Recent content by Ben_Hillwalker

I will be there for the Saturday (27th) but must go home in the evening.

Just to confirm with you all, I can definitely make the Saturday but will have to see about doing overnight as well (I may be busy on Sunday).

Swans are extremely territorial in the breeding season, but more gregarious in the winter. However, I've never seen mute swans in such huge numbers. So they probably were whoopers who've migrated here for the winter.

The winter thrushes make a distinctive "Tchuck...Tchuck" call, a much more meaty sound than our resident thrushes make (blackbird, song thrush, mistle thrush). Back in Scandinavia, fieldfares have an intriguing way of defending their nests. In short, they crap on anything that comes near :eek:

Dear All, Thank you for the flurry of interest. I must confess that I had completely forgotten about this message and I had come here looking for info on Dorkingbushcraft. It seems like some kind of meet-up is way overdue. I am car-less so my transport options are a little limited but...

Where DO you get those emoticons from?! Mines an Adnams by the way with a few roast chestnuts to follow.

Many MANY! moons ago I went to an evening talk given by Terry Pratchett. I thought he was witty, clever and quite a raconteur. Apparently one of his formative experiences was reading a Famous Five book at around the age of 8 or so and then thinking "I could do better than this". Having said...

Paint stripper and a bit of elbow grease. It'll come up lovely.

I will be wearing one, but only from Remembrance Day to Remembrance Sunday. That's always seemed appropriate to me. I don't get this business of wearing one from the INSTANT that they come available.

For my sins I work in the drugs industry. My job is pretty much desk-based but with the odd bit of clinical research stuff thrown in. However, I will be starting a new job in the next few weeks for a consultancy firm based in Guildford. Moving on to new jobs seems to be a bit of a theme here:)

Hiya, Nice to hear from you. I was beginning to wonder if I would be the only bushcrafter in Surrey.:o I will be moving to Godalming around the middle of September so I will be around for meet ups around then. In the meantime feel free to e-mail or PM me. I take it you haven't been...

I will be moving to Godalming in Surrey in September and I would like to hook up with any bushcrafters in the area. I know there are a couple of good bushcraft schools in that area, but I also want to meet up with like-minded bushcrafting folk. Wildlife watching, foraging or just bivying...

From memory, some of the flowers in your original picture might well have been wild carrot. Some of the flower heads had that woven-ball-look that I always associate with wild carrot. But like I said, its easy to confuse yarrow with an umbelifer.

The picture of the wild carrot leaves (bottom one of that set) seem very like Yarrow to me. Yarrow is easy to confuse with umbellifers. I've done it myself.

If you can manage/afford it then get an NPTC qualification in chainsaw use. Its pretty much a must-have for practical outdoor conservation work