Flint and Steel

I've been practicing a technique recently which was shown to me by George at the last Reading meet. It involves a piece of cloth like a polish rag or a small bit of rope, a piece of elder or hollow metal tube, flint and a steel.



Firstly, you take the polish rag or rope and twist it through the hollow tube. It helps initially to have the end of the material pre-burned. Make sure there's enough material pushed through the end of the tube to allow your thumb to press on the material without touching the burned end.

Put the end of the material onto the flint so that the burned part is right on the edge of the flint. Use your striker (or ferro rod) to create some sparks which should land on the burnt end of you material. You can waft the material around a little to get the ember going. There's no real need to blow on it. All you have to do then is transfer the ember or apply directly to your tinder bundle.

To extinguish the ember, pull the material down into the tube and put your thumb over the top to starve the ember of oxygen.

This is a pretty good way to carry around ember making material and a small version could go in a survival tin or possibles pouch.

The video below also shows the technique.



Pablo.

Flint and Steel

I've been practicing a technique recently which was shown to me by George at the last Reading meet. It involves a piece of cloth like a polish rag or a small bit of rope, a piece of elder or hollow metal tube, flint and a steel.



Firstly, you take the polish rag or rope and twist it through the hollow tube. It helps initially to have the end of the material pre-burned. Make sure there's enough material pushed through the end of the tube to allow your thumb to press on the material without touching the burned end.

Put the end of the material onto the flint so that the burned part is right on the edge of the flint. Use your striker (or ferro rod) to create some sparks which should land on the burnt end of you material. You can waft the material around a little to get the ember going. There's no real need to blow on it. All you have to do then is transfer the ember or apply directly to your tinder bundle.

To extinguish the ember, pull the material down into the tube and put your thumb over the top to starve the ember of oxygen.

This is a pretty good way to carry around ember making material and a small version could go in a survival tin or possibles pouch.

The video below also shows the technique.



Pablo.

New woods and sunshine

Weatherwise, it's been a fantastic week. This weekend was the same and next week looks good as well. The temperature has been in the mid 20's centigrade with bright sunshine.




I've had a great week going out most evenings and, of course over the weekend. I had a little more success with the badgers, filming 2 adults and two cubs.




I also spotted this little lapwing chick well camouflaged in amongst the ruts left by four-wheel drive vehicles.





I had a wander around some new woods. I'll talk about these woods in more detail later. I was content on this ocassion to meander along the pathways and explore the new areas. On my travels I spotted fallow deer, a pair of munjac and a lone fox cub. I found myself a nice sit spot and had a brunch of bacon, egg and beans.




The woods are vibrant with new growth. Bugle and ground ivy covers the woodland floor but there's also scarlet pimpernel, early-purple orchids and doves-foot cranesbill.





This year I'm not just trying to identify wildflowers, but trying more to understand their medicinal and edible properties. I plucked some leaves of this garlic mustard to complement a salad. It tastes like garlic too but it doesn't have the long lingering after taste of normal garlic.




Of course, the ever present nettles are pretty versatile as well, particularly the young leaves.



Thanks for the visit.

Pablo.

New woods and sunshine

Weatherwise, it's been a fantastic week. This weekend was the same and next week looks good as well. The temperature has been in the mid 20's centigrade with bright sunshine.




I've had a great week going out most evenings and, of course over the weekend. I had a little more success with the badgers, filming 2 adults and two cubs.




I also spotted this little lapwing chick well camouflaged in amongst the ruts left by four-wheel drive vehicles.





I had a wander around some new woods. I'll talk about these woods in more detail later. I was content on this ocassion to meander along the pathways and explore the new areas. On my travels I spotted fallow deer, a pair of munjac and a lone fox cub. I found myself a nice sit spot and had a brunch of bacon, egg and beans.




The woods are vibrant with new growth. Bugle and ground ivy covers the woodland floor but there's also scarlet pimpernel, early-purple orchids and doves-foot cranesbill.





This year I'm not just trying to identify wildflowers, but trying more to understand their medicinal and edible properties. I plucked some leaves of this garlic mustard to complement a salad. It tastes like garlic too but it doesn't have the long lingering after taste of normal garlic.




Of course, the ever present nettles are pretty versatile as well, particularly the young leaves.



Thanks for the visit.

Pablo.

You can believe me or not, but I actually woke up yesterday and thought, "Today is going to be a special day." I put my stuff in the Discovery and headed to Foxes wood.

After a fleeting glimpse of the Fallow deer, I turned my attention to the Fox earth I spotted on my last visit. There were signs of recent activity, so I sat down about 20 yards away. Half way through making a brew I saw this cub...

... then another...

... then another...

... then another...

... then another...

... then another...

... and a rat ...

Altogether there were 8 foxes; 6 cubs and and 2 adults as far as I could tell. I sat there watching about 20 yards away total enthralled with the sight of the cubs and their antics.
I've uploaded a video on YouTube. It's worth watching as there's a hilarious scene where one of the cubs falls into the den.

I thought it was going to be a special day!

Thanks for the visit.

Pablo.

You can believe me or not, but I actually woke up yesterday and thought, "Today is going to be a special day." I put my stuff in the Discovery and headed to Foxes wood.

After a fleeting glimpse of the Fallow deer, I turned my attention to the Fox earth I spotted on my last visit. There were signs of recent activity, so I sat down about 20 yards away. Half way through making a brew I saw this cub...

... then another...

... then another...

... then another...

... then another...

... then another...

... and a rat ...

Altogether there were 8 foxes; 6 cubs and and 2 adults as far as I could tell. I sat there watching about 20 yards away total enthralled with the sight of the cubs and their antics.
I've uploaded a video on YouTube. It's worth watching as there's a hilarious scene where one of the cubs falls into the den.

I thought it was going to be a special day!

Thanks for the visit.

Pablo.

Gotcha!

You probably don't know how much this photo means to me. Ok so it's dark and blurry but it's my first photo of one of my local Badgers.


After many hours trying to even see one of them I managed to actually get a photo at last.

There are a number of problems with the local sett. Firstly, I don't get up there too often although it's not too far away. The second problem is that the sett is on a long, low rise with many sett entrances. Most of these are on top of the rise so if they do come out, you only tend to see a fleeting glimpse of a silhouette as you're generally at the base of that rise. Grass growth makes it almost impossible to see anything in the late spring and summer. The final problems is that the area is in the middle of a field. The prevailing wind is not conducive to where the best lay up position is.


On this ocassion, I said sod convention and went on top of the rise and laid up about 10 yards away from the most recently dug hole. As the sun went down out came this chap. He immediately ran to a hole even further away before I could even take point the camera. When he came out of that hole, I managed to snap a couple of shots off. Only one was good enough to put up.



I've heard reports that there are cubs about but I didn't see any here. In fact, this was the only animal I saw. Perhaps I was too close and he got a scent of me. There was no movement for the next hour (in the area I was watching anyway) and so I called it a night.



Nevertheless, a nice result for me and I went home grinning all the way.



Pablo.