the knob down on your cooker at home.

The cooking was a success (not burnt this time) and delicious. I love the cast iron skillets too. They do not stick and a quick wipe over with a kitchen towel brings it back up spotless.

Whilst cutting down a small sycamore, to make some shrink pots with, I noticed an odd hole in the ground. Something (a badger most likely) had dug the earth and exposed a hole that was white coloured. A tentative closer look showed it to be crawling with wasps. I had come across a similar one a couple for years ago, didn’t know what it was and got too close and was stung. This time I was on my guard but still wanted a closer look and a photo. The white lining was the remains of the nest that presumably had been eaten by the badger (it would be full of nutrious grubs). This was the best photo I could get. The wasps would be busy trying to repair or retrieve what was left.

I’ll leave you with a few photos of the woods in their autumn colours.

It’s been almost three weeks since the last visit. It’s hard to explain but if I leave it more than a couple of weeks, I start to lose that very close and intimate connection I have with it. It starts to feel like just any old wood. Maybe it’s because the memories of the small details that I noticed last visit and the memory of the feelings I had had, started to dissipate. I’m glad to say that as soon as I step out of the car and into the woods, the connection is immediately re-made and the fantastic feeling of having a whole day to explore and work close to nature washes over me once again.

I spent a good hour and a half just walking around and looking at things and surprised that autumn is still only just kicking in there. At home and in other areas, the last two weeks has shown a sudden change in the tree colours. Some of the species’ leaves in my woods don’t turn into amazing colours, they simply go a duller yellowy green or dirty brown and drop off. Ash went a pale green and was one of the first to start shedding. Sycamore (which I have a lot of) is the most disappointing. The best trees for colour are the beech and oak and as yet they are not at their prime.

I decided my main tasks for the day were sorting out logs. I needed some for home and really need to get on with the job of splitting and stacking the huge pile that I cut down last winter. I split and filled two of these large wooden crates. Hard work but very satisfying.

Lunch was going to be veggie burgers and fried halloumi cheese, cooked on my rocket stove. The stove is fantastic but I’m still learning how to control it. It takes small sticks which initially will produce big flames but die down fairly quickly too. So regulating the heat is tricky. Feeding it little and often is probably the trick. The skillet got hotter than expected and as you can see, I burnt the food slightly but it still tasted great. Washed down with a mug of fresh coffee made in my Vietnamese coffee filter device and an amazing view to boot, what a restaurant!

One of my many woodland related hobbies, is finding rusty old tools at car boot sales and restoring them to a workable condition. I brought my latest axe to try it out. It’s purpose will be mainly for bushcraft activities, splitting small logs and sticks for the fire, roughing out small logs for spoon or bowl carving. It worked very well. I paid about £1 for the rusty head and another two for the handle. I derusted the head in white vinegar and reshaped the head with angle grinder and files to add a cutaway underneath which allows your hand to sit closer to it for fine carving work. The handle was given an aged look by scorching with a blow torch. The yellow paracord wrapping protects the shaft from damage when overstriking and adds a bit of bling. The leather blade mask is essential as the axe is razor sharp. I made that from some old worn out sandals. I’m pleased with it.

We associate autumn with fungi so I shall end with some. I was pleased to find this cluster of small common puffballs. I have only found the odd one or two before so hopefully they will spread. I believe they are edible but I’m not brave enough to try them. You really need expert advice on identifying fungi before eating any. As my friend said “All fungi are edible, but some only once!”

In part one I promised you some vids taken from my trail camera. This is the second location I’ve tried and hoped for some action. There were 79 clips captured in a week! Some were blank, presumably from birds flying past, many were squirrels and some wood pidgeons eating the acorns that had blown off the small oak trees above. My prize was three shots of a fox. I’ve edited several shots together to create something of a “movie” from each category of animals. Apologies for the low resolution but the camera is not one of the best but it serves to show me what is going on at my woods when I’m not around.

Look out at the beginning of the Squirrel video for the two crazies. It looks speeded up but I promise you it isn’t.

How many Wood Pidgeons can you count on the ground? I made it six.

As for the fox – watch carefully at the very beginning. It flashes past in a couple of seconds but it’s carrying something. The action is blurred and I can’t make it out but it’s relatively large. Rabbit maybe? It disappears to the left then returns a few minutes later empty handed. Did it stash the prey away or just a fast eater? But the last part is the best. We get a good look at the fox as it seems to be looking straight at the camera. Then we see a blurry image at the top of the frame which looks like it might be an owl flying low. Maybe the fox was clocking the owl and not the camera.

I had planned to go on Sunday but the thought of just working was putting me off. There’s a huge stack of big logs from last winter that still needs cutting up, splitting and stacking but I couldn’t face it. I remind myself now and then, that the reason for buying the wood was to have a private place to practice bushcraft, wild camp, observe nature etc and not just to be a lumberjack. There were a few small jobs to do but I decided I would give myself the luxury of “playing”. I’m wanting to have some mini adventures back home too. I plan to have some local walks into woodlands, moorlands etc, take a small cooking kit, set up a mini camp and cook a modest meal – just for the fun of doing it and as a learning experience. I’m no Ray Mears, the likelihood of an extended bushcraft trip to Alaska or Northern Sweden is zero. It doesn’t mean I can’t have fun and practice some survival skills though. It just means I have to be realistically modest with my ambitions.

I’ve been toying with buying a Trangia cookset. A lovely piece of kit based on a simple alcohol/spirit burner which sits in a windproof shield and comes with various pans that pack up neatly and can be popped in a ruscksack. Then I remembered my £3 car boot sale find – a Swedish ex-miltary cook set made by Trangia. Not quite so comprehensive but basically does the same job and built like a tank! So far I had only used it to boil water for a brew. I wanted to try cooking with it. It would test it’s usefulness and give me some practice at cooking in the wild with minimal facilities. I made a plan to pretend I didn’t know my woods, not use any of my facilities like tables, seats etc but find a suitable secluded spot to set up my mini tarp, brew coffee and later cook a small meal. I shortlisted three possible locations. I needed a log to sit on and some suitable small trees to attach the tarp to. I settled on this one, liking the bowed branch that might be useful and sort of frames the scene.

It needed a little tidy up to remove brambles and create a clear space to work. Time for a brew. Here’s the oval shaped cookset which comprises a large and small billy can, a windshield and spirit burner. It’s boiling some water for my Vietnamese filter coffee maker. I featured this when I bought it a few months ago and can report that it is a fantastic bit of kit for making really nice coffee.

I tried the mini tarp and after a few variations, managed to get it to cover enough of the log for me to sit on. There was little chance of rain but it was an exercise and actually proved useful at keeping falling leaves and debris off me while cooking.

The meal was to be packet noodles boiled up in the large billy, mushrooms, onion, garlic and veggie Quorn pieces fried in the small one to go with it. I set the noodles to boil in the large billy while preparing the veg. Once done, I set it to oneside and fried the veg, then combined both in the small one to heat up again.

The kit worked well. The food didn’t stick to the bare aluminium surface as I suspected it might do and the food was good. An enjoyable and useful learning experience and what a fantastic location too. I cleaned and packed everything away before heading off to do my small chores and more exploring. I liked the location and will use it again but next time will try one of the others.

There were some amazing flushes of fungi, mostly growing on dead birch trunks.

Had a fantastic day and will do this exercise again. At the start of my day I retrieved my trail camera from it’s new location. What would it reveal? Come back in a day or two for part two and a few short videos.