Been a month since last here. But I have been away for two weeks to South Africa! It’s winter there, very dry and parched looking but very warm. So the lushness of my woods in summer is a total contrast. However, there are signs that it has been very dry. Quite a few prematurely fallen leaves and the ferns look pale and sickly. I am sure they will be ok long term though.

The brambles don’t seem to suffer though and my first job was to clear the track where I park the camper. I used an old antique scythe. Quite hard work especially on the back and hips as the action is a twisting one. Works well though, quiet and no smelly two stroke smoke.

I also cleared the path down to my camping/fire area where I planned to spend most of my time there doing some spoon carving. Just a lovely mindful way to relax and enjoy the ambience of the woods. I had two that I started some weeks ago that just needed finishing but I mainly wanted to carve a small coffee scoop for my daughter. I have made one for myself at the last spoonclub at Ellekers Wood where we meet once a month. She loved it and requested one for herself. It still needs a bit of finishing. That’s it with the apparently massive handle. It will be cut down by more than half. Because it’s a small thing, it can be hard to hold while doing the tricky bowl so leaving a long piece gives something to hold onto.

This is the original and I am basing it on that.

Not much else to tell. Just a nice simple day in the woods, doing something I enjoy. The next path to clear is here, belief it or not. Overrun with nettles and brambles since I last cleared it in spring.

Magnificent “Male” Fern

Yesterday’s forecast was not good but it has been over a month since I was last there. Since losing my wife two years ago my motivation for life has plummeted and that includes my biggest passion – my woodlands. I could not get enough of it before but grief has changed everything and robbed me of so much more.

I want to rejuvenate my enthusiasm for it and it is just the medicine I need but simply getting out of bed to face another day takes a huge effort now. Well one of my projects was to build a pole lathe there and I was kindly given a rather wood-wormy bowl turning lathe which I wanted to attach to two dead oak trunks. so that was the motivation to go. If I get this thing operational, it will give me some mindful enjoyment and therefor more incentive to go to the woods. At this time of year there is not so much work to do other than clearing overgrown paths, so some creative activities will hopefully draw me back to the woods more frequently. This is how it’s looking so far. I need to make a treadle and a spring pole to provide the foot power for it.

What was the surprise encounter? It had been raining on first arrival and I was sitting in my shelter quietly contemplating. There was a sound to my left and from the corner of my eye, some hurried movement which I thought was a dog. No, there were two female roe deer running fast down the path just a few metres in front of me. Tan coloured in their summer coats and looking sleek and fit. They didn’t notice me as they flashed past, headed down into the next door plot and turned back giving me a second look. Too fast to grab my camera but what a beautiful sight.

Sadly Ash Dieback disease is still making it’s mark on the saplings but more distressing is seeing that some of my mature trees are showing serious damage, some almost dead now. I may have to fell some of them later for safety reasons.

As I wandered around, there was a male blackbird kicking off with it’s constant alarm calls. It didn’t like my presence and when I zoomed into it, I could see it had a beak full of berries so I presumed it had a nest of chicks to feed nearby. I moved on to let it do it’s feeding duties.

This speckled brown butterfly was enjoying the sun. There is not much more to tell about the day so I’ll leave it there.

I arrived yesterday to a beautiful sunny morning at the woods. As you can see, it is at it’s peak in terms of lush, fresh colour. In another few weeks the canopy will thicken and the colour of the leaves deepen and it will be a much darker place. I had a few jobs to do but the main one was to plant four small oak saplings that I grew at home from acorns. Unfortunately the growing leads have all been nipped out by some small animal and caused the trees to bush out. Not what you want for nice straight timber but I still wanted to plant them. Perhaps when they have grown substantially they could be coppiced and used for projects or firewood. The brambles and nettles are running riot and the area I chose for the trees needed clearing. On a small scale area it is best to hand pull as much as you can and the earth was soft enough from the rain that it was relatively easy. Still hot and hard work though. The area looks very small in the photo and in actuality is about nine square metres. It probably took about an hour of steady work and pricks and stings.

There are signs in the nearby grass that roe deer are laying low there and I am sure they would find the new growth tasty, so I netted them off. I had planted a birch tree a few weeks ago so included that in the enclosure.

The son of one of my neighbours was camping in their plot with some friends. He came over to say hello and invited me to meet his friends and have a look at the work his father has been doing. Later my immediate neighbours arrived too and as I was leaving, I met someone who had bought a plot a year ago. The company of good, like-minded people is therapy for me.

I am aware that much of the work I had planned to do in the past, has not been done and that time moves fast for me these days. Among those are – building a new composting toilet, extending the log store and setting up the pole lathe and blacksmith forge. I would like to get the last two done this year at least. I am considering staying over for a few nights to crack on with them. The key to it is first, to plan and make sure I have the materials. I must try harder!

On my walkabout I spotted some little heads poking out of a nest box. The lighting was poor but I managed to get some shots of them, they are blue tits. There seemed to be one dominant one that kept poking it’s open beak out of the hole, it amused me.

I will leave you with a few more photos of this lovely day at the woods

Last visit was beautiful and I really wanted to stay over but hadn’t prepared. Easter weekend was coming and I was hoping for decent weather and planned an overnight stay. So that is what I did. Arrived late morning and spent a couple of leisurely hours setting the camper up, having a walkabout and foraging some dry sticks for kindling for having a fire later on. The woods are looking beautiful, the floor covered in anemones and just a hint of greenery bursting from the early understory – hawthorn, hazel, elder, honeysuckle; like a faint emerald mist here and there. Several buzzards wheeled and circled above, spring courtship time.

Last week I had brought the dismantled bowl lathe I was given. My plan has been to utilize two dead but solid oak tree trunks close to my shelter to support the frame which will hold the rails or “bed” that the sliding poppets will run on. It was a case of sawing and axing flats on each side so that the rails can be bolted to them. It was hard work and hot too. This is the first stage and how it was looking when I’d done. Not much to see for the effort it took! It doesn’t look it but it is actually level.

The day was soon gone and time to light the fire and make my evening meal. Decided to keep it simple and rather than cook over the fire, took a dehydrated packet of mushroom rissotto, some fresh mushrooms and Quorn pieces. It was rubbish and I threw half of it on the fire! The fire was good though and I sat and relaxed as the night set in until it was virtually pitch black with just the faint silhouette of the tree tops and the stars.

I wasn’t scared but felt quite lonely. I headed to the van to get more comfortable but it was very cold. I chatted to a friend on the phone for a while before setting up the bed and climbing into the sleeping bag almost fully clothed. As usual it was a sketchy night for sleeping but I stayed warm enough and eventually arose early morning. It was the start of British summertime so an hour was lost already. I left the side door open and enjoyed the view as I ate my tub of dehydrated porridge. That was actually quite nice.

I had few plans for jobs but spent some time re-staking some saplings that had been blown over.

Lunch was a simple unplanned affair. Rummaging through my store cupboard and not wanting to cook or have to wash pots I found a granola bar and a tin of pears. Not exactly cordon bleu but it sufficed. I packed up early afternoon and headed home again, satisfied I had fought the apathy and lack of motivation to even go there in the first place. I want to reconnect with the woods again after a long time of absence. I’ll leave you with an assortment of photos.

Dead birch covered in Horsehoof fungus – Fomes Fomentarius

Yes it has been a long time since my last blog, in fact it’s about three months. The reason being that I pulled a ligament or something in my hip at Christmas. It was so painful I could hardly stand at first. After a course of strong painkillers it has taken until now to get better enough not to risk damaging it again by working at the woods. So yesterday was a welcome visit. The weather was mild and sunny and the woods are bursting to life again. Mostly it’s ground cover such as wild garlic, wood anemones, lesser celandine, lords and ladies etc. The big trees are still bare but some of the smaller species are just starting. I didn’t intend doing a lot of hard work but I did have a few tasks to complete.

Of course a brew or two was essential and I chose to base my self at the shelter. I am a member of a spoonclub who meet once a month in a woodland setting and sit around a fire and carve a wooden spoon, spatula or bowl. The owner was dismantling an old bowl turning lathe and donated it to me, so the first job was to unload it from my camper van and store it in the shelter until I can reassemble it.

The other little job was to “plant” some mushroom mycelium. Before Christmas I bought a grey oyster mushroom growing kit. It had several crops and now seems to have finished. As an experiment I have broken the compost and mycelium into four pieces, dug a hole next some dead oak trees and put a piece in and covered it back up. I am hoping it will make it’s way into the dead wood and eventually produce some mushrooms on the trunks. I think it will take a long time if it actually does take.

This is a patch of wild garlic probably about a meter wide now. When I first acquired the woods, I wanted to add some diversity to the ground cover in the sycamore area which is mainly brambles, wood anemones and bluebells. So I took a few small clumps of the garlic from an area where there is plenty and replanted along the edge next to the ride. It has done incredibly well.

Buzzards were flying overhead several times and I think they are starting to look for a mate. I love to see them and hear their distinctive mewing call. This photo is one of my favourite locations in my woods. The slight hollow is actually the remains of an ancient ditch and bank feature. Nobody knows just how old it it but would have been created to either mark a boundary or possibly keep animals like deer, in or out.

I had plenty of walks to refamiliarize myself, it’s been so long that I had forgotten some of the features . This is the huge dead sycamore that blew down in Autumn saving me the scary job of felling it to make it safe. The dead leaner in the background was another part of this tree that blew down a few months before. It’s stuck on another tree and I was hoping the storms might have dislodged it. I might have to get the chainsaw to it at some point. It’s not close enough to the van to hit it if it fell so no danger. I’m leaving the big piece for nature to claim. It has opened up a bit of light so I might plant a few saplings.

It was such a lovely day that I didn’t want to leave. My camper needs a bit of re-stocking and organizing for sleeping over in, so I shall sort it soon and leave a sleeping bag in there so that if I visit and just decide to stay over, I can do. As it happens today is very wet and cold so it wouldn’t have been such a pleasure. That’s what I’m telling myself anyway!

Time really flies for me these days – three weeks since I was last here. Most of the leaves are off now, just a few stragglers and the oaks, like the one in the middle here, which hang on to them for awhile. The main purpose of the visit was to cut up and stack some dead ones that had either come down or been felled for safety. There was a dead birch right next to where I park so this needed to come down.

The dead horse chestnut I felled last time has some nice spalting. It’s a discolouration caused by fungal growth and is much prized by wood carvers. So rather than leave it all as deadwood, I cut several pieces. The birch also has lots of spalting but it might be too far gone and “punky” for carving. After several trips back and forth with the wheelbarrow, I got it all stacked under a tarp to either chop up later for firewood or use some for carving. I am a member of a spoon carving club which meets up every month, so I will take some of it for others to use next time.

While working around the van, a very brave robin came close. I scuffed a patch of leaves away to help it find food. It took advantage right away. I’m hoping I can get this one feeding off my hand. Haven’t had a friendly one for a while now. I always feel privileged when a robin comes close as it shows trust in me.

Not much else to tell other than I have a very aching back this morning which is not a result of the heavy lifting but trying to start my chainsaw. It has an annoying habit of refusing to start when I have had it running but switch it of for ten minutes. I shall leave you with a few more photos

No I haven’t just forgotten to write my blog, it’s actually six weeks since I last went. The road works continue to mean that I only go weekends and it’s been a mixture of holidays away, bad weather and other commitments. As I drove up the ride, a buzzard flew across my bow, it’s huge dark wingspan took my breath away. Because it’s been so long since my last visit, the woods felt unfamiliar somehow but it was nice to go exploring and rediscover the joy of being there.

Storm Ciaran a few weeks ago had blown over my big dead sycamore. It had been slowly dying since I bought the woods. I thought it would stand as valuable deadwood for some years but as it was pretty rotten, had been debating whether to take it down to make it safe. It had a huge lean on it and combined with the unknown extent of rot, made it a very dangerous tree to fell. So I was delighted to learn from a neighbour that it had fallen. I suspected it would be blocking a path that I have created, down to the lower part of my woods. So armed with chainsaw equipment I anticipated some hard graft clearing up. Actually it had fallen just to the side and only a few broken branches were littering the path. The trunk of it is about 40 centimetres diameter at the base so a lot of work to cut up. Because it is pretty rotten, I decided to leave it there as deadwood to slowly decay. The tree had a big fork in it so I decided to make a bit of a feature for a wildlife cover by stacking the broken branches across it to form a sort of roof/shelter.

At the top of the woods stood a dead horse chestnut tree. The top had broken off awhile ago and as it stood on the corner next to the ride, I wanted to drop it to make safe. I needed it to fall into my woods so it could be left as deadwood. I made my cuts but it obviously wanted to fall in the opposite direction so it was a tricky one to do requiring numerous wedges to force it over but eventually went exactly where I wanted it. Before and after photos.

It was so good to be back there and I am determined to try to go more regularly. I shall leave you with some photos of the amazing fungi around.

It’s a month since I was last there. The continuing road works and contraflow on the A1 means I only want to go at weekends when it’s not as bad. For various reasons I haven’t been going so often but I really wanted a day just to check it out and relax. Well there must have been some very windy weather because there were two small trees blown over. One was a dead birch, the other was part of a hawthorn. I was disappointed because this was a long lanky piece that had created an archway over the back of my table. I had secured it years ago and trained a honeysuckle to grow along it. The wind had disturbed the supports and the long branch has now split at he base. I had to saw it off half way to clear my table but that meant the honeysuckle has nowhere to cling to now.

Although the leaves are still very green, there is a distinctive feel of autumn. There are fewer flying insects and just a general sense of winding down. I didn’t need a fire, wasn’t cooking but it’s always good to see and feel the warmth of one. I could have had a brew in the camper on the gas ring but that’s no fun.

I have a new friend, a lady who sadly lost her husband earlier this year. She is very connected to nature and was feeling quite low at home. I messaged her with a photo of the woods and then spent the next half hour taking various photos of the views for her. I think it helped a little. I love being able to share the beauty of the woods with people either with visits or photos and indeed this blog.

When I was making the fire, I was breaking up some dead branches and noticed one piece didn’t snap so easy, the bark was tough and peeled off in longish strips. I realised that it was the inner bark that was tough and stringy which reminded me of something I learnt on the basket weaving course. Lime bark has been traditionally used for making string. You peel it then leave it in water for a few weeks/months. It’s a process called retting where the outer bark rots away leaving the tough inner bark. This was from a beech tree but must has been in a damp place and had naturally retted. Not to miss an opportunity I carefully peeled as much away as possible for making cordage at a later date by the reverse twist method. The texture of it is fantastic and although the holey structure looks like it should be weak, it’s isn’t. It’s rather beautiful too.

The dead birch tree that had fallen is not particularly rotten so will make good firewood logs and possibly material for carving – spoons or bowls maybe. So I cut a couple of trugs full for firewood and two longer pieces for craft projects. There might be a bit of spalting going on inside. That’s dark patterns caused by a small amount of fungal disease and is much loved by wood carvers.

Well that pretty much wraps up my day there. Think it will be at least two weeks before my next visit.

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.