A walk in the woods

With rain threatened for this afternoon, we popped into the woods this morning to see what new things are growing there since we last had a proper look round. Everything's very green now, and the paths are beautiful to walk along:
We came in through Sweep Wood, where we were coppicing last winter. The ground at the top is transformed, with the sunlight coming in and much of the ivy gone. The result is large patches of nettles and Dog's Mercury coming up:
along with some more exotic-looking plants, like Lords and Ladies:
The mystery fruit tree has some fruit on it. This time we're determined to keep an eye on it and find out what it is, and also try the fruit! Any suggestions so far?
The trees we coppiced are sprouting their shoots now:
and even the chestnut stakes we made to hold log piles in place are having a go:
As you go deeper into the wood, there are still lots of bluebells (they're winding down in the sunnier spots now, having started earlier there):
There are a few white bluebells around as well:
and also some that are white with a hint of blue:
Ferns are unfurling. These are different to Bracken, which grows better in the sunnier spots.
We also spotted a primrose, which must have been there before but we'd never noticed it...
Carrying on from there, the path between Sweep Wood and Grist Wood is getting darker now the leaves are coming out:
Making our way to Chestnut Coppice, we passed the pond. After drying out and then being re-dug last summer, it's stayed full and is now back to the "green stage":
I expect it to develop more variety over the summer, as in previous years. Near the pond is some chestnut that has grown remarkably straight since coppicing:
the reason why is apparent when you look up - it has a restricted view of the sky, directly overhead:
This is of course why coppices are meant to be densely planted, so that each tree helps its neighbours to grow up straight by blocking light from the sides.

Entering into our "wildlife corridor", there's a profusion of plants appearing at the sides of the path:
There's a huge variety here, compared to the shaded woodland a bit further from the path.
Near the junction between our main ride and the footpath, there's some Holly which looks like it might have berries this winter:
Arriving in our own wood, we went to check on the fruit trees, which are doing pretty well:

It's amazing how fast they're growing once the blossoms have finished:
We're picking off the blossoms once they've finished (after the insects have made use of them). This is so that this year the trees don't put any resources into growing fruit, and increase in size and strength instead.

Much of the area near our camp is carpeted with green now:
and the coppice is growing taller and denser:
But amongst it, there are still new plants arriving, like this Bluebell and Honeysuckle:
We had a quick look in the wayleave for butterflies, but it wasn't really sunny enough. We did see the Broom is coming into flower though:
Last of all, what's this insect? I thought it was probably a wasp of some sort, do tell me if you know!
Mike

Click here to read the rest of this post.

The Recycled House

A couple of our friends, John and Helen, have taken on a huge project for 2010. In their own words:

The "recycled house" is a renovation project we started in January 2010, taking a 1960's detached house - an ex-Police house in East Sussex - as our starting point. The house has a good footprint, a reasonably large garden and potential for a garden studio. The objective of the project is to create a sustainable contemporary house, with as much re-use, recycling and freecycling of materials as possible, using local contractors and suppliers, no skips and as little as possible going to landfill. In part our inspiration for this project is the fact that there is a huge amount of existing housing in the UK which is unaffected by government targets for building more efficient new homes, and we wanted to prove that it is possible to create efficient homes from old housing stock.

Here's a couple of pictures from their website, of the solar PV installed, and me chainsawing some trees in the garden - the wood will of course be used to heat their home!Make sure to visit their website to find out more: www.therecycledhouse.info

Mike

Click here to read the rest of this post.

Catching up...

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

Click here to read the rest of this post.