Well, 2020 has been a very different year. To be honest I've not felt like writing a blog for most of it, in February and March because I was worrying about the coronavirus pandemic and why the UK government wasn't taking timely action, then in April and May because I was helping with Rye Mutual Aid, then after that because I've been feeling what some people call 'covid lethargy', where the big picture of the pandemic leaves you feeling that it's not really worth doing anything. And then in the past couple of months we've both been really busy with work and coppicing, but now I finally have a rainy day when I'm not at work, so I thought it was time to do a recap of the Spring and Summer of 2020 in the woods.
Talking of rain, the year got off to a wet start, and in early March a blocked culvert under the road led to this flood in the woods on the access track.
A little before that, the Bluebells were sprouting nicely in mid-February, again quite early due to unseasonal warmth over the winter, presumably due to our changing climate.
Before they got round to flowering though, there were some other flowers to come out first, such as Primrose:
And the usual carpet of Wood Anemone:
Then, by late April, there was an amazing carpet of Bluebells in the area we'd coppiced in 2017-18:
The other thing that was doing well in late April was this wild apple tree. As we'd coppiced the trees to the south of it in 2018-19, it's had extra light for some time now, and it really showed in the volume of blossom on it:
As we moved into May, our friend Jim told us he'd spotted a Pheasant nesting in the woods, and we managed to sneak this photo of her. She's very well camouflaged though! We did later see a Raven attacking the nest to take the chicks, but I guess it had offspring that needed feeding too...
May does seem to be one of the greenest times in the woods, especially in an area that's coming into its second year of growth after coppicing:
It's a similar picture over in Sweep Wood, with third-year coppice regrowth on the right here:
There were still plenty of foxgloves along the footpath there, and I was pleased to capture this image of a bumblebee leaving one of them, as it was taken with my phone rather than my DSLR!
We got some practical work done as we headed into summer, such as rebuilding the ends of this culvert, which had collapsed a bit. Given that we first built it back in 2007, I guess this isn't too bad!
The culvert takes quite a battering each winter, as it does tend to get clogged with all the debris that comes down the stream, leaving me having to unblock it:
Summer also provided some woodland food, and our friend Rich brought some 'Chicken of the Woods' (Laetiporus), an edible fungus, for us to eat. It was really tasty!
The apple tree I mentioned earlier also produced a copious crop of apples, though these weren't any good for human consumption, other than for amusement by offering them to people who'd never tried them before!
Back in Sweep Wood, the area we'd coppiced in 2017-18 was looking great in the summer, with a wild diversity of plant life, including thistles that were taller than I was!
July was good month, part of the summer respite from the pandemic in the UK, and a long-planned camping trip actually went ahead. We made a few changes to keep it covid-safe, such as everyone having their own tent and there being plenty of hand-gel to use. As the virus mainly spreads indoors, a camping trip in the woods was probably the safest way for friends to meet up.
August brought swarms of dragonflies, so I spent a while with my DSLR capturing images of them in flight. I think this is an immature male Migrant Hawker, based on what I can see here, but I'm not 100% sure.
I had another interaction with insects over the summer, when my friend Johnnie came to help move logs. Unknown to us, there was a wasp nest buried in one of the log piles, and as we removed logs some of them tumbled and the nest was torn in half! As a cloud of wasps exploded into the air, my first thought was that I was really sorry for the wasps, but this was quickly followed by "RUN!" We got away with just one sting each, and I managed to get a cover back over the two halves of the nest in case the wasps could keep using them for a while. The logs weren't moved until much later in the year...
Here's pics of the two halves of the nest:
And here's where the logs all ended up eventually, stacked up in an easy-to-access location so we can convert them to firewood as needed over the winter:
Finally, here's a few videos we recorded over the year. First, three wild boar on the trail camera:
Then an owl, also on the trail camera. Do watch to the end (it's just 1 minute), and you'll see the owl fly away:
And lastly, a comparison of our new electric chainsaw (a Husqvarna 540iXP) with the old one (a 536LiXP). They both use the same batteries, but the new one is much faster and also more efficient, getting more work done on a single charge:
That's all for now, more to follow soon on the coppicing we're doing this autumn/winter.
This weekend I had friends from work come to camp in the woods, as happened about a year ago too. Fortunately the freak storm from the previous night had passed away, and we had mostly good weather!
As you can see, I'd put a tarpaulin up just in case of rain, and it did get used briefly in the evening! I had a second one set up on our old shelter frame as well:
There was the obligatory walk around the woods, which the sun came out for:
During the walk we saw some windblow from the previous night's storm:
Back at the camp a couple had a go at chainsawing some logs, then there was the most impressive food preparation I've seen in the wood in a long time, perhaps ever!
We had a bit of a tent village going on, which was good as there were ten of us sleeping over!
The kids played on the rope swing until it went dark, then after they went to bed the rest of us went on the swing too - it's much more fun in the pitch black, and after a glass of wine! :-)
We finished up the next day with some target practice with the air rifle and a good breakfast cooked on the fire:
Just back from another camping trip to the woods, this time joined by friends from work and their families... A few intrepid campers started the outing on Saturday, and it was lashing it down with rain, so we opted to walk to a pub for dinner. Thankfully the rain paused for a few hours after that, so we did get to light a fire, drink beer and Jesse even entertained us with the guitar for a while!
The following morning (when the weather had dramatically improved!), our numbers were swelled by the rest of the group, and we went on a tour of the woods, looking for signs of wild boar activity and other wildlife...
Once back at the camp, it was time for lunch, and Sarah had brought along a Toyola charcoal stove. Toyola is one of our past winners at Ashden, given an award for production of efficient stoves in Ghana and a novel way of helping people to pay for them. It certainly did the job here, and we cooked some sausages in a pan on it!
It wasn't all about eating though, there were some woodland crafts going on too - here's Carla using a side axe while making a wooden mallet:
Time for a quick group photo...
Chainsawing is a bit antisocial, from a noise point of view, so we waited until most of the day visitors had gone before getting out some spare safety gear (PPE) that I'd brought, and having a go at cutting up some logs... So that was five people getting their first go on a chainsaw - when you live in a city, there's not always much opportunity to try this, but they all did very well!
The fine weather held right through until today, so we had one more chance to sit round the fire into the evening before the end of the trip...
It's become traditional for a group of students from Imperial College involved with the charity Engineers Without Borders to come for a camping trip in the woods each year, but this time they couldn't come in March so it ended up happening in June instead - which was probably a good thing, as it was snowing in March!
I didn't have any major building projects for them to get involved with this year, but that left time for various other activities, such as making wooden mallets and learning to use a chainsaw for logging - under careful supervision! They did give me a hand moving some logs though, which was a huge help!
There was of course plenty of time for camp fires and cooking...
This week we had my brother Andy and his family come and visit, here he is with Rachel and Joshua...
and here's Chloe, with a case for carrying captured bugs in for later study...
Despite the mixed weather, we actually had quite a bit of sunshine, even enough to need sunglasses some days!
A lot of time was spent sitting or playing in the woods, and eating food cooked up there:
There was also time to practise some woodland skills:
and do some metal detecting too, which turned up the remains of an old billhook:
Andy and I camped over a night with Josh and Chloe, while Tracy and Rachel went back to their warm beds.
Of course, the kids were sensible and went to sleep soon after 7pm, while Andy and I stayed up late drinking beer round the camp fire. But we all had to get up at 6am... at least we saw a nice sunrise!
We left the tent up, which was a good job as later in the week we went up for the day, and used it to shelter during a couple of brief rain showers... (Rachel's brother Andrew had joined us by this point too)
The rain didn't last long, and then it was time for Josh and Chloe to cover their ears...
while they watched me chainsaw some logs!
Chloe was particularly excited by the whole thing:
After cutting up the logs, we were surprised to find a toad had been hiding under them - good job the chainsaw cuts were quite far apart, or it could have been messy...
We didn't actually see any wild boar, but there's certainly some evidence of them around, such as over in my friend Alex's wood:
The rest of the week was taken up with visits to the beach and also the observatory at Herstmonceux, where I hope to go back in an evening to try out the big telescopes...
