What 'firsts' have you experienced recently?
Here's a couple of mine to be going on with (I'm fairly new to all this, so firsts are easy to come by...)
First fire without use of matches or cigarette lighter. Got me a firestick and lit a fire with it on Sunday, birch bark tinder. Took a while to get the hang of it, very happy I chose a sunny day as a test day, I wouldn't have liked to do the figuring out with rain lashing down...
First sight of St Georges Mushrooms. Now I know what a 'mealy' smell is. Seen 2 other patches since, nice to know where they are...
First sight of Chicken of the woods. Lots of it. Saw it from about 50 metres away, across a canal and a river, up a very old and gnarled looking willow. There must be well over a kilo of it, I'll try to post some pics over the next few days.
First example of 'an-idiot-with-an-axe'. Clearly not a bushcrafty type, camped directly beneath the tree with the COTW (leaving said fungus untouched), hacked down a couple of saplings to rest on a pile of bricks for a crappy bench type thing, stripped the bark from a still-standing willow sapling then left the bark lying in strips on the floor (so clearly didn't harvest it for cordage or anything). Fire built from soggy, punky rotted wood and left with a duvet (I kid you not) on top of the fire with newspaper (to start the fire, presumably) wrapped in it. Litter all over the show, clearly just put the tent up, started a fire, hit things with an axe and smoked some joints (judging from the nature of the litter). Irritating to say the least.
Finish on a high, (like the idiot with an axe...) saw my first Ramsom on Sunday too. I know they are not exactly rare, but they just don't seem to grow near me, I only found one single plant, but I've seen it now so I'll recognise it when I see it again.
Sunday was a good day.
Here's a couple of mine to be going on with (I'm fairly new to all this, so firsts are easy to come by...)
First fire without use of matches or cigarette lighter. Got me a firestick and lit a fire with it on Sunday, birch bark tinder. Took a while to get the hang of it, very happy I chose a sunny day as a test day, I wouldn't have liked to do the figuring out with rain lashing down...
First sight of St Georges Mushrooms. Now I know what a 'mealy' smell is. Seen 2 other patches since, nice to know where they are...
First sight of Chicken of the woods. Lots of it. Saw it from about 50 metres away, across a canal and a river, up a very old and gnarled looking willow. There must be well over a kilo of it, I'll try to post some pics over the next few days.
First example of 'an-idiot-with-an-axe'. Clearly not a bushcrafty type, camped directly beneath the tree with the COTW (leaving said fungus untouched), hacked down a couple of saplings to rest on a pile of bricks for a crappy bench type thing, stripped the bark from a still-standing willow sapling then left the bark lying in strips on the floor (so clearly didn't harvest it for cordage or anything). Fire built from soggy, punky rotted wood and left with a duvet (I kid you not) on top of the fire with newspaper (to start the fire, presumably) wrapped in it. Litter all over the show, clearly just put the tent up, started a fire, hit things with an axe and smoked some joints (judging from the nature of the litter). Irritating to say the least.
Finish on a high, (like the idiot with an axe...) saw my first Ramsom on Sunday too. I know they are not exactly rare, but they just don't seem to grow near me, I only found one single plant, but I've seen it now so I'll recognise it when I see it again.
Sunday was a good day.
