A Weekend in the Wood

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Broch

Life Member
Jan 18, 2009
7,983
7,759
Mid Wales
www.mont-hmg.co.uk
Surprisingly I haven't managed to spend as much time in the wood over the last couple of months as I would have liked. So, when the missus said she would join me down there for the weekend I jumped at the chance.

A tawny owl had decided to use the tree-bog (composting toilet) as its daytime roost and made an almighty mess in there. A fair bit of time was spent emptying it (we use it to store various bits of kit over winter), washing all the mess down, cleaning all the gear and putting up some wire mesh over the window. All clean and tidy again now :)

Saturday evening was beautiful down there. Late sunshine, plenty of birdsong, a nice meal and a bottle of wine (and good company of course). We bivvied (?) and drifted off to sleep to the sound of tawny owls and rustlings in the undergrowth :)

Sunday morning was actually quite chilly so it took a couple of cups of coffee to get ourselves going. In the early morning sun a hare lopped down the field just outside the wood. A nest of great spotted woodpecker chicks was making an almighty racket begging to be fed and a blue tit's nest in an old ash tree just next to our camp was a non-stop blur of parent birds going in and out feeding. Other nests down there include a redstart, pied flycatchers, wrens, robins and blackbirds - I'm sure there are more; the whole wood seems to be a constant movement of birds collecting food.

We're still clearing after all the coppicing and thinning in winter but I wasn't going to start burning any more brash in the current dry state of the countryside. There is still plenty to do however. I hadn't put up the parachute over the permanent camp yet; probably a good job considering the gales we had a week or so back. So, I tidied up around the camp, recovered the pulley that had was stuck in the tree, re rigged the parachute and spent the rest of the day trying to peg it out tidily. It's all ready now for when lock-down is relaxed an people can come and enjoy it with us :)

A few photos:

The mess and pellets the tawny owl had left in the loo -

tawny owl mess.jpg


The evening view west from the camp

view from camp west.jpg


This part of Wales is well known for woodland vampire hords so plenty of stakes are required :)

pegs.jpg

And finally the parachute is up and the firepit installed ready for the next camp

camp 2020.jpg
 

Van-Wild

Full Member
Feb 17, 2018
1,400
1,221
44
UK
What a lovely place to have @Broch. Looks really peaceful. At least the owl was trying to use the toilet eh....

I really must learn to identify our Bird life. Looks like you have plenty to keep you company!

Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk
 

Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
38,937
4,570
S. Lanarkshire
Beautiful :) It sounds idyllic, and so very full of life :) Thank you for sharing a little of it.
I hope you have a lovely Summer and Autumn there :cool:

M
 

Wander

Native
Jan 6, 2017
1,418
1,983
Here There & Everywhere
Cracking.
That view is a terrific one. I bet just sitting there, watching the sun go down, the increasing shadows from the fire, the whole Earth softening and relaxing, is a great experience. Brilliant.
In November I bought a 5 acre meadow that has some open woods at one end.
I'm on annual leave next week and intend on spending my first night out in my own field.
 

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