Sunday, 27 November 2016

Autumn leaves, buzzards overhead and some Christmas gifts from the woods

Autumn is shifting towards winter in the woods, but there's some lovely sights right now, such as this carpet of leaves:

DSC_5462 Autumn woodland

The regrowth in the area we cut a year ago is still hanging on to a few leaves:
DSC_5459 Autumn woodland

But most of the trees are bare, and the sun is low in the sky:
DSC_5453 Autumn woodland

Just as I was finishing my lunch during a day of coppicing, I heard the familiar call of a Buzzard overhead. As pigeons scattered in terror, I grabbed the camera and managed to snap a few long-distance photos of them. One day I'd like to have my own hawk flying in the woods...
DSC_5477 Buzzards

DSC_5474 Buzzard

DSC_5475 Buzzard

It was back to work after that though - things are progressing pretty well, we're well past the oak tree you can see towards the rear of this picture:
DSC_5488 Coppicing

DSC_5495 Coppicing

Meanwhile, we've also been preparing some produce for the Rye Christmas Market.Quite a bit went into making these. They've been collected in the woodland, dried for over a year, stripped of soft dead wood, wire brushed and finally shaped so they are stable and have a place to take a tea-light candle.
DSC_5517

DSC_5509

DSC_5510

DSC_5505

That's all for now...

Mike

2 comments:

Alan said...

Stumbled across this post accidentally, and very much enjoyed it. Coppicing and such looks like the sort of hard work that it satisfying, and I like your candle holders. I hope you get the prices you are hoping for in the market! Alan West

Mike Pepler said...

Thanks Alan, it certainly is satisfying as well as being hard work! Cheers, Mike