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Himalayan Balsam and Rosebay Willow herb is a plague on any waste land including boggy land.

No go for a swamp cypress, I find on the whole that conifers don't like to get their feet wet, but taxodium distichum is something else, if you can find one.

Today I was persuaded buy a guy called Alex from Hammer and Hound forge, at the re-enactors market in Coventry to buy a rather unusual bushcraft knife. What makes it different is a canted handle. Whatever, there are some things you can put in your hand and it just feels right.

Cut it into small pieces for quilting, or unpick it and use it to stuff cushions.

Which of course shows the ridiculousness of trying to ban "weapons" by type, rather than regulating their sale and use. I saw recently that German knife manufacturers got round the ban on combat style knives by modifying the handles and rebranding them as kitchen knives. The problem is partly...

Indeed my grans 1930s council house had a range back in the day but coal burning not wood.

Probably down to good genetics and survival of the fittest in the end. I have certainly been exposed to soil bacteria all my life, I not infrequently get small cuts when I am out and about and they don't get infected. I am also one of these people yet to get Covid inspite of the fact that I come...

Nope if you read it Seaxes are excluded as are other types of swords used for fencing and re-enactment.

How about banning the culture that makes these ridiculous fantasy weapons cool? Personally I don't mind them banning things no sensible person would even want to hang on their wall, that is if they even exist in significant numbers so long as it draws their attention away from functional and...

That is sophisticated, all I have is an outbacker portable stove, doesn't even have a damper on the flue, but I can cook basic stuff on it.

It rather depends on your definition of wilderness, would the Burren in Ireland count? I would call it wild at least. I would also say Caithness and Sutherland, there is not an awful lot there.

The fun I guess is in discovering and learning. A few years back now, I decided I would take over a piece of land, and I would learn by doing how to convert it from derelict land to a woodland environment part of which spends time underwater. I have had to combat the farmer who thinks I should...

I am tempted to say whatever works, use it, you will find out soon enough whether it is suitable or not. It is not as if there were only ever one pattern of billhook. My Elwell slasher is like a cross between a billhook and a thick machete, it works as well as a bill in some situations. I also...

Willow grows very easily from shoots, and very quickly too. If you have an established willow and pollard it, you have a ready supply of willow whips to plant. It will soon get established. It is exponential, once you have a few established the amount of shoots you will get off them will just...

Plant willows, but whatever you do don't read that Algernon Blackwood story if you do.

How do you keep Ventile clean though, my trousers have become stained with charcoal and I just can't get it out, I am gonna have to dye them black I reckon.

I still have a belt that fastened my trousers when I was 18, it will not even go round my waist these days though.

I remember the Donkey Jackets, they had vinyl over the shoulders just where you need it to be most waterproof. They were eventually superseded by the ubiquitous high viz jacket, which of course is completely waterproof but not breathable. I keep one on the back seat of the car for emergencies.

Wool can be windproof if it is a felted fabric like loden. When I was little I was sent to school in all weathers in a trusty duffle coat, with the hood up that saw me through the winter of 1963.

It is all in the weave basically, I can remember back in the day gabardine being a thing, not sure what that is exactly but it is what they used to make macs out of. At the moment I am wearing wool as my outer layer. I have given over my ventile trousers for wool because that is more comfortable...