A winter’s day to warm my heart

As you know my visits have been less frequent for the last few months due to storms and terrible hold-ups on the A1, meaning I will only go at weekends. I felt as though I was losing some of my connection with the woods and even wondering if I should give them up. Well yesterday restored my heart and my resolve. It was a bit windy but not enough to put me off and the weather forecast was good. I wanted to bring some logs home and finish off an ugly spoon I carved a couple of weeks ago. That was all I had in mind.

Firstly my usual walkabout to check for any damage. Nothing serious from the last storm, just some small dead branches. The logs were at the back of my original little ramshackle shelter with various bags and buckets dumped in front. So a good time to have a bit of a tidy up and take stock. A job I would not normally have time to do, so it was satisfying to have that luxury. Sometimes I am just hell bent on getting as much work done in the available time but occasionally it’s nice to kick back a bit and actually just enjoy the environment.

Time for coffee and a bit of spoon carving. The spoon was from a piece of spalted birch that I mentioned last time. I’d used a piece with a bend in it, thinking I was being clever and using the bend as the “crank”, the angle between bowl and handle. Because of this, the grain direction was haphazard making it hard to get smooth cuts without tearing it. It didn’t look too bad in the rather poor light of my cellar but in daylight looked terrible. Hence taking it to the woods to try to tidy up. It’s still not great but better than before. I shall just use it as a cooking spoon. It needs burnishing and oiling to finish completely. Taking inspiration from Edison, “I have just found another way not to make a nice spoon.”

Anyway it was therapeutic just sitting in the sun surrounded by nature. I had another walk and made mental plans for my next felling operations this winter. The top part of my woods is an uninspiring, very tall lanky sycamore plantation. It should have been thinned as they grew but hasn’t. Many of them are deformed due to squirrel damage or stunted due to over-competition, so my annual felling time is spent taking out the weakest ones and chopping up for firewood and sometimes carving an ugly spoon! My aim is to try to open some small areas to light so I can plant different species and create diversity. I have already done that in the top right corner and spotted an area in the other corner that would lend itself to that treatment. I would plant some resilient and relatively fast growing species such as cherry, hazel and birch. I will never see then come to maturity but it will set things in motion. There’s a quote, “A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit” (Greek proverb).

I was finished but just one more thing to do, to visit one of my neighbour pals who is also working to manage his wood for nature and diversity. I headed over and we had a nice chat while we watched numerous little birds swoop down to take food. He has had some gale damage and he showed me a huge ash tree that had snapped at the base. He will leave it as a feature and for nature to reclaim as it slowly decays and becomes a home to many organisms. Can’t wait for next visit. Maybe next weekend?

Gorgeous sunny day, signs of spring

Hazel catkins – male flower

A cold clear morning yesterday, sun was out and there was a distinct but faint hint of spring. The woods were quite dry, the old leaves from autumn starting to get absorbed into the soil and there was a real clarity, partly because I had some new polarised distance glasses on! The polarising cuts reflections and saturates the colours which seems to bring things more alive somehow. There is much talk about mindfulness – being consciously aware of the present and your surroundings and how it helps our mental health. Well a pair of new glasses worn while walking around a beautiful winter woodland on a clear sunny morning doesn’t get any better than that.

As well as the hazel catkins, bluebells and Lords and Ladies are poking through. There were plenty of birds on my feeders and I heard a thrush singing. This gnarly sycamore trunk just had to be photographed.

My main jobs were to collect logs for home and cut up some of the trees I felled last visit. As it was such a still day and I had the chainsaw, I decided to take another three trees down. Two came down perfectly, one got hung up. I repeatedly under-cut it hoping it would fall out but it is still wedged in a fork and now hanging like a pendulum! A job for the winch next time. To say I have now felled over 100 sycamore trees in the plantation, you would hardly tell. Granted they are mainly small to medium diameter ones. The plantation has never been thinned since planting in the 1960s. Many are weakly or misshapen due to squirrel damage and will never make decent examples. By selective felling, it allows a little more light and nutrition for the remaining ones and hopefully improve their health. The extra light will help with ground cover species too.

Turkey tail fungi on dead stake.

One of my neighbours came to chat, then another two then another. It was like a meeting of the woodland clan, reporting back to each other on various forestry matters – plus a bit of gossip. Nice to connect. My camper van drew a few admiring comments too.

On Saturday I went to a local timber suppliers near home who mill trees into planks. They had a sale and open day. There were various individual small businesses with stalls selling or demonstrating skills. I met up with a spoon carver who I’d met a while ago. He’s hoping to start a spoon carving club and I would love to be part of it. For the last nine months my creative juices have dried up but I’m starting to get the urge to do some woodworking again. I bought a gorgeous little eating spoon from him. He’s also invited me to see his workshop and have a chat and cuppa tea. Good things to come.

Spectacles are for scale. I believe the wood is cherry.

I’ll leave you with this lovely hazel stool enjoying the winter sun.