A Day in Poor Park

It seemed like an eternity since I was in Poor Park woods. I was quite surprised to see many of the trees in the woods turning to an autumn hue, especially the towering poplars, whose top-most leaves have already turned a golden yellow. The blackberries are all spent and there was a slight musty smell that always pre-empts the onset of autumn.

I was greeted by a doe and two young fallows already in their dark winter coats. As they spotted me they ran to the east. I tried to cut them off by doing a loop to the south and coming up on the east side. I laid in wait, but they had obviously stopped just out of sight to the north. I stalked up on the east side northwards to meet them, but they had cut back south west and into some dense woodland. I had the choice of looping around to the north-west at the risk of giving myself away by being upwind, or work my way through the woodland, directly following their tails.

I chose the latter option. Despite moving quickly, I didn’t gain on the small group, and even though I was following accurately (judging by the fresh fewmets) I wasn’t able to get any closer to them. I gave up near one of my regular rest spots.

My next project was to have a look at a new stove Ben Probst had sent me called the Folding Firebox (http://www.foldingfirebox.com/) This is a market that appears appears saturated with wood-burners like the honey stove, bushbuddy, bushcooker, pocketcooker and a few others. I will do a full review mid week on video; however, I was initially impressed with this very smart, innovative firebox.

It is pretty heavy though,and I think this may be it’s main drawback for those who like to keep their weight down.

My excursion in Poor Park woods continued coming across a classic fox kill site and …

…a fresh badger latrine, which proves the badgers are still using the woods, even if they aren’t permanently located in them.

I finished off the day by laying down just off a cross-track and falling asleep in the late summer sunshine. I came round to see two fallow does about 30 yards away. I didn’t have the energy to scrabble for the camera. I just watched them slowly wander along the trail and skip across the cross-track and into the denser woodland.

After they had gone, I collected up my small rucksack and made my way back to the car. There wouldn’t be that many more fine, warm days  left this year. I was glad I had made the most of this one.

Thanks for the visit.

A Day in Poor Park

It seemed like an eternity since I was in Poor Park woods. I was quite surprised to see many of the trees in the woods turning to an autumn hue, especially the towering poplars, whose top-most leaves have already turned a golden yellow. The blackberries are all spent and there was a slight musty smell that always pre-empts the onset of autumn.

I was greeted by a doe and two young fallows already in their dark winter coats. As they spotted me they ran to the east. I tried to cut them off by doing a loop to the south and coming up on the east side. I laid in wait, but they had obviously stopped just out of sight to the north. I stalked up on the east side northwards to meet them, but they had cut back south west and into some dense woodland. I had the choice of looping around to the north-west at the risk of giving myself away by being upwind, or work my way through the woodland, directly following their tails.

I chose the latter option. Despite moving quickly, I didn’t gain on the small group, and even though I was following accurately (judging by the fresh fewmets) I wasn’t able to get any closer to them. I gave up near one of my regular rest spots.

My next project was to have a look at a new stove Ben Probst had sent me called the Folding Firebox (http://www.foldingfirebox.com/) This is a market that appears appears saturated with wood-burners like the honey stove, bushbuddy, bushcooker, pocketcooker and a few others. I will do a full review mid week on video; however, I was initially impressed with this very smart, innovative firebox.

It is pretty heavy though,and I think this may be it’s main drawback for those who like to keep their weight down.

My excursion in Poor Park woods continued coming across a classic fox kill site and …

…a fresh badger latrine, which proves the badgers are still using the woods, even if they aren’t permanently located in them.

I finished off the day by laying down just off a cross-track and falling asleep in the late summer sunshine. I came round to see two fallow does about 30 yards away. I didn’t have the energy to scrabble for the camera. I just watched them slowly wander along the trail and skip across the cross-track and into the denser woodland.

After they had gone, I collected up my small rucksack and made my way back to the car. There wouldn’t be that many more fine, warm days  left this year. I was glad I had made the most of this one.

Thanks for the visit.

Last Show in Britain’s Last Forest

As the Woodlife Trails Roadshow season draws to an end, it is rather fitting that it was here at Hatfield Forest, Woodlife Trail’s adopted home and base, that we should perform our last one.

We are extremely fortunate to be associated with the National Trust at Hatfield and their forward-looking staff and managers seem to be pleased to have our presence at the forest to run our nature-based courses and educate young and old alike introducing them to wildlife, tracking, bushcraft and the forest itself.

It is described as Britain’s Last Forest as it is the only working forest left in Britain. It has never been ploughed-over and the landscape has not changed since it was designated a forest in the 11th century.

There is still wood pasture for the cattle and sheep and the woodland is regularly maintained by coppicing and harvesting. The rare flora and fauna has made it a National Nature Reserve and SSSI and the the  trees (many over 800 years old) are truly magnificent. Every time JP and I set up in the forest we are in awe of it and consider ourselves extremely privileged to be there. But it is only when the public has gone and dusk begins to fall do you really feel the atmosphere of this ancient place.

This weekend, the forest gave itself over to a festival. The Woodfest was originally designed as a celebration of the forest but it now has the exciting addition of a true festival atmosphere complete with two stages for music.

Much of the organisation is down to the Conservation Officer and highly accomplished Melodeon player, Ian Pease (seen here far right).

It has been a long summer of shows and to be honest, JP and I were both glad this was the last one. It is unbelievably tiring standing up and talking to people all day for three days explaining the various exhibits at our stand. But we can be sure, and indeed we are proud, that many, many people, and literally hundreds of youngsters,  have now gone with a better understanding of wildlife and nature; not to mention the looks of joy when they accomplish bow drill for the first time thanks to JP.

The exhibits are now looking the worse for wear, as we allow them all to be touched and felt. There’s nothing a quick replacement or a bit of stitching can’t fix.

So, this weekend was a double celebration. One for the forest and one for Woodlife Trails which ends our season of shows. A huge thanks to all our supporters and public who took time out to see us, to all the organisers and to all our neighbouring stands who had to put up with us!

We have two courses to look forward to in October. In the meantime – I think I’ll go chill out in the woods!

Last Show in Britain’s Last Forest

As the Woodlife Trails Roadshow season draws to an end, it is rather fitting that it was here at Hatfield Forest, Woodlife Trail’s adopted home and base, that we should perform our last one.

We are extremely fortunate to be associated with the National Trust at Hatfield and their forward-looking staff and managers seem to be pleased to have our presence at the forest to run our nature-based courses and educate young and old alike introducing them to wildlife, tracking, bushcraft and the forest itself.

It is described as Britain’s Last Forest as it is the only working forest left in Britain. It has never been ploughed-over and the landscape has not changed since it was designated a forest in the 11th century.

There is still wood pasture for the cattle and sheep and the woodland is regularly maintained by coppicing and harvesting. The rare flora and fauna has made it a National Nature Reserve and SSSI and the the  trees (many over 800 years old) are truly magnificent. Every time JP and I set up in the forest we are in awe of it and consider ourselves extremely privileged to be there. But it is only when the public has gone and dusk begins to fall do you really feel the atmosphere of this ancient place.

This weekend, the forest gave itself over to a festival. The Woodfest was originally designed as a celebration of the forest but it now has the exciting addition of a true festival atmosphere complete with two stages for music.

Much of the organisation is down to the Conservation Officer and highly accomplished Melodeon player, Ian Pease (seen here far right).

It has been a long summer of shows and to be honest, JP and I were both glad this was the last one. It is unbelievably tiring standing up and talking to people all day for three days explaining the various exhibits at our stand. But we can be sure, and indeed we are proud, that many, many people, and literally hundreds of youngsters,  have now gone with a better understanding of wildlife and nature; not to mention the looks of joy when they accomplish bow drill for the first time thanks to JP.

The exhibits are now looking the worse for wear, as we allow them all to be touched and felt. There’s nothing a quick replacement or a bit of stitching can’t fix.

So, this weekend was a double celebration. One for the forest and one for Woodlife Trails which ends our season of shows. A huge thanks to all our supporters and public who took time out to see us, to all the organisers and to all our neighbouring stands who had to put up with us!

We have two courses to look forward to in October. In the meantime – I think I’ll go chill out in the woods!

Gilwell’s Magical Moment

Every now and again a piece of magic comes right up to your door. It stops you in your tracks. It happened to JP and me at the Scouts Reunion at Gilwell last weekend.

Woodlife Trails was at Gilwell as part of the Wilderness Gathering Travelling Show with  Roger Harrington from Bison Bushcraft. As usual we brought the Table of Death of nature exhibits.

We had great interest from the scout leaders about our tracking and bushcraft courses, and the leaflets went quickly.

I demonstrated some tracking techniques while JP demonstrated bow-drill. The bow-drill proved particularly popular. At one stage, JP had an audience of 65 people around him. It was here that we first noticed 89 year-old Laurie, who was watching intently from his wheelchair.

After JP’s demo, Laurie explained that  he had had polio at a young age and the illness was now causing severe muscular wastage. As a young scout he had briefly met Baden-Powell and was inspired to become a scout leader. After the second world war he helped disabled children become scouts.  While he was becoming a scout leader (called obtaining the Wood badge) he was taught the bow-drill but never succeeded in getting and ember.

 

If you have three minutes or so, I would encourage you to watch this small clip. It is so inspiring on so many levels. For me it confirms the reason why JP and I decided to establish Woodlife Trails. No-one will ever tell me not to carry on doing what I’m doing, and what we are doing isn’t worth while.

Thanks for the visit.

Gilwell’s Magical Moment

Every now and again a piece of magic comes right up to your door. It stops you in your tracks. It happened to JP and me at the Scouts Reunion at Gilwell last weekend.

Woodlife Trails was at Gilwell as part of the Wilderness Gathering Travelling Show with  Roger Harrington from Bison Bushcraft. As usual we brought the Table of Death of nature exhibits.

We had great interest from the scout leaders about our tracking and bushcraft courses, and the leaflets went quickly.

I demonstrated some tracking techniques while JP demonstrated bow-drill. The bow-drill proved particularly popular. At one stage, JP had an audience of 65 people around him. It was here that we first noticed 89 year-old Laurie, who was watching intently from his wheelchair.

After JP’s demo, Laurie explained that  he had had polio at a young age and the illness was now causing severe muscular wastage. As a young scout he had briefly met Baden-Powell and was inspired to become a scout leader. After the second world war he helped disabled children become scouts.  While he was becoming a scout leader (called obtaining the Wood badge) he was taught the bow-drill but never succeeded in getting and ember.

 

If you have three minutes or so, I would encourage you to watch this small clip. It is so inspiring on so many levels. For me it confirms the reason why JP and I decided to establish Woodlife Trails. No-one will ever tell me not to carry on doing what I’m doing, and what we are doing isn’t worth while.

Thanks for the visit.

Wild, Wet Weekend

This weekend’s National Trust Wildcamp was, to say the least, a little damp. That didn’t stop 16 hardy souls from joining us in Hatfield Forest. I certainly admired their enthusiasm despite a heavy drenching especially on Saturday night .

After arriving on Friday and a few settling in briefings and chores, JP went through knife safety and fire-lighting on Saturday morning.

In JP’s own words, you only get one chance when the wood is damp and the ground is wet. good preparation is the key. Needless to say, there was soon a nice little demo fire which was replicated under Mike’s tidy parachute.

This made the whole base camp a cosy affair. Mike (a volunteer NT warden) helped us out and kindly left his parachute up from an earlier session.

The tracking session was popular with the kids as they spotted an array of signs and evidence on the woodland floor. This was after an equally popular Hunter Force mission. A vicious down pour made us all scuttle for the parachute though.

JP and I later followed a very recent badger trail that ended up at an active sett. An dead, old, female badger no more than a couple of weeks or so into decay was on the edge of the sett. Incessant rain turned us away once again but we left a trail cam up to see if we could capture on film any occupants. I’ll let you know the result when we download the cam.

After a warming by the fire, we all decided to turn in early.

Despite a drenching there were smiles in the morning and everyone mentioned how well the weekend went. The kids loved the forest and the adults, some initially sceptical, promised to return.

We will upload the badger footage soon. Thanks for the visit.