Autumn Cometh

Autumn Fires – Robert Louis Stevenson

In the other gardens
And all up the vale,
From the autumn bonfires
See the smoke trail!

Pleasant summer over
And all the summer flowers,
The red fire blazes,
The grey smoke towers.

Sing a song of seasons!
Something bright in all!
Flowers in the summer,
Fires in the fall!

Yesterday at the woods it was dull, grey and windy. Although most things are still very green, the days are shortening as we pass the equinox and Autumn is officially here. It’s a time that usually depresses me when I realise those warm, light evenings and early mornings are gone and nature starts shutting up shop for the winter. Having the woods has made a difference though, I find I enjoy my time there just as much in winter as I do in summer. No insects or stinging nettles to irritate me and more reason to light a fire. I haven’t lit a proper one since June and there’s nothing much more satisfying than sitting in front of  a woodland fire with a brew.

I took the chainsaw and I know I ought to continue with processing the logpile but I’m getting a bit bored with that. I want to see some progress with my plans so I decided to take down a few small sycamore trees in the middle section. I have some nice alder saplings I grew from seed and want to plant them there. Although they love lots of water (and my woods aren’t really suitable) there is a patch that tends to get a  bit muddy so I’ll try them there but they need more light letting in. I felled three small ones, two fell cleanly and one got hung up. This one, bizzarely was growing from the base of a large birch tree.

There was a large dead tree, hung up right next to where I park my car. It’s been there since I bought the woods and although it seemed secure, it needed to be made safe. It’s actually the top of the tree next to it that I ring barked and must have snapped off in a gale and embedded itself into the ground. Removing it posed a problem. The best bet would have been to winch the bottom of it to pull it out of the other tree but I didn’t have a winch and decided to try the risky method of undercutting. Basically the upper side is under compression because it’s leaning, so cutting from that side will trap the saw as it snaps. By making a small top cut first (a few feet from the ground) then cutting through to meet it from underneath, the tree will drop and hopefully pull itself out of the tree it’s snagged on. It’s a risky method as it’s unpredictable how it’s going to fall. You have to watch carefully and get out of the way quick when it does. I got a surprise this time, the tree didn’t fall and ended up literally hung up and swinging in the air. You can see below, the stump left and the dead tree suspended. Hmm now what?

I threw a rope over the branch and tugged. Eventually it dropped a few feet ….. and embedded itself back into the ground and still snagged. Another even riskier undercut was all I could do. Same again! This baby didn’t want to go. I couldn’t chance another undercut so threw the rope higher and got into a rhythmic pull back and forth until finally it fell. Well I needn’t have worried about it coming down unexpectedly onto my car!

Most of the rest of the day was spent pulling bramble and repairing my shelter. The shelter has been under attack from something that likes string. The thick fibrous type that is holding it together. Although most of the elevated poles are also supported by forked ones to take the weight, I decided to replace the chewed-through string with a stronger nylon type. Hopefully the little critters won’t take a fancy to that.

When working among the bramble, I often find odd discarded items. This time I found a  glass pan lid, a feather and a plastic ring –  no idea what the ring was from. I’m amassing quite an eclectic woodland museum these days.

 

 

 

New neighbours?

My last visit on Saturday 18th was mostly spent working so I don’t have so much to tell you this time and very few photos. It was a dull but fine day and the woods were very quiet. Not much birdsong now. I took the chainsaw so I could continue sawing up the logs from last winter. I might just about get them all done before I start felling again and I’m thinking it might be better to process each tree completely as I fell it instead of just cutting them into long pieces and stacking them. That way they get split and stacked and start the drying process straight away and I don’t leave myself the legacy of a huge pile to sort out next summer. Remeber the log workbench I started to make for a big larch log? I called in Bambi because the legs I put on it were long and a bit widely spaced. It reminded me of the Disney film where the baby Bambi forst tried to stand up on some ice and her legs were all over the place. The next stage for the bench was to cut some pieces out so seeing as I had the chainsaw, I thought I would use it to cut the bench then chip away the wood with my axe. It was hard work, the larch uch tougher than I anticipated. I maybe cut the slots a little too deep, going approximatley half way butit’s still very strong.

“Bambi” workbench after cutting out the slots.

The idea of the slots are for holding pieces of timber you might want to work on. The end one can be used simply as a place to rest a branch for cutting or you can drill a hole through it and pass some strong cord through. If you are making a spoon, you can hold it tight down by passing it through the cord, then sticking your foot in a loop below to pull done on it. Hard to explain but if I get around to finsihing it I’ll take a photo. The cut-out in the middle can be used as a vice. Say you wanted to make a bowl, you can put you small log into the cut-out, then use two wedges opposed to each other to tighten it into the gap and hold it in place.

I was just on my way to my log pile when three people turned up. They said they were lost and looking for a plot that was still for sale. It was the one adjacent to the northern end of mine. I took them round and gave them some information about the whole woodland, it’s history and the wildlife there. The lady who was interested in buying had pretty much all the same reasons as me. I felt comfortable with her and would be very happy having her as a neighbour. The other plot below that and adjacent to my lower half has also just sold. No idea who bought that but no doubt will find out before long. It’s been quite nice having no neighbours on my border as it meant total privacy on that whole side of my woods and my camping and sitting area is close to the border. Nothing much else to report so I’ll just leave you with another photo of my ever increasing log pile. I didn’t dare disturb the mouse nest I found last time under the logs but hopefully the babies are more or less grown and ready to leave now.

Nettles, acorns and tiny pink sausages – part two

Arum Maculatum also known as Lords and Ladies or Cuckoo Pint

Welcome back. This is what Wikipaedia has to say about this plant.
It is known by an abundance of common names including snakeshead, adder’s root, arum, wild arum, arum lily, lords-and-ladies, devils and angels, cows and bulls, cuckoo-pint, Adam and Eve, bobbins, naked girls, naked boys, starch-root, wake robin, friar’s cowl and jack in the pulpit. The name “lords-and-ladies” and other gender related names refer to the plant’s likeness to male and female genitalia symbolising copulation.
If you look at a photo of it in leaf and flower you’ll see why. These are the berries which are abundant at the moment.

I met one of my neighbours on his way home and we chatted. I walked past his plot a couple of weeks ago and spotted lots of wood sorrel coming up in the grass that has grown since he felled a load of conifers. Wood sorrel is what the irish call Shamrock and it contains oxalic acid. Not good for you in large quantities but ok in small doses. If you can it ID correctly, try chewing a few leaves. It has a tangy bite to it that reminds you of cooking apples or pineapple to some. Poncey chefs in London are putting it in salads and charging a fortune. I don’t have any in my woods and would like a small patch or three, so I asked if I could dig a few pieces and he kindly agreed. It seems to like growing in mossy areas so I picked four spots in my woods where I think it might like and have planted them up. e’ll see what happens come spring.

wood sorrel

Brambles – well I have to mention them yet again and it won’t be the last. The area of hazel that I coppiced and planted has started to get a bit overgrown in places. Although it’s not a job to relish, I needed to focus my attention on removing some of it. I’ve had some success at pulling it up. Depends on the ground and how soft and loose it is. Some come up easily and some are rooted in concrete. The other issue there is that deer have been nibbling off the new hazel shoots. So an hour spent pulling bramble and piling them around the hazels stools might just deter them.

pulled bramble around hazel stools

Now onto the tiny pink sausage bit. The last couple of visits have been social events and I was keen to do a few jobs. There was a pile of logs that I had cut two weeks ago, ready for splitting and stacking, so that was my first priority. I was about to get a few surprises. As I worked through the pile, a couple of small frogs appeared and quickly hopped away. Then two small dark-coloured toads, not so athletic and facing eviction from their log cabin, crawled out looking for new shelter. I gently cupped them in my gloves and trasferred them to the one I had built specially for them which won’t be disturbed in future. As I lifted the last few logs, I spotted a small pile of vegetative debris. A less observant person could easily have missed it. Curious, I gently poked it and got the best surprise. A bundle of tiny, squirming, pink sausages with legs. I think they were recently born woodmice and I had just dismantled the walls that were protecting them. I covered them up quickly and built some new ones, using some large pieces of bark as a roof to keep the rain out. I sincerely hope the mother finds them and continues to rear them. This is one of the problems I am finding. Naturally, the wildlife will find any new features I create, either intentionally like the bird boxes and brash hedges or by the stuff I leave around. So a lesson to learn and remember when dismantling any structures and particularly log piles, is to be carfeul and watch put for those little lives that have made homes there. This isn’t my photo but just to show you what they look like and remember they are only about 1cm long.

Wood mouse newborn babies {Apodemus sylvaticus} Spain

Nettles, acorns and tiny pink sausages – part one

Lots to talk about this time and the title could have included mossies, frogs, toads, brambles and found objects. I’ve split it into two parts because it could be a long one and you might want a break. The weather was great, temperature in the mid 20s. It seems that summer has finally arrived just when it’s about to end! What a weird climate we have in the UK. It doesn’t seem five minutes since spring was here, bluebells and birds nesting. It’s only just over a couple of months since the longest day but the nights are drawing in and the woods are slowly winding down. The sycamore has started to drop it’s first leaves, plants are seeding and going brown and there’s a definite feel of Autumn knocking at the door. It’s a nice time of year but always gives me a pang of mild panic and sadness, that the light nights and warm weather are about to end again and we’ll have to wait at least another six months before they return. Yesterday was a day of foraging and some essential jobs. I wanted to focus on some log chopping and bramble clearing but before you sigh “not again”, I’ll say read on as it will be more interesting than just that.

The log chopping was the first job but I’m saving that for part two. 10.30 was time for a brew and a rest. I mentioned that I had processed some nettles to make cordage. To be honest, I’ve become mildly obsessed with it. I find the whole thing very satisfying. To non-bushcrafty people it might seem a bit odd and geeky when you can buy a whole ball of string at the pound shop. It’s a number of things but it’s not about needing string or being too tight to buy it. It’s about learning new (but old) skills, experimenting and seeing what I can produce from naturally found materials. Our ancestors knew about these skills not so long ago before we became so dependant on cheap manufactured goods and our throw-away society. Most folks have lost the knowledge and skills and that’s a shame. My first attempts at nettle cordage have not been great but I’m quite pleased with the final product. It’s surprisingly strong, looks satisfyingly rustic and wholesome and now that I’ve made some, has become more valuable to me than a mere piece of string from Wilko’s. It represents a stroy and a learning curve. Here’s a photo of my first decent piece. I need to find a special use for it rather than just tie up the sweet peas. In true Blue Peter style “Here’s some I made earlier”. The one on the left is the nettles and the other is made from spruce roots but that’s another story.

nettle and spruce root cordage

I sat with coffee, watching a tiny shrew bobbing about a pile of brash and stripped some nettles. I think I’ve cracked that part of it now. My first efforts produced thin and small pieces. The key is to flatten then split the stalk open, then starting in the middle, bend it and pull the pith away from the outer skin rather than trying to pull the skin off the pith. You can see from the photo I managed some wide and long pieces.

stripped nettle skins ready for drying

I noticed quite a few small acorns had fallen and collected them to try raise some more oak saplings. There’s nearly always something new to find that has been discarded at some point. Today’s find was an old glass bottle that had been used for mineral water, probably early to mid 20th century. Unfortunately the bottom was broken off. Here’s my day’s foraging results.

old mineral water bottle

You’ll have to come back for part two to find out about the tiny pink sausages!