The boys had a day off school today because their teachers were "undergoing training", why the teachers couldn't have had their training during half term last week i dont know, anyway having a day off and it being a nice day made a perfect excuse to go to the woods to collect some materials.
Walking in
Just about caught the snow drops
further down the path
approaching the area where we head "off trail", but before we do, time for a quick break on the memorial bench
looking back down the path
off trail now and time to inspect the local kids handy work with their tree house, pretty well built, bit over the top on the use of six inch nails, cant really complain too much though, i used to do the same when i was a kid in these very woods.
Heading up to our spot in the woods we pass some Fox poop
and some Deer tracks
arriving at "our" spot, we settle down, youngest decided to sit on his seat that he made up here last time, but he forgot that hazel rots and he is bigger, so he went straight through it, oh boy did we laugh
after settling down - again, we had a bit of a wander round the area, this is looking up one of the Badger trails
Badger skull
and the set, they have expanded it considerably since our last visit here
time now to gather the materials we wanted to collect, (with permission of the Estate)
we left this gnarly old beast on guard as we thought he looked a bit - Aztec
having filled our previosuly emtpy rucksacks with raw materials for home, we had a bit of lunch and a drink and then went exporing again, you can just about make out youngest in this pic (red hat)
he is actually having a dig around the root ball of a fallen Hazel tree, where he found this, it looks like a scraper
and works like a scraper
i also had a dig around the immediate area and found two pieces of flint that look worked, certainly the smaller piece is very similar to a piece i found once before and had dated at the local Museum to 6000 yrs old (Neolithic) and there is recorded evidence in the local museum in the shape of a hand axe that was found around here that dates human activity on these hills to 250,000 yrs ago.
I also found this, which at first glance i thought was a flint nodule, but up on closer inspection there is a definate join on the upper part, also looking at the outside and in a couple of places there appears to be a honey comb structure inside
Talking of flint, it's not in short supply round here, thats a UK Size 11 or US Size 12 boot for scale
after this we continued exploring and found loads of deer tracks, browse, scat and lays
and this really cool tree all covered in moss
not too mention the old hide
before long though it was time to call it a day, so passing past the Daldinia (collected some for later use)
and the old Beech that lost some of it's limbs
we made our way back to civilisation and a well deserved cup of tea, might venture back up here next week on my todd to see if i can spot some of the deer, we were too noisy today by far and the animals were long gone before we even got near.
Walking in
Just about caught the snow drops
further down the path
approaching the area where we head "off trail", but before we do, time for a quick break on the memorial bench
looking back down the path
off trail now and time to inspect the local kids handy work with their tree house, pretty well built, bit over the top on the use of six inch nails, cant really complain too much though, i used to do the same when i was a kid in these very woods.
Heading up to our spot in the woods we pass some Fox poop
and some Deer tracks
arriving at "our" spot, we settle down, youngest decided to sit on his seat that he made up here last time, but he forgot that hazel rots and he is bigger, so he went straight through it, oh boy did we laugh
after settling down - again, we had a bit of a wander round the area, this is looking up one of the Badger trails
Badger skull
and the set, they have expanded it considerably since our last visit here
time now to gather the materials we wanted to collect, (with permission of the Estate)
we left this gnarly old beast on guard as we thought he looked a bit - Aztec
having filled our previosuly emtpy rucksacks with raw materials for home, we had a bit of lunch and a drink and then went exporing again, you can just about make out youngest in this pic (red hat)
he is actually having a dig around the root ball of a fallen Hazel tree, where he found this, it looks like a scraper
and works like a scraper
i also had a dig around the immediate area and found two pieces of flint that look worked, certainly the smaller piece is very similar to a piece i found once before and had dated at the local Museum to 6000 yrs old (Neolithic) and there is recorded evidence in the local museum in the shape of a hand axe that was found around here that dates human activity on these hills to 250,000 yrs ago.
I also found this, which at first glance i thought was a flint nodule, but up on closer inspection there is a definate join on the upper part, also looking at the outside and in a couple of places there appears to be a honey comb structure inside
Talking of flint, it's not in short supply round here, thats a UK Size 11 or US Size 12 boot for scale
after this we continued exploring and found loads of deer tracks, browse, scat and lays
and this really cool tree all covered in moss
not too mention the old hide
before long though it was time to call it a day, so passing past the Daldinia (collected some for later use)
and the old Beech that lost some of it's limbs
we made our way back to civilisation and a well deserved cup of tea, might venture back up here next week on my todd to see if i can spot some of the deer, we were too noisy today by far and the animals were long gone before we even got near.
