Saturday 2 June 2007

Beltane and a Beautiful Demoiselle


Sunday 6th May saw our 1st gathering in the wood, a sort of woodwarming and also to gather for Beltane; about 16 of us in all. For most it was their 1st visit to the wood and after all were there we gave them a short ‘tour’ through the bluebells and down the wayleave (now with a profusion of bugle) then up through Sulis Gill and back to the clearing where half a dozen tents were pitched. Supper included jacket spuds cooked in the fire, some in foil but we also tried some in a biscuit tin; those in the tin were almost successful! Next time we’ll not pile so much of the fire on top of the tin as the bottoms were fine but the tops charred. It was a lovely laidback evening sitting round the fire chatting, sharing a few beers and cooking burgers and sausages over the flames; while the maybugs held their own gathering around the hurricane lamp. Monday morning was met by many sleepily waking faces as we relit the fire from its embers and made toast before the rain joined us and we packed up the soaking tents before heading to Hastings and the Jack-in-the-Green celebration of the beginning of summer.

At the end of May we did a little more work on the tree camp; fixing the main supports for the second platform and starting to put on the ‘floor boards’. All but a very few bluebells are past flowering and the trees are much greener now. A walk down the wayleave finds the bugle still in flower and Tom’s young eyes spot a Beautiful Demoiselle there. The bracken in the clearing gets a good thrashing and Julie takes out the sycamore saplings from Sulis Gill. We finish the day digging out a couple of stumps from the parking area and smooth out the lump there that caused trouble at the start of the month (and also fill in the hole that I managed to reverse into).