It’s a month since I was last there. The continuing road works and contraflow on the A1 means I only want to go at weekends when it’s not as bad. For various reasons I haven’t been going so often but I really wanted a day just to check it out and relax. Well there must have been some very windy weather because there were two small trees blown over. One was a dead birch, the other was part of a hawthorn. I was disappointed because this was a long lanky piece that had created an archway over the back of my table. I had secured it years ago and trained a honeysuckle to grow along it. The wind had disturbed the supports and the long branch has now split at he base. I had to saw it off half way to clear my table but that meant the honeysuckle has nowhere to cling to now.
Although the leaves are still very green, there is a distinctive feel of autumn. There are fewer flying insects and just a general sense of winding down. I didn’t need a fire, wasn’t cooking but it’s always good to see and feel the warmth of one. I could have had a brew in the camper on the gas ring but that’s no fun.
I have a new friend, a lady who sadly lost her husband earlier this year. She is very connected to nature and was feeling quite low at home. I messaged her with a photo of the woods and then spent the next half hour taking various photos of the views for her. I think it helped a little. I love being able to share the beauty of the woods with people either with visits or photos and indeed this blog.
When I was making the fire, I was breaking up some dead branches and noticed one piece didn’t snap so easy, the bark was tough and peeled off in longish strips. I realised that it was the inner bark that was tough and stringy which reminded me of something I learnt on the basket weaving course. Lime bark has been traditionally used for making string. You peel it then leave it in water for a few weeks/months. It’s a process called retting where the outer bark rots away leaving the tough inner bark. This was from a beech tree but must has been in a damp place and had naturally retted. Not to miss an opportunity I carefully peeled as much away as possible for making cordage at a later date by the reverse twist method. The texture of it is fantastic and although the holey structure looks like it should be weak, it’s isn’t. It’s rather beautiful too.
The dead birch tree that had fallen is not particularly rotten so will make good firewood logs and possibly material for carving – spoons or bowls maybe. So I cut a couple of trugs full for firewood and two longer pieces for craft projects. There might be a bit of spalting going on inside. That’s dark patterns caused by a small amount of fungal disease and is much loved by wood carvers.
Well that pretty much wraps up my day there. Think it will be at least two weeks before my next visit.
Diary of a man and his woodland 