It's been a bit hectic the past couple of weeks, as work's been busy and we've had family visiting, so I've got a bit behind on posting photos up here. So, here's a round-up of some odds and ends.
A few weeks ago we found the culvert in the wood had got blocked again, as heavy rain had washed leaves and twigs into it:
This has happened before, but this time Tracy videoed me unblocking it, so here you go:
With all the rain and some sunshine as well, the fruit and nut trees we planted in November have been doing well, with many of them now showing blossom:
Our crab apple tree has also come into bloom again, starting with dark pink buds that opened out into pale pink flowers:
Down at ground level the bluebells are in full bloom in the parts of the wood with more sunlight, like this patch a neighbour owns:
the flowers are slower to come out in the shadier parts of the wood.
Near our camp, we now have several Violets growing - this is the first year they've come up since we coppiced there, and it's great to see them. They've been in the wayleave all along, so I guess the seeds have come through from there.
My dad brought his "scotch eyed auger" with him to try putting some legs on our "shave log". It's a very neat tool, and you just find a suitable stick to use as a handle:
It bites into the wood very effectively:
boring out nice neat holes:
Then we just had to cut some legs to fit:
and we had it up on legs:
OK, I know the legs aren't very straight, but I can always replace them with better ones later if it turns out to be a problem. I did a bit of work levelling off the the top of the log with a draw knife, and found it was at a good height for working.
Meanwhile my nephew Joshua had a great time playing in the land rover:
Here's the obligatory group photo of everyone - quite a crowd!
and finally, some sunset pics from the garden of the house they rented while they were down here:
That's all for now.
Mike
Saturday, 8 May 2010
Catching up...
Sunday, 26 April 2009
Friday in the woods
Friday was the last day my family were visiting, so we had dinner up in the woods in the evening. The wayleave is now dense with leaves:
and there's all kinds of flowers out on the ground, such as Violet:
and Blue Bugle:
Also, our mystery tree has now flowered, thus confirming its identity as Crab Apple. I'll be interested to see if there are any fruit, as I've never noticed them before...
As we were cooking for six adults and my nephew Joshua:
we needed several fires going. There was the one we were sat round, which my brother Andy had started in the afternoon before we got there, and hot coals from that were used to light the kelly kettle to make drinks. I was also trying out my new pot stand attachment for it:
With so many of us we couldn't fit dinner in one saucepan, so we had the big one on our normal cooking stove:
and a smaller pan on my shiny new woodgas stove:
You'll notice it has a tiny battery pack - this supplies a controlled amount of air to gasify wood at the bottom of the stove, and more air at the top of the stove to burn the gas produced , just under the pan:
I'll do a post just on this stove soon, including how to use it.
After dinner our neighbour Andrew called in to collect some wood for a caravan trip he's going on, so he can have a few camp fires on the way. He had a quick go with the air rifle while he was there:
but seemed surprised he hit the tin can first time:
Anyway, he got into splitting logs after that:
and we loaded up his truck.
My nephew had to go home to sleep, as he's only little, but my parents stayed up with us until dusk, sat round the fire.
and we left with the sound of the Tawny Owl echoing through the woods.
Mike
Monday, 13 April 2009
Sean and Sarah's wood
Yesterday we went to visit our friends Sean and Sarah in their wood in West Sussex, about 60 miles from us. It's a very different wood from ours, mostly hazel coppice with dense oak standards and self-seeded ash.
They've done some coppicing but haven't started thinning the standards yet, though they've been talking to the Forestry Commission to get advice on this.
Their woodland has much more clay than ours, and is a lot wetter. As a result there are many more flowers, including orchids:
violets:
and primroses:
They've been making charcoal with some of the hazel they've coppiced, selling it in a local shop. Sean explained how the kilns worked
and showed us the results of the latest burn in the small kiln:
There were loads of birds in their wood, and quite a bit of nest-making activity right near where we were having lunch:
They have a bird feeder up too:
which gave some great opportunities for photos of birds flying. If only the sun had been out I'd have been able to use a faster shutter and avoided the wings blurring...
Sean suggested our mystery tree might be a crab apple. This isn't something I'd considered as I'd assumed I'd have noticed the fruit. But perhaps not, so we'll keep an eye one it.
Mike
