A good day in the woods

Yesterday turned out to be a more upbeat day for me and just what I needed. Hadn’t planned much as I had arranged to meet a pal but as it turned out he couldn’t make it. I filled the bird feeders and straight away a number of small birds arrived. If you read my recent blogs you know I was concerned about the lack of bird activity. As well as birds on feeders, I could see a fair amount of activity in the tree tops. I lost my previous friendly robin in the summer but there might be a new kid on the block. It hasn’t come close yet but is hanging around the periphery of where I’m working. I hope to spend more time at the woods now so hopefully it will start to get used to my presence and make friends.

The main point of interest was the fungi. Not so much last visit but quite a good variety to spot. I don’t know what this is though but makes a lovely autumn photo.

I filled my trugs with logs for the wood burner at home. I’ve been using it more recently in favour of putting the central heating on as much. I cut a piece of the sycamore I felled last time to take home and start making spoons again. I have an order of two cooking spoons for my nieces. I want to get back into doing some crafting work again and I was watching a video on making a sheath for a small knife using woven birch bark. I’d like to have a go at it. I peeled some from a dead tree but it was too decayed to use. You need to be able to get some longish intact strips. You can also use cherry which my neighbours have lots of. They arrived a little later, we had a good catch up and they offered to let me have a try at peeling some bark off a recently felled cherry tree. We laid a log down and I cut a line with a knife. The bark grain runs around the stem not up it. After carefully lifting it all along the cut, I pulled while they rotated the log. The bark came of beautifully, almost 100% intact. Sorry I didn’t have camera with me but I will have a go at making a sheath this week and post my results in the next blog. There are numerous craft items you can make with birch bark and I see no reason why cherry won’t work as well.

There’s still quite a lot of green on some of the leaves as you can see, mainly the hazel and oak. Not much else to talk about so will just leave you with some more fungi.

I believe these are one of several bracket fungi known as Turkey Tails.

We’ve seen this several times but it’s a nice example of Jew’s Ear, Wood Ear, or Jelly Ear which ever you prefer, usually growing on dead elder.

This might be Sulphur Tuft but not certain. Growing in profusion around a dead sycamore stump.

Too long since my last visit to the woods

It’s been over a month since my last visit and long overdue. Some of you might remember I lost my wife earlier this year. Well a month ago I lost my sister too and today was her funeral. Grief robs you of motivation and sometimes it’s so hard just to get out of bed in the morning. Coupled with bad weather and other commitments, I just haven’t been going but yesterday I was committed to getting up in good time and heading off. My only plan was to bring logs back and just enjoy being there. I was also meeting another plot holder. I lit a fire and got the kettle on, always a feelgood thing. It was a damp and misty day as you can tell from photos but very peaceful and atmospheric.

I put food out for the birds and normally they are gathering in the trees around me as soon as they hear me. Not this time or the last time. There is a definite absence of birds compared to usual which I wonder if it’s due to avian flu. A robin arrived then eventually a few tits – blue, coal and great tits. It really saddens me to think the population as been decimated and can only hope they eventually re-establish their numbers.

We are well into autumn now and I’ve missed a lot of the colours. Many trees are bare but the hazel and beech still have quite a lot of leaves left and these tend to be the most colourful. Oak is usually last to shed it’s leaves.

After taking it easy for a while I got a bit restless and am wanting to resume some spoon carving and need fresh green wood. I didn’t take the chainsaw, hadn’t intended felling but wondered if I could fell a small diameter sycamore with axe and bow saw which I did. Hard work especially when you get to the middle of the stem as there is a lot of resistance against the saw blade. A bow saw isn’t ideal for this type of work but I managed it and cut it into lengths and stacked it. Next time I’ll cuts some shorter pieces to bring home for carving. I might invest in a felling saw for these small diameter trees. Chain saws make the work quick and easy but are very dangerous and require fuel and oil and are noisy and smelly. This one looks deceptively small but it was about 15cm diameter at the base and probably 15-20 meters high.

I was on the lookout for fungi but was disappointed not to find much. There was plenty of this growing on dead wood, it’s candle snuff fungi.

The visit definitely fired me up for more regular visits now so hopefully will be posting more soon.