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.
Diary of a man and his woodland 