Sounds like a title for a film but it’s what I was doing yesterday plus a bit more bramble clearing. I was given three potted young birch trees by one of my brother-in-laws. He wanted a place for them as a tribute to his mother, father and brother who have passed on. So I found a suitable spot in my wood. It was heavily invested with bramble so I started out by clearing it with my brush cutter. The used a Canterbury hoe to rag out the remaining bramble roots before planting them. As I have deer visiting my woods it is necessary to protect them with plastic tree guards. So for now all you can see is the brown tubes. In a couple of years the young birch should have emerged from the tops and they can then have the guards removed.

The three newly planted young birch trees safely in their deer guards

I’ve been collecting wooden pallets and now have enough to build some sort of log store. The idea being, to season newly felled timber for a year before taking it home for burning in my woodstove. I was given two old sheets of corrugated roofing to help keep it dry. I got the body of the store built but needed some more spars to support the roof. Now don’t laugh when you see the ramshackle result of my hard labour. After all it just needs to be functional. I’m not competing for George Clarke’s “Shed of the Year”. Once completed I can disguise it’s obvious pallet components by propping up deadwood around the sides. The weather will soon subdue it’s newness too.

And the back of it with roof sheets waiting to ne fitted.

Finally I spotted this magnificent specimen and couldn’t resist showing you. Bet you wish you had one like this.

What a beauty

Yesterday I took my brother in law Richard to see the wood. He follows in his father’s footsteps, being very interested in rural pursuits and wildlife etc. He has a good knowledge of woodland life in general and expressed an interest in seeing mine. It wasn’t the best weather to see it – gloomy, cold and quite windy at times. We had a good look around, he pointed out a few interesting things I hadn’t noticed then we had a brew with my little twig-fired Honeystove and ate our lunch. As usual a tiny wren appeared amongst the pile of old brushwood a few feet away. I guess it was lunchtime for it too as it bobbed here and there, picking at the sticks for insects and grubs.

We spent most of the afternoon re-sighting the misplaced border posts which have been incorrectly positioned at the lower half. It will give me a few extra metres wide of land over a length of about 70 metres which is quite significant. I will need to get approval by the land sales agent before actually moving the posts. We also felled a small rotten sycamore that had fallen and got hung-up. It was close to a ride so needed to be made safe. Two good jobs done.

Richard took quite a bit of interest in the hazel coppice so we spent some time looking at those. They are really ready for re-coppicing, some stems are very large and woody and only fit for firewood but there a numerous small rods which will make good hurdle material, walking sticks etc. He told me of an old guy who used to twist two thin growing rods together then after a few years, cut them to make beautiful twisted walking sticks. I’m going to try that one next time. I shall also start pegging down some of the smaller and flexible rods to layer them which will create new plants in a year or two. They can then be moved into the area I intend to replant.

Where’s the connection? Only that it was the two subjects that dominated my visit to my woods yesterday. On arrival I spotted a buzzard on the ground. When it saw me it flew up into one of the branches where it rested a few seconds before taking off. A fleeting but amazing sight. They are very big and impressive birds. Later in the day, I spotted one wheeling around, just above tree top height. I stopped to admire it then another and another came into view. I ran to get my camera and find a clearing so I could try to video them but it was too late. I know there has been a nesting pair somewhere in the greater woods where mine is a small plot and I feel it might have been not too far away as I have often seen or heard them. Maybe this was the young brood or the parents and juvenile.

Now onto the main subject – brush cutters. I have a big bramble problem due to lack of management in the past. It’s just about everywhere and where there are glades and sunlight is available, the brambles have taken advantage and grown to enormous proportions. Many parts of my wood are inaccessible because of them. When I first took ownership in June, my first job was to hack my way through some of it to make a pathway along the border. Using a machete was effective but slow and very hard work. So I bought a heavy duty brush-cutter and mulching blade. An ordinary nylon strimmer head won’t touch the bramble. The mulching blade is metal with three winged blades that turn up. It shreds as it cuts. Yesterday was my first “play” with my new toy. After reading the manual carefully and doing all it said, the machine wouldn’t start. I tried different throttle and choke settings and still no joy. I figured I may have flooded it so took out the spark plug, dried it and tried again. Eventually it fired up. Yesssss! So donning safety helmet, mesh face visor and ear defenders I hooked the machine onto the harness and headed for the wilderness. It took a while to get the feel and technique right and the heavy density and height of the brambles made it quite hard work. After about an hour and a half, I had cleared a good sized area. What a difference it made. Whereas the area was previously impossible to walk through and had an oppressive effect, it was now flat and clear and open, just strewn with chewed up plant material which should rot down. The area felt much larger than before, airy and lighter. It revealed several old tree stumps and a robin came down and landed on one to investigate the new look (and a possible meal). Can’t wait to get busy with more clearing in other areas. So much to do though, it will take a few years to truly get on top of it. I have to prioritise which areas to do first. Of course the brambles will sprout again next spring but it should be much easier to either dig up the roots or blitz them again with the machine. I can’t wait for spring now, to see what groundcover has been waiting for this opportunity of light and warmth so it can sprout again. See below for some before and after photos.

Area looking north before clearing with brush cutter

Same area after clearing

same area but looking west before clearing

looking west after clearing

My last visit a week ago, was a day event organised by the Woodland Trust. In case you don’t know about them, they are a charity devoted to saving our ancient woodlands. They do some sterling work, raising funds to buy up ancient woodlands when they come onto the market as a means of preserving them. Also campaigning against modern development on them. We have very little ancient woodland surviving in the UK and it’s very important that we retain and look after as much of it as possible. As they say, “once gone, it’s gone forever”. The ecology of ancient woodland cannot be created simply by planting new woods. It takes hundreds – thousands of years to build up the incredibly diverse biology of a woodland. The Trust has been given funding to run a project in Yorkshire to help and advise small woodland owners who own Paws (planted ancient woodlands) to protect and re-establish their woods back to ancient semi-natural status. Some of the owners where my wood exists have shown an interest and we have had visits from the project officer who has surveyed our plots and written brief management plans.

So last Saturday, he had organised talks from themselves and other local bodies like the naturalist society and local tree and hedgerow officer. We learned about the importance of ancient woodlands and how best to protect and enhance what we still have, a bit of history of the site and the flora and fauna species that have been observed there. A light buffet was provided then a mini bus to take us all into our woods for a walk-around to discuss specific issues. Proudly, I was host to the group in my small plot for a while due to it’s varied content. All in all it was a very interesting and enjoyable day. A quick look at my recently installed bird feeders showed some small activity has been going on but not much seed had gone yet. Early days.

I hadn’t been for almost three weeks and getting withdrawal symptoms. It’s a question of finding a suitable dry day as well as when I am not busy doing other things. I told one of my friends, Alan, about the woodland and he was quite keen to visit, so I took him on Thursday this week. I had collected some more free wooden pallets and wanted to take them there. Also I bought two nice bird feeders on a car boot sale for £3 – a real bargain. I bought two big bags of mixed bird seed from the bargain store for another £2 so was keen to place those somewhere.

The weather was lovely although it had rained a lot this week, so everything was pretty wet, including the sticks I had stored under the picnic bench. So getting a fire going in my Honeystove took some doing. Eventually we succeeded and had a brew. Such simple tasks become quite involved and time consuming but it’s good to remember the main reason you are in your woods. To relax, blend with your environment and just go with the flow. Enjoy the process. I can see the reasoning behind the Japanese tea ceremony and I can see the need for a proper rainproof log shelter. That’s high on my priority list now.

We had a good walk around the wood. Things have changed quite a lot in three weeks. Probably a third of the leaves have dropped now. I found dozens of fallen chestnuts in their cases but sadly, they haven’t filled out enough to be edible. I guess the incredibly dry spring and summer has something to do with it, along with competition from the overcrowding sycamore.

We found two suitable spots for my birdfeeders. One close to the picnic area and one in the glade where most of the birds seem to congregate. I tried to make them as squirrel-proof as possible and my aim is to see how much seed has gone next time I visit, in order to gauge bird activity. Hopefully they will have found them and be using them whilst I am there. Robins, wrens and tits are around.

Alan said he had really enjoyed the visit. I think sitting in the woods was a completely new experience for him and I could tell he was starting to “get it”, feeling the tranquillity and the sense of being in the present. Here he is showing off one of the bird feeders.

Alan modelling the new birdfeeder

I visited again yesterday, mainly to take some things and bring back some logs. I had some wooden pallets and an old garden seat to take and as we have just had a wood burning stove fitted at home, am trying to build up a store of logs for the winter. I haven’t got my felling licence yet so can only cut dead or diseased trees. There are a number of dead ones standing in the sycamore compartment and because they are upright, are relatively well seasoned and dry already. They are small trees and therefor easy to fell and cut up with a bowsaw. Here’s one I cut.

A small dead sycamore tree I felled for logs.

Now, about the title of this post. I spotted a large round hole in the earth, a few inches deep. It was fresh and looked like a badger had made it. I went over to get a closer look and spotted two squirming masses in the bottom, about the size of an apple. I had no idea what they were so moved closer to find out. I realised they were swarms of hornets which presumably had been disturbed by the mystery digger. Normally, my curiosity would have kept me there to watch and take photos. One of my woodland neighbours had mentioned how he accidentally shredded a nest of them while using his brush-cutter. He was attacked by a large number of them and got stung about 30 times and was very frightened at the time. This warning and the fact that they were starting to take flight in my direction, prompted me to leg-it as fast as I could. I ran back and jumped in the car for safety. I felt a sharp pain in my lower back and discovered one of the little critters had climbed down the waistband on my trousers and managed to sting me three times before I snuffed it out. I think I escaped lightly there.

I found these pretty little mushrooms growing. Haven’t identified them yet but couldn’t resist posting a photo of them.

Two pretty little mushrooms.

Yesterday was the culmination of a busy week of preparation. Being a bit of a perfectionist, I often tend to procrastinate but then find myself feeling frustrated that I haven’t achieved as much as I’d like to. Time to knuckle down and get things moving. There are lots of things I want to do in my woods but not enough man-hours so I try to prioritise jobs so that my time there is used most effectively. We are having a log burning stove fitted this week, so bringing logs back is high on the list. But what to do with them when I get them back is another problem. So I ordered a log store for the back yard. That arrived (flat packed) on Tuesday so a couple of hours spent putting it together and levelling it up was the first job. Then putting my few logs in it. A satisfying feeling, like a food in the fridge.

My newly erected and partly stocked log store.

There’s nowhere for anyone to sit if they visit the woods, and nowhere to put my gear, other than on the ground. So I decided it’s time to get a few home comforts in there. While waiting for delivery of the log store, I was busy varnishing an old builders plank that I thought would make a simple and easy bench. I also figured, if I could get some free wooden pallets from somewhere, I could make a rough and ready log store down at the woods for the surplus logs to start seasoning. A few calls here and there and I located about eight of them. One has the slats placed very close together and looked like a table top. So next job, using some scrap wood I have been storing for about 15 years, I made some legs for it.

Time also to get some power tools to help the jobs along, namely sawing up lots of logs from the deadwood and clearing the masses of brambles. That’s an area I have procrastinated about, so some internet research done and a Husqvarna chainsaw and brush-cutter are now on order. And talking about sawing logs, there will be a lot of thin and sickly trees to fell but there’s a TPO on the wood (Tree Preservation Order) which means I need permission before cutting any. The best way is to apply to the Forestry Commission for a thinning licence. To prepare my application has taken a lot of time and study. They need estimates of the total number of trees, the species and ages of them, and the hardest part – the estimated volume of timber. I pushed myself this week to get that finished and sent off. It’s done, just a waiting game now till they authorise it. Finally, I needed some concrete blocks to act as legs to stand my plank-bench on, so a trip to the builders’ yard for those.

So to top the week off, car loaded to the hilt, I visited the wood yesterday to take my new bench and table and set it all up and bring back some more logs for the log store. It was a very dull and dreary day weather-wise, so the wood had a very sombre feel about it. Signs of autumn are taking effect and a feeling of winding down now was very much evident. First job, put the plank and blocks in place to make my bench. For now, I decided to place it where I have my base for resting and brewing coffee. Next job, assemble the table and give it a coat of preserver. That went in the same area, so now I have a picnic area set-up and somewhere to put my bits and pieces when working. I placed another pallet underneath and loaded it up with some small dead sticks to keep them dry ready for campfires. A large sycamore is lying dead on the ground, so I started hand sawing logs of it to bring home. Hard work – can’t wait to get the chainsaw. All in all, a very productive and satisfying week.

My new base-camp, bench and table.

Had a day at the woods yesterday. Warm dry and sunny but signs of autumn are showing. In particular I noticed lots of new fungi appearing. I can identify very few accurately so it was a case of consulting my fantastic Collins book of British fungi and trying to find them. I found an amazing stinkhorn being devoured by a giant slug.

Stinkhorn fungi – seen them in books but not in the flesh before

Next was a flush of small mushrooms growing on an old larch stump. I think they are called sulphur tuft.

I think these are sulphur tuft fungi

I have quite a few dead and decaying birch trees. These beauties are called birch polypores or the common name of razor strop due to their leathery texture inside which can be used for “stropping” a blade edge.

Birch polypores or “razor strop” fungi growing on dead birch trees.

Finally I found some beautiful small white fungi growing where I have cleared a path. I think they are some kind of puffball in their infancy and possibly these are “common puffball” but also look like “pestle puffball”.

I think these are called common puffball. They are very small though.

Evidence of the shoot-chewing culprit – roe deer tracks

I’ve put in some overtime at the woods lately. More a case of trying to get the ball rolling with my thinning application. On the first visit there was more measuring and calculating of the compartment sizes and counting numbers of trees to thin. I ordered some tree marking paint and went around the sycamore stand looking for the obvious stems that need to come down. Just “getting my eye in” now. The diameters vary quite considerably although they were all planted at the same time. So it’s a case of looking for the thinnest, sickliest stems and the forked and badly shaped ones first. I’ll do a second trawl to find the ones I missed first time and any that I think need to go just to favour the more healthier ones close by.

I continued with my machete, “bramble bashing” down the boundary line and eventually got a clear enough path to run my blue rope all the way down. This will make it so much easier to see where my plot ends now. An exhausting but satisfying day. Spotted some deer tracks in the mud and on the way out, there was a roe deer in the adjacent field. Beautiful as they are, they are a nuisance to the woodlander. They chew off new shoots and stunt the growth of plants and young trees.

My second visit was to meet the man from the Woodland Trust again. Another interesting experience, new ideas and tips to learn. More bramble bashing just to fill in time. Spotted some very interesting fungi. Haven’t identified them yet though. It’s getting to that time of year where they are springing up all over the place. There’s always something new to see with each visit if you take the time and be observant.

Saturday 23rd August and a lovely day in my woods. There are signs of late summer showing. A kind of mellowness and plants looking tired and starting to wind down a little. I’d spoken to the Forestry Commission about applying for a thinning licence. The application requires all sorts of specific information about what you intend to fell – numbers of stems, area, age, species, volume of timber etc. So I started in earnestness to calculate what I am labelling as “compartment 1” which is a sycamore stand of approximately 500 stems of about 50 years old.

I decided I needed to measure the area fairly accurately, as much for my own interest as well as the FC. I have had an old cloth tape measure that winds up into a leather case. I had it given about 50 years ago and not found a use for it. In fact I have been trying to sell it on car boot sales. Well it finally found it’s purpose. I tied one end to a hazel post and hammered it in to the ground then walked it out as far as it would go along my borders, leapfrogging it each time I reached the end and eventually getting a total length for three perimeters which was then easily transferred to my drawing of my woods.

I also marked a small area, counted the number of stems then multiplied it by the relevant amount to get an approximate total of stems. A leisurely walk around with my machete then to mark trees which are obviously on my hit list to fell. In between jobs I managed to saw up a couple of trugs full of logs to take home for the fire too.

A buzzard kept calling out and at one point landed in the top of one of my tall sycamores. The first paths I cut are holding out for now but the bramble is trying it’s best to regain it’s territory. Someone referred to bramble as “thugs” – an apt name I think.

Some of my woodland neighbours called on me too. A nice chat and a peek at their woods to see how they are doing finished the day off nicely.

The first tree I’ve felled – a small dead sycamore – now in my logpile