June; Fair Weather Campers

After previously being put off by weather forecasts in previous weeks, we decided to ignore what the beeb said and just go and camp anyway. Luckily we got away with just light drizzle as we set up on the Friday evening, and Saturday was a lovely day. We didn’t do a lot - which is a great way to spend a day and not something we are used to in ‘modern life’. After finally getting the fire started we cooked burgers, sausages and beans for a basic supper that always tastes better for the charring (that’s my excuse anyway). We (OK, I) put some sandstone rocks around the fire and that was fine until the fire died down, then as they cooled they cracked and sent little bits of hot stone flying. Plan B is to buy some proper fire bricks and use those to make 4 short pillars to support a metal grid on which we can then cook. Previously we’d used logs which are generally OK for a few fires but are impermanent for obvious reasons so it would be good to have something more lasting.

The bracken growth in the clearing has slowed now, although I did give it somemore bashing; hopefully another couple of years and we may not have to do it again. It is already making a difference (we started bracken bashing last year) and there is the odd patch of grass and other plants as yet unidentified growing in what was just a bracken monoculture. There’s also a few brambles starting to grow too but we’ll mange the area as best we can to get a diversity of plants and encourage butterflies etc into the clearing. On the edge of the clearing we have our first foxglove, while elsewhere in the wood the honeysuckle is in full flower. Tom saw a deer on the wayleave, which is only the second time we’ve seen one at the wood, although we do see their tracks in the mud.

This month we also spent time cutting back some of the birch and alder on the wayleave to keep a path clear and allow sunlight to reach the floor. Work has started on a new tree camp, this time it will be a bit larger as it will reach between 2 trees that are growing either side of the stream. Tom is hoping to sleep in it once it’s complete, but at the moment we are still at an early stage of fixing the basic supporting timbers to the trees.

Here Comes Summer


Beltane weekend saw the bluebells in full splendour, a fantastic sight not just for themselves but also for the backdrop they form to the greening of the woodland. The ferns are growing with a lushness that you only get in this early part of summer; and this plus the other young growth makes the woodland almost glow with fresh greenness. There are a lot more violets in flower now too along with bugle adding colour to the wayleave – although they are in danger of getting shaded out by the encroaching birch saplings, so we need to do some more clearing in that area. We haven’t seen any owls yet, but we did find an owl pellet which we teased apart to find a mouse’s skull. Later in the month we saw a couple of Orange Tip moth caterpillars as well as some ‘little green jobs’ that we didn’t identify.

A contact we made at the WoodFair last year came and collected a pick-up load of logs for firewood; but this turned out to be more ‘interesting’ than anticipated. Long story short, we were lucky our neighbourly woodland owners were around with their Landy which was needed to pull the pick-up out of the soft sandy muddy rut it was stuck in.

As building a bender for the loo was so simple (and reasonably elegant too) we have made another one to provide somewhere sheltered to leave our fold-up chairs, table and anything else that we want to keep out of the rain but isn’t so valuable that it needs locking up. As the main work season disappears behind us it is now more relaxed in the wood and a visit later in May saw us building a rope swing, chilling out in hammocks, sitting in the tree camp drumming and daydreaming about what we could do next. Work consisted of pulling/digging up a small patch of Rhododendron, chopping a few logs and bracken bashing in the clearing (we are leaving other patches of bracken standing).

A More Convenient Convenience

Unfortunately only managed to visit once this month, but it was constructive as we took down the failed rope and tarpaulin contrivance that housed the loo last year and built a more elegant ‘bender’ structure in a fresh location. Digging the hole was easy in our sandy soil and even Che leant a helping paw. Initially the plan was to use chestnut for the main supports as this would be the most rot resistant; however chestnut’s often useful splitability meant it didn’t have enough bendability. So the plan changed slightly and the bender frame was made completely from hazel. Then it was simply a matter of securing a couple of tarps over the frame and hey presto we’ve got a loo. It hasn’t got a door and next visit we’ll decide how much of a door/flap to put on to balance providing privacy with having a loo with a view.

A walk around the wood saw violets in flower and we spotted a single solitary primrose on the bank of the seasonal stream, surrounded by bluebells and ferns. Whilst in the wood I did the last(?) chainsawing of the season tidying up the stools where we’ve been coppicing (yep, we should have done them as we went along, but felling is more satisfying). Bill the woodsman paid us a visit giving some advice on felling awkward trees and he also gave my saw a ‘proper’ sharpening, which demonstrated why I need to give as much focus to the guides as I give to the teeth.

Woody the Forester

Well we’ve just about got all the felled trees logged up now and burnt all the branches etc that were too thin for firewood, so the coppiced area is now clear and we can see what we’ve achieved. All that’s left to do now is tidy up all the stools and stumps (many are still a bit tall having had the felling cuts but not yet been taken down lower) and arrange for someone to collect all the logs. Every visit over the past months has felt like it has been work work work, so now we are looking forward to visiting the wood just to relax and chill out, although I know I won’t be able to rest for long before I get to work again. But the next jobs will be more constructive; the loo needs rebuilding (the old tarpaulin construction wasn’t strong enough to survive the weather), and there’s rails to be put around the tree camp. We spotted our 1st bluebells last weekend; there are a few starting to flower at the southern edge of the wood. March also saw us say goodbye to our old car (Toyota Celica GT), which has been replaced with a more practical Subaru Forester which I call ‘Woody’ although the boss reckons it should be called Scooby. Although I miss the fun of the Celica, the Forester is no slouch and combines practicality with performance (4x4, but with a 2 litre turbo charged engine).

Spring is Sprung

February 2008

This month we finished felling all the trees we wanted to coppice this season and most have been processed into logs and will later be cut and split for firewood. But there are still enough felled trees to keep us busy logging for at least a couple more days. Some of the birch has been stacked to intentionally start decaying, so that the fungi ‘spalt’ the wood and it can then be turned (see photo from previous month). While we have been working, Tom has been lending a hand and also taking time out to make bows and arrows, ride his bike around the wood and been plinking with the air rifle. Despite the frosty mornings, it feels that spring is here with the woods starting to green; the bluebells are spiking into the light and honeysuckle is in fresh leaf. We have heard and seen woodpeckers and by chance there was a standing dead tree in the area being coppiced so we have left this standing.

A New Year, A New Lesson

January has seen a lot of trees coppiced / felled and the half an acre target has been achieved. My focus has been on felling, while the rest of the family has been doing some felling and a lot of clearing up processing the felled trees. About 60% of the trees felled are birch, with the rest being chestnut (all the oak standards have been left standing). The birch are generally single trees, with close twiggy branches and straight vertical trunks; so they are relatively easy to fell in a convenient direction. The chestnut, being from coppice stools, are generally leaning in all directions and more liable to get hung up; so it’s often a case of felling the birch around them to create a clearer space to fell into. Now the felling is (almost) complete, the next few visits will focus on clearing up and logging those felled trees that have not yet been processed and there will no doubt be a few more bonfires too. The heavy rains and wind have resulted in a couple more leaning trees, reminding us of the benefits of returning the wood to coppice rotation. The heavy rains also resulted in a temporary stream springing from an old rabbit hole; giving Che some new water to play in. We noticed that some birch wood has spalted and this makes great material for my dad’s woodturning, as can be seen in the bowl pictured above.

The lesson learnt this month is: wheelbarrows do not like having trees felled on top of them!

December 2007

This month saw more visits to the wood, all focussed on coppicing while the season and weather allowed. The felled trees have been piling up and aren’t all logged yet so the area looks a bit of a mess, but we are getting there. There is a lot more birch than originally thought and the plan is to control this when the coppice regrows and encourage more chestnut and/or maybe add some indigenous species. That’s a decision for next winter; for now the main aim is to get the area coppiced and the felled trees logged and stacked ready for sale for firewood. To counteract the cold, there have been some fires (also to get rid of the thin branches etc), and local chippies have seen our business too (not very Ray Mears, but very welcome on a frosty day). We are often joined by a Robin who hops and flits about the felled trees while we work. On one occasion while we were taking a well earned break, a Sparrowhawk flew through the wood and then locked talons with another. They spiralled around briefly (just like on TV!) before going their separate ways. With the trees now bare of leaves there is less colour in the wood, but this bareness moves your focus to the form of the trees such as the Alder pictured above.