Ive just spent a very pleasurable weekend in a private wood just outside of Coventry.
There were only 3 of us until the Sunday when Chris had to then leave whilst Damian and I stayed on until the Monday morning.
Its a lovely wood with lots of various areas with different feels, dense young larch growth, older more open Larch areas, open Beech areas and some other areas with a wide variety of trees so it was nice to wander round.
Anyway pictures tell the story a lot better than I do so here they are
The main camp area looking at our communal pitch
My pitch
Chriss pitch
Damian looking very at home in his pitch
The view from my pitch as I had a cup of tea
On the Saturday Damian took Chris and I for a wander round the woods
Whilst we were out we saw two species of deer, Muntjac and Brown deer. The brown deer are part of the herd maintained by the estate along with black deer.
There is a deer in this picture but very well hidden
There was also lots of sign of raptor activity. We heard and saw a couple of buzzards circling around but I didnt managed to get a picture of them. We also found a lot of kill sites showing that theres sparrowhawks at work in the woods as well
The woods are a haven for fungi but nothing was out at the moment apart from the birch polypore
Whilst we were wandering round I came across this burl you can almost see the face watching over the woods
As well as the raptors there were a lot of other birds out and about, long tailed and coal tits were flitting around in flocks, quite a few pheasants including silverback were running around and we heard woodpeckers and theyre obviously around looking at the state of this rotten birch
This interesting stump was about 20 feet from my pitch (you can see it in one of the earlier pics). Its obviously a home to something but what we dont know
When we got back Chris had a play with his new knife a Paul Kirtley Raven knife. I hand a handle of it as was extremely impressed with the feel and build of it, it felt really comfortable in the hand.
On the Saturday night Damian treated Chris and I to a Thai red curry
Prepping the dutch oven
In goes the meat
Then the spices
Followed by the coconut milk then the water chestnuts and bamboo shoots
And this was the end product and it was as delicious as it looks I can assure you
After that repast we just sat and watched the bush tv and had a great chinwag
On the Sunday morning I treated myself to pancakes with maple syrup
The final picture is a little warning to show folks why you should look up as well at any potential pitch
This oak had a big split left in it when it lost a branch and creaked and clonked every time a breeze caught it so it wont be too long before it comes down I reckon.
And that is it folks... I had a great time and just want to say thank you to my host for the weekend and I'm looking forward to going back again soon
There were only 3 of us until the Sunday when Chris had to then leave whilst Damian and I stayed on until the Monday morning.
Its a lovely wood with lots of various areas with different feels, dense young larch growth, older more open Larch areas, open Beech areas and some other areas with a wide variety of trees so it was nice to wander round.
Anyway pictures tell the story a lot better than I do so here they are
The main camp area looking at our communal pitch
My pitch
Chriss pitch
Damian looking very at home in his pitch
The view from my pitch as I had a cup of tea
On the Saturday Damian took Chris and I for a wander round the woods
Whilst we were out we saw two species of deer, Muntjac and Brown deer. The brown deer are part of the herd maintained by the estate along with black deer.
There is a deer in this picture but very well hidden
There was also lots of sign of raptor activity. We heard and saw a couple of buzzards circling around but I didnt managed to get a picture of them. We also found a lot of kill sites showing that theres sparrowhawks at work in the woods as well
The woods are a haven for fungi but nothing was out at the moment apart from the birch polypore
Whilst we were wandering round I came across this burl you can almost see the face watching over the woods
As well as the raptors there were a lot of other birds out and about, long tailed and coal tits were flitting around in flocks, quite a few pheasants including silverback were running around and we heard woodpeckers and theyre obviously around looking at the state of this rotten birch
This interesting stump was about 20 feet from my pitch (you can see it in one of the earlier pics). Its obviously a home to something but what we dont know
When we got back Chris had a play with his new knife a Paul Kirtley Raven knife. I hand a handle of it as was extremely impressed with the feel and build of it, it felt really comfortable in the hand.
On the Saturday night Damian treated Chris and I to a Thai red curry
Prepping the dutch oven
In goes the meat
Then the spices
Followed by the coconut milk then the water chestnuts and bamboo shoots
And this was the end product and it was as delicious as it looks I can assure you
After that repast we just sat and watched the bush tv and had a great chinwag
On the Sunday morning I treated myself to pancakes with maple syrup
The final picture is a little warning to show folks why you should look up as well at any potential pitch
This oak had a big split left in it when it lost a branch and creaked and clonked every time a breeze caught it so it wont be too long before it comes down I reckon.
And that is it folks... I had a great time and just want to say thank you to my host for the weekend and I'm looking forward to going back again soon
but it suits me 
~ and I'm more than a bit gutted that I couldn't make it 
??).
