Songs From The Wood

Shandy is in here somewhere!

Well sounds at the very least, although the longer we continue to work in the woods the more rhythmical and musical it seems to become. Our first task each day is to light the bonfire, this starts with the gathering and breaking up of whatever dryish tinder we can find, then when we have a small blaze we can feed, Giles kick starts the chainsaw to begin felling and that is the music that we work to. Once the fire is going well the accents of crackling, spitting and hissing are added as the green wood is fed to the flames. Next to join the chorus is Shandy, head first or worse down the nearest rabbit hole to which she adds her muffled woofing. Birdsong must be added next, in particular the cries of the passing buzzards a high mournful screeching. Lunchtime gives yet more music with the sizzling of the sausages over our campfire, and finally you must add the sounds of us girls chatting as we work and more often than not laughing with the sheer joy of toiling outside in January!

Shandy after a particularly hard mornings excavations.

"Let me bring you songs from the wood to make you feel much better than you could know"

Ian Anderson Jethro Tull

Me and my pal

Down In The Undergrowth

Another day in the woods began cold and misty, we had great trouble in lighting the fire which protested mightily against the damp fuel we were trying to feed it. After all the recent rain it was a good job we had a packet of fire-lighters with us to help the job along, much to Giles' disgust! The day continued much in the same vein as the last few although we did build more wildlife habitats, including two right along the length of a couple of fallen trees. It is only when you get up close and personal with the undergrowth that you realise what a microcosm it is, in particular you can see how plants and trees decay, firstly with the insect assault and then the fungi, many of the branches we used showed evidence of the mycorrhizal network which feeds the fruiting body of the fungi. Who knows which bugs and creepy crawlies essential to the life of the wood will find a home here.
"Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plan"
Henry David Thoreau

Cookout

Our first cook-out of 2014 went in predictable style, it usually takes us a while to get a feel for it again. We don't really have the best kit and often make do with whatever we can glean  from around the estate, in this case a grill with rather large spaced bars which meant that the sausages fell through at least one time each. However no matter how ashy and gritty the food it always tastes brilliant when eaten out of doors after a morning of hard graft.
Shandy also had a busy morning which finally resulted in her catching and devouring a baby rabbit, quickly followed by the worst of the gritty sausages, this was obviously as much as she could take, as she spent the remainder of the afternoon sitting on the tractor in a sort of "when are we going home" sort of way!

"An empty belly is the best cook"
Estonian proverb

January Sunrise

More slashing and burning in the woods yesterday, but now we have moved down to the lake again. I was just in time to catch the sunrise before our work began. It is surprising how much growth has returned after our attentions last year, the elder in particular shoots away with great rapidity if not checked, so we concentrate on removing as much as we can to allow the new native saplings to get a better start. we have decided that we will have a camp fire cook out on Thursday, as much to save our legs as anything else because it is about a quarter of a mile down to the lake and back again, and we made the trip three times on top of our work! Time then to perfect the art of weeing in the woods again, not the easiest of skills when you are wearing waterproofs, you live and learn as they say!

"What is the good of your stars and trees, your sunrise and the wind, if they do not enter into our daily lives?"
E.M.Forster

A Strange Find

It was a stunning day today after a wet start first thing, most unlike January. We gathered in crow wood to continue with the clearing and soon had a good blaze going, the only trouble being the heat which was quite uncomfortable in such mild conditions. We managed to cut a swathe through the debris by the end of the day that proved that girl power is still as good as ever!
Alyson made another discovery today which caused some amusement as we opened and shut the jaws to comments of "sausages" even though we haven't started our camp fire cooking yet. Seriously though we would like to know what small mammal the skull belongs to, so if anyone out there knows please drop me a line.......

Back To Work We Go

Back at work on a drab January morning, we did what any self respecting bunch of gardeners would do and built a bonfire. Down on the old tennis court which is normally the domain of bunnies and brambles, we proceeded to burn a years worth of rubbish, including this old door frame which made the whole thing look rather like a fire place. Then whilst Shandy did her best with the rabbit problem we tackled the brambles, vicious monsters with thorns like knife tips, it was satisfying to consign them to the flames despite incurring a few injuries on the way.
Later we moved up to the house for some cutting back, this should have been done earlier but was overlooked so all the foliage had been reduced to mush, most unpleasant. Still at least we weren't as wet as Giles who was jet washing the flags and unblocking the drains! As we neared the end of the task Alyson discovered a hibernating hedgehog amongst the detritus, so she carefully placed his nest of leaves back around him hopefully leaving him to slumber on undisturbed until spring. The Grahams taking pity on the bedraggled band outside invited us in for a cuppa and a warm around the Aga just before home, so all in all not a bad first day back after Christmas.

I'm fast asleep in here!

"One kind word can warm three winter months"
Japanese proverb