Spent 6 nights in the wood and returned to the world of electricity and noise just yesterday..
It was unseasonally mild, if damp, and my winter sleeping bag was almost too cosy at times. The wood seems to slumber in that half world between Winter and Spring, birdsong is limited to a few Bluetits squabbling, the Woodpeckers who were taking advantage of the soft well soaked standing dead trees to feed and the evening concert of the Tawny Owls.
Fungi seem to thrive in the damp conditions..
Dead Man's Fingers grow in great numbers on the fallen trees
I have a limited knowledge of fungi, I thought these might be developing Varied layer Polypore..possibly? Not sure.
King Alfred's lack of cooking skills are well represented in the wood..
The hatchet's not buried in a living tree...it's long since dead..
Much of the wood is very ancient Hornbeam coppice, when I see these trees I always remember back to long ago when I was a nipper and learning the trees.."How do you know it's a Hornbeam?"...."'Cos it's got skin like an Elephant"..
There you are..one 'Elephant tree'..
The Hornbeam burns slowly and with a fierce heat and was grown to fuel the furnaces of the Sussex Iron Masters who made the guns for King Henry and later his Daughter, Good Queen Bess. Drake, Hawkins and Frobrisher and her other Seadogs prized the Sussex Iron guns and large areas were given to growing the Hornbeam for the furnaces and still the Hornbeam coppices stand.
My water source in the wood is a well which I found by tracing back this rill or steamlet..
The photo shows it running down from rising ground, so I went beyond the rise and there given away by the presence of Rushes, Ferns and other healthy growth I found the well.
My well 'Bucket' (Courtesy of Tesco) is about 2 feet below the surface, the water is crystal clear and icy cold. I run it through my filter and boil it anyway, but I prefer to use the well other than my small boundry stream which tends to run sluggishly in dry weather.
The well is lined with ancient local stone and it's easy to think it once served the old time wood cutters who fed the furnaces.
Looking back through the 2011 diary, I spent 81 nights in the wood last year and always of 3 nights or more at a time, so for me anyway, a tent is my preference. It's not necessary to camouflage the tent at all, this is not 'stealth camping'.. it's just that I think the harsh curve of the tent is better broken up as I feel it's slightly less obtrusive.
The very obvious Deer trail that runs close by is still in regular use so perhaps the Deer think so too..
(poor photo)
The Catkins are on the Hazel
The woodland folk are stirring..well Mr Meece who lives in this hole, stirring on Sunday night anyway..I often take the individual little cheeses as part of my rations and I find the wax covering and cellophane paper is handy to 'kick start' the fire the next morning. I left some wax and cellophane coverings tucked in the fork of a tree on Sunday night only to find the next morning that someone and I think he lives here ...
had scoffed all the wax cheese coverings. I listened at the hole thinking I might hear the groans and curses of a belly-aching meece, but I think he survived...and I still managed to get the fire going anyway..
The year is off to a good start..
Historical ramblings now...
Definitely not 'Bushey' but may be of interest...
A bad photo, but all I could get from a fast, busy country road safely..Look through the trees to the horizon beyond the green grass to the rising ground and the stand of trees on the sky line where a small farm has stood for centuries..
In 1264 Simon de Montfort Earl of Leicester finally lost patience with King Henry 111 who had failed to honour agreements made some years before at Oxford. The Earl raised an army of fellow Barons and supporters and met the King in battle on the Sussex Downs above the town of Lewes. An early success by the King's son, Prince Edward, leading cavalry was short lived and De Montfort's men began the destruction of the King's forces who were made up partly by Militia raised in the various London Boroughs and the area of the Capital. These Militia began to flee the field of battle, streaming down from the heights and heading panic stricken North towards London.
De Montfort captured the King, Prince Edward and other Royal supporters and then realised that the large number of still armed, but escaped Militia mighjt upset his future intentions of riding into London. With this in mind he sent his cavalry and mounted Men at Arms in pursuit. The Londoners gathered in a last attempt to defend themselves on the ground in my photo. The name that has come down through the 749 years since gives an answer to the events of that brief meeting between De Montfort's professional soldiers and the partly trained London Militia...
One of the routes to my camping wood runs past this place and I often think of a Spring day in 1264 when I see that place name..
..
It was unseasonally mild, if damp, and my winter sleeping bag was almost too cosy at times. The wood seems to slumber in that half world between Winter and Spring, birdsong is limited to a few Bluetits squabbling, the Woodpeckers who were taking advantage of the soft well soaked standing dead trees to feed and the evening concert of the Tawny Owls.
Fungi seem to thrive in the damp conditions..
Dead Man's Fingers grow in great numbers on the fallen trees
I have a limited knowledge of fungi, I thought these might be developing Varied layer Polypore..possibly? Not sure.
King Alfred's lack of cooking skills are well represented in the wood..
Much of the wood is very ancient Hornbeam coppice, when I see these trees I always remember back to long ago when I was a nipper and learning the trees.."How do you know it's a Hornbeam?"...."'Cos it's got skin like an Elephant"..
There you are..one 'Elephant tree'..
The Hornbeam burns slowly and with a fierce heat and was grown to fuel the furnaces of the Sussex Iron Masters who made the guns for King Henry and later his Daughter, Good Queen Bess. Drake, Hawkins and Frobrisher and her other Seadogs prized the Sussex Iron guns and large areas were given to growing the Hornbeam for the furnaces and still the Hornbeam coppices stand.
My water source in the wood is a well which I found by tracing back this rill or steamlet..
The photo shows it running down from rising ground, so I went beyond the rise and there given away by the presence of Rushes, Ferns and other healthy growth I found the well.
My well 'Bucket' (Courtesy of Tesco) is about 2 feet below the surface, the water is crystal clear and icy cold. I run it through my filter and boil it anyway, but I prefer to use the well other than my small boundry stream which tends to run sluggishly in dry weather.
The well is lined with ancient local stone and it's easy to think it once served the old time wood cutters who fed the furnaces.
Looking back through the 2011 diary, I spent 81 nights in the wood last year and always of 3 nights or more at a time, so for me anyway, a tent is my preference. It's not necessary to camouflage the tent at all, this is not 'stealth camping'..
it's just that I think the harsh curve of the tent is better broken up as I feel it's slightly less obtrusive.
The very obvious Deer trail that runs close by is still in regular use so perhaps the Deer think so too..
The Catkins are on the Hazel
The woodland folk are stirring..well Mr Meece who lives in this hole, stirring on Sunday night anyway..I often take the individual little cheeses as part of my rations and I find the wax covering and cellophane paper is handy to 'kick start' the fire the next morning. I left some wax and cellophane coverings tucked in the fork of a tree on Sunday night only to find the next morning that someone and I think he lives here ...
The year is off to a good start..
Historical ramblings now...
Definitely not 'Bushey' but may be of interest...
A bad photo, but all I could get from a fast, busy country road safely..Look through the trees to the horizon beyond the green grass to the rising ground and the stand of trees on the sky line where a small farm has stood for centuries..
In 1264 Simon de Montfort Earl of Leicester finally lost patience with King Henry 111 who had failed to honour agreements made some years before at Oxford. The Earl raised an army of fellow Barons and supporters and met the King in battle on the Sussex Downs above the town of Lewes. An early success by the King's son, Prince Edward, leading cavalry was short lived and De Montfort's men began the destruction of the King's forces who were made up partly by Militia raised in the various London Boroughs and the area of the Capital. These Militia began to flee the field of battle, streaming down from the heights and heading panic stricken North towards London.
De Montfort captured the King, Prince Edward and other Royal supporters and then realised that the large number of still armed, but escaped Militia mighjt upset his future intentions of riding into London. With this in mind he sent his cavalry and mounted Men at Arms in pursuit. The Londoners gathered in a last attempt to defend themselves on the ground in my photo. The name that has come down through the 749 years since gives an answer to the events of that brief meeting between De Montfort's professional soldiers and the partly trained London Militia...
One of the routes to my camping wood runs past this place and I often think of a Spring day in 1264 when I see that place name..
