On 13th March I posted that I was going to spend some time in the wood and some people reminded me to post photos on my return. I've been out a few days but a technical glitch prevented me from posting, all cured now..
I posted this elsewhere under my proper nickname when I thought access here was not possible, so if you read it somewhere and think deja vu, don't worry you're not cracking up..
A few days before Ostara were spent backpacking food supplies into the wood, there is no vehicle access so it was just a matter of caching sufficient basics to last a few weeks.
Always attend unit reunions as not only do you get to tell exaggerated war stories, you get to capture goodies..
My grown kids have always been used to me disappearing for periods as in my working days, they're used to it, but my 23year old Law Graduate Grandaughter worries about the 'ol boy and demands some sort of comms set up. So to the rescue comes my 'Wrinkly Phone M2'
No GPS, Internet, Camera, music player. You don't have to poke the screen just those big easy to see buttons. Useless for monitoring Moon landings and it won't tell you high tide time in Hong Kong but it's great for phone calls, text messages and...a magic alarm
Enter some preset personal 'phone numbers and a text message and when you hit the button it sends texts to each number in turn until someone reads one. My message reads " Injured in the wood" This keeps her Ladyship happy and brings the Cavalry. I carry the phone switched off.. no charging facility in the wood....in an old hard specs case..
To be honest, a fall resulting in a compound fracture to a leg/ankle when I'm away from the safety of my tent and warm sleeping bag in the weather conditions we recently experienced and a combination of freezing and below temperatures, the drastic wind chill which seemed always present, the shock from injury and age..I'm a shout off 69 and there would be no guarantee of seeing the next dawn. So fair enough..comms set up was required.
A question some may ask..5 weeks what about?
It was obvious from when I first came to the wood that the perfectly acceptable 'Cat scrape' that folk use on overnighters would not do. The problem was solved wondering round a big DIY shop at an end of summer sale..£5.
Half an hour with a pad saw, pop rivet gun and an old plastic fuel drum off my boat.
I move it periodically to a different location and backfill the deep latrine hole with fire ash and topsoil. Fine healthy crops of Bluebells at the old sites indicate that no harm is being done. An early morning visit on an ice bound frosty morning is....interesting!!
Last year I only spent 70 odd nights out but the year before was 130 something and this year it will be more, so something had to be organised. Just wish I could find a fur seat cover..
With the long cold winter and late spring the wood showed only sparse ground cover the first week. Although the sun did try on many days, this small skin biting sleet howled through the wood on other days. I later found out that at about this time folk in the North were being buried in snow drifts so I'll shut up...
I like the shapes of Nature and managed a few photos..
This big green octopus lives on the other side of the stream. Once a great Beech, she's laid there for decades and is now home to Mosses, Lichens and Squirrels.
When the sun lit this Holly Tree by the stream it glowed white like the imitation trees the Christian folk put in their houses at Yule.
By the end of the second week temperatures rose a fraction and the woodland floor started to change a little..
These wild Daffodils had found the sun and the game trails showed in the new growth
The passage of many feet has worn the bark smooth on this fallen tree
A gale screamed through the wood one night and I heard the crash of falling trees and branches. Daylight revealed a Beech bough had fallen not far from the campsite. I'm careful where I camp and I'm sure Thunor looks after me, so the wood holds no fears.
These trees fell long ago in the "Hurricane" of the 1980's and now the deer lay up in there in the clearings.
There is death in the wood, but the cycle of life goes on and it made me smile to see the Bluebells actually growing through the fallen leaves.
And here's a tree for the desperate and lost..Her branches reach South towards the warm sun and she wears a green coat of moss on her back against the cold North Wind..and people say trees are just wood..
One of my bird boxes..now either it's a fat Bluetit with a hammer and chisel who's made the door bigger or..it's Woody and I think I know who..
Yep! here's the evidence M'lud...
Personal kit..I know the value of good kit from my working days but I seem to get along fine with what others would not class as proper Bushcraft gear..but that's ok because I'm not a Bushcrafter..
My tent is a few years old, cost less than £100 in a sale and is 100% waterproof and has withstood some fearsome gales. Not suitable for a Welsh or Scottish mountainside in a winter blizzard, but fine for a Southern English wood..even in winter.
The small folding saw with the red handle (Chinese) I bought some years ago for a few Euros in Portugal, it still cuts very well. I prefer the Cold Steel pipe Hawk with the longer cutting edge and slight weight increase over the more popular Trail Hawk. I don't do much chopping anyway and although it looks new the hawk is in fact old. It just happens to be wearing it's newest black coat..Ford Focus black courtesy of Halfords I recall and I haven't set fire to the handle, it's wrapped in squash racket cushion grip which makes it safe and comfortable to use with cold wet hands.
The pouches contain first aid kit and fire lighting stuff, ferro rod for emergencies but matches as prime fire starters..I don't do carving or woodigami and I have little use for a small knife. My belt knife is an exception to cheap gear but it was a present from the kids years ago..The whole lot goes under my smock out of sight.
I have a knack of accidently crunching match boxes, I find loose matches floating around in pockets all the time but the nice folk at Aldi supermarkets sell little tins of mints. The tins have hinged lids and are virtually waterproof, but more importantly Wiccaproof. Two bits of sandpaper stuck on and the tin holds practically a full box of Swan Vestas.
Of course real bushcrafters will buy the Spearmint sweets and get green tins..
Ok all you whizzo photographers hide your eyes..
Nearly every evening the Deer would feed close to my camp and one evening I decided now was the time for photos...batteries died!!! My camera set on auto wouldn't forcus properly and I don't know how to do it manually, but sticking to the "Photos or it didn't happen" rule, this was the best I could do..
Here's scrounger..my regular breakfast partner, second photo he's wandering around in the fire smoke completely untroubled and still stuffing his beak..
Not wearing a watch and without a radio and the phone put away, my tally stick was this piece of dried Ivy stem..35 notches show the days and when I came out the world had changed. Cyprus was skint, snow drifts had been of impressive depths in the North, Boston and Lady Thatcher had been headlines.
Soon it will be Beltane and time to return to the wood.
Travel safely all.
I posted this elsewhere under my proper nickname when I thought access here was not possible, so if you read it somewhere and think deja vu, don't worry you're not cracking up..
A few days before Ostara were spent backpacking food supplies into the wood, there is no vehicle access so it was just a matter of caching sufficient basics to last a few weeks.
Always attend unit reunions as not only do you get to tell exaggerated war stories, you get to capture goodies..
My grown kids have always been used to me disappearing for periods as in my working days, they're used to it, but my 23year old Law Graduate Grandaughter worries about the 'ol boy and demands some sort of comms set up. So to the rescue comes my 'Wrinkly Phone M2'
No GPS, Internet, Camera, music player. You don't have to poke the screen just those big easy to see buttons. Useless for monitoring Moon landings and it won't tell you high tide time in Hong Kong but it's great for phone calls, text messages and...a magic alarm
Enter some preset personal 'phone numbers and a text message and when you hit the button it sends texts to each number in turn until someone reads one. My message reads " Injured in the wood" This keeps her Ladyship happy and brings the Cavalry. I carry the phone switched off.. no charging facility in the wood..
..in an old hard specs case..
To be honest, a fall resulting in a compound fracture to a leg/ankle when I'm away from the safety of my tent and warm sleeping bag in the weather conditions we recently experienced and a combination of freezing and below temperatures, the drastic wind chill which seemed always present, the shock from injury and age..I'm a shout off 69 and there would be no guarantee of seeing the next dawn. So fair enough..comms set up was required.
A question some may ask..5 weeks what about?
It was obvious from when I first came to the wood that the perfectly acceptable 'Cat scrape' that folk use on overnighters would not do. The problem was solved wondering round a big DIY shop at an end of summer sale..£5.
Half an hour with a pad saw, pop rivet gun and an old plastic fuel drum off my boat.
I move it periodically to a different location and backfill the deep latrine hole with fire ash and topsoil. Fine healthy crops of Bluebells at the old sites indicate that no harm is being done. An early morning visit on an ice bound frosty morning is....interesting!!
Last year I only spent 70 odd nights out but the year before was 130 something and this year it will be more, so something had to be organised. Just wish I could find a fur seat cover..
With the long cold winter and late spring the wood showed only sparse ground cover the first week. Although the sun did try on many days, this small skin biting sleet howled through the wood on other days. I later found out that at about this time folk in the North were being buried in snow drifts so I'll shut up...
I like the shapes of Nature and managed a few photos..
This big green octopus lives on the other side of the stream. Once a great Beech, she's laid there for decades and is now home to Mosses, Lichens and Squirrels.
When the sun lit this Holly Tree by the stream it glowed white like the imitation trees the Christian folk put in their houses at Yule.
By the end of the second week temperatures rose a fraction and the woodland floor started to change a little..
These wild Daffodils had found the sun and the game trails showed in the new growth
The passage of many feet has worn the bark smooth on this fallen tree
A gale screamed through the wood one night and I heard the crash of falling trees and branches. Daylight revealed a Beech bough had fallen not far from the campsite. I'm careful where I camp and I'm sure Thunor looks after me, so the wood holds no fears.
These trees fell long ago in the "Hurricane" of the 1980's and now the deer lay up in there in the clearings.
There is death in the wood, but the cycle of life goes on and it made me smile to see the Bluebells actually growing through the fallen leaves.
And here's a tree for the desperate and lost..Her branches reach South towards the warm sun and she wears a green coat of moss on her back against the cold North Wind..and people say trees are just wood..
One of my bird boxes..now either it's a fat Bluetit with a hammer and chisel who's made the door bigger or..it's Woody and I think I know who..
Yep! here's the evidence M'lud...
Personal kit..I know the value of good kit from my working days but I seem to get along fine with what others would not class as proper Bushcraft gear..but that's ok because I'm not a Bushcrafter..
My tent is a few years old, cost less than £100 in a sale and is 100% waterproof and has withstood some fearsome gales. Not suitable for a Welsh or Scottish mountainside in a winter blizzard, but fine for a Southern English wood..even in winter.
The small folding saw with the red handle (Chinese) I bought some years ago for a few Euros in Portugal, it still cuts very well. I prefer the Cold Steel pipe Hawk with the longer cutting edge and slight weight increase over the more popular Trail Hawk. I don't do much chopping anyway and although it looks new the hawk is in fact old. It just happens to be wearing it's newest black coat..Ford Focus black courtesy of Halfords I recall and I haven't set fire to the handle, it's wrapped in squash racket cushion grip which makes it safe and comfortable to use with cold wet hands.
The pouches contain first aid kit and fire lighting stuff, ferro rod for emergencies but matches as prime fire starters..I don't do carving or woodigami and I have little use for a small knife. My belt knife is an exception to cheap gear but it was a present from the kids years ago..The whole lot goes under my smock out of sight.
I have a knack of accidently crunching match boxes, I find loose matches floating around in pockets all the time but the nice folk at Aldi supermarkets sell little tins of mints. The tins have hinged lids and are virtually waterproof, but more importantly Wiccaproof. Two bits of sandpaper stuck on and the tin holds practically a full box of Swan Vestas.
Of course real bushcrafters will buy the Spearmint sweets and get green tins..
Ok all you whizzo photographers hide your eyes..
Nearly every evening the Deer would feed close to my camp and one evening I decided now was the time for photos...batteries died!!! My camera set on auto wouldn't forcus properly and I don't know how to do it manually, but sticking to the "Photos or it didn't happen" rule, this was the best I could do..
Here's scrounger..my regular breakfast partner, second photo he's wandering around in the fire smoke completely untroubled and still stuffing his beak..
Not wearing a watch and without a radio and the phone put away, my tally stick was this piece of dried Ivy stem..35 notches show the days and when I came out the world had changed. Cyprus was skint, snow drifts had been of impressive depths in the North, Boston and Lady Thatcher had been headlines.
Soon it will be Beltane and time to return to the wood.
Travel safely all.
