Summer in the woods and Dungeness

It's been a while since I last updated this blog, and there's been a lot going on - including me starting a new job part-time in addition to my existing work! But first, let's catch up on some photos from the woods over the past few months. Spring brought the usual display of flowers, such as these Wood Anemones, but a little later than some years as it was quite chilly.

The wild apple tree near our camp in the woods had another good display of blossom - I look forward to seeing how many apples develop, not that I'll be eating any of them...

And of course the bluebells were looking as great as ever in May:

Up at the top of the hill, where we coppiced last winter, things are growing back nicely. Here's some Ash and Sweet Chestnut:

The whole area has greened up a lot, and the brash piles are slowly disappearing from view:

I did also get this great video of a Buzzard eating its prey (probably a pigeon), followed by a fox coming to sniff around after it had gone!

Only one camping trip so far this year, but we had great weather for it and plenty of time to sit round the fire.

The big news is I've got a part-time job for 6 months as a Ranger at Dungeness National Nature Reserve. I'm doing this alongside my existing work at Ashden, so I've suddenly become rather busy, and the preceding couple of months were busy too as I tried to 'clear the decks' of any jobs that needed doing at home and in the woods. Dungeness is certainly a nice place to be in the summer!

I get a truck do drive around:

And it's not just about the sea and the shingle, there's also the 'long pits' which you only get to see if you venture away from the usual tourist attractions near the main car park:

One other thing I did manage to squeeze in before starting the Ranger work was a day at the Hands of Hope site in Hawkhurst, where there's a kind of community garden and also a woodland - my friend Rich and I went and volunteered for a day to help fell some dangerous trees.

Finally, closer to home, there was a strange object on the beach at Rye Harbour....

It's actually an art installation called The Beacon, by Joseph Williams, intended to draw attention to the fragility of the area and the growing impacts of climate change. It's a bit odd to look at, but quite amazing once you're inside it:

It's actually modelled on the Yellow Horned Poppy, which grows in the area:

Also at Rye Harbour, we recently visited a bird hide at Castle Water, which we'd not been to before. It really has some excellent views:

I got a number of nice photos of Cormorants there:

Did you know Cormarants nest in trees? They look a bit big to do that, but they really do:

And finally, a nice little family of Greylag Geese on one of the other lakes in the reserve:

That's all for now :-)

Mike

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Bluebells and driftwood

Just a quick post to show some photos from this weekend, including the woods and the beach. First, the Bluebells, which are looking great again this year!

Still some Wood Anemone in that last one too, though they're fading now. The area we coppiced 18 months ago is looking good too:

And the path through Sweep Wood is passable but the plants are getting lively!

Meanwhile, down at Pett Level, I thought this piece of driftwood looked amazing, so decided to photograph it from several angles - I was pleased with the results as this was using the phone camera, not the DSLR (though there was a bit of post-production in Lightroom too...)

That's all for now...

Mike

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Stools for schools and other odds and ends

A local school recently asked if I could supply them with various items of wooden seating to use in the small area of woodland they have access to. Of course, I was delighted to supply them with what they needed!

I took the opportunity to try out a new idea for making the benches. I started with a couple of slabs trimmed from coppice stumps, and used the chainsaw to cut a V-shaped notch into each:

I then used these to support the log being made into a bench, which gave two immediate advantages - first, it stops it rolling around, and second, it elevates it a bit, so you don't have to bend down so low when working on it:

The next step was the usual one, as shown in my video on how to make a bench, cutting notches for the feet in what will eventually be the underside of the bench:

Now for the next new bit - rather than setting the bench on its feet to cut the seating area, I rotated it a quarter turn:

I then pushed the feet into the notches, just to check they were exactly vertical:

Then, I was able to walk along with the chainsaw, using it to slice a thin layer off to make the seating area. This is easier to do in a straight line from above than doing it from the side with the saw horizontal, and much more comfortable too!

The only downside was that having the saw at an angle tended to leave more chain marks on the wood:

But they quickly disappeared once I put the bench horizontal and did a quick skim over with the trailing edge of the chainsaw bar:

And I was left with a rather nice bench!

The school wanted some simple log stools as well, so I selected some suitably-sized logs to cut up and transported the results with my log trolley:

I even managed to get it all into the trailer and the car in one trip!

Here's the end results, delivered to the school field:

In other news from the woods... the Bluebells are growing, having had the first shoots pop out the ground in the second half of January:

And this hen pheasant has been following me around. She nearly ate some bird feed from my hand! Far too tame for her own good I think...

Back in Rye, we did get a light covering of snow one day in January, but it only lasted a couple of hours and there was no time to go to the woods and photograph it there...

I've also been playing around with my Carry Freedom Y-Frame bike trailer, and now have it set up to run on my mountain bike. I tested it out hauling about 25kg up and down a hill, but I'm not convinced I'll be bringing all next winter's firewood back this way...

Talking of firewood, the insulation I installed in our dormer roof a few months ago has certainly done the trick - it looks like we might be using about 30% less firewood than before!

Till next time...

Mike

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