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.

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.

talks

Woodlife Trails will visit your school or organisation. We will bring with us our popular table of exhibits which includes Natural History artefacts such as animal skulls, bones, skins, feeding signs, scat, and other interesting objects designed to educate not just youngsters but people of every age.

Our aim is to heighten awareness of the Natural World and help people get physically closer to inhabitants of the woods.

The exhibits are designed to be touched and felt by the audience thereby heightening the learning.

We also bring along our high-powered microscope to allow people to see objects in close detail.

Our owl pellet box is very popular. Youngster’s spend literally hours picking out the small mammal bones, separating them from the pellet.

As well as showing you our exhibits, we can take you for a woodland walk in your own or nearby woods to show you what you may be missing. We will help you identify plants, trees and tell you how they can be used. We will give you a few tips and tricks to help you observe the wildlife in your area by introducing you to the tracks and signs the animals leave behind.

We are able to give presentations on nearly any subject involving the outdoors such as bushcraft, survival skills, wild-camping, wildlife observation, the natural world in general or specific subjects such as animal and human tracking, wildlife observation or JP's specialist interest, arachnology.

This year's talk by Pablo is entitled "How Close Do You Want To Go? - Getting close to Wildlife." Pablo uses PowerPoint including his own amazing footage of wildlife to describe how we can use our senses and field-craft techniques to get closer to Wildlife. This is ideal for wildlife photographers, stalkers, rangers, wardens, or conservation groups / social groups interested in wildlife and tracking.

Please look at Information for parents teachers v1.0 (pdf) which may answer any questions to what we can provide and an risks associated with it.

Please contact us directly at info@woodlife.co.uk to discuss your requirements.

talks

Woodlife Trails will visit your school or organisation. We will bring with us our popular table of exhibits which includes Natural History artefacts such as animal skulls, bones, skins, feeding signs, scat, and other interesting objects designed to educate not just youngsters but people of every age.

Our aim is to heighten awareness of the Natural World and help people get physically closer to inhabitants of the woods.

The exhibits are designed to be touched and felt by the audience thereby heightening the learning.

We also bring along our high-powered microscope to allow people to see objects in close detail.

Our owl pellet box is very popular. Youngster’s spend literally hours picking out the small mammal bones, separating them from the pellet.

As well as showing you our exhibits, we can take you for a woodland walk in your own or nearby woods to show you what you may be missing. We will help you identify plants, trees and tell you how they can be used. We will give you a few tips and tricks to help you observe the wildlife in your area by introducing you to the tracks and signs the animals leave behind.

We are able to give presentations on nearly any subject involving the outdoors such as bushcraft, survival skills, wild-camping, wildlife observation, the natural world in general or specific subjects such as animal and human tracking, wildlife observation or JP's specialist interest, arachnology.

This year's talk by Pablo is entitled "How Close Do You Want To Go? - Getting close to Wildlife." Pablo uses PowerPoint including his own amazing footage of wildlife to describe how we can use our senses and field-craft techniques to get closer to Wildlife. This is ideal for wildlife photographers, stalkers, rangers, wardens, or conservation groups / social groups interested in wildlife and tracking.

Please look at Information for parents teachers v1.0 (pdf) which may answer any questions to what we can provide and an risks associated with it.

Please contact us directly at info@woodlife.co.uk to discuss your requirements.

Wilderness Gathering 2011

Weather-wise this year’s Gathering was either hot and sunny or pouring with rain. It certainly rained on Thursday, which made set up a chore and also made getting around slippery.

It was great to see old friends again and look at everyone’s offerings.

The Woodlife Maker’s Guild were once again a smash hit with John’s extraordinary carvings…

… and hen’s brilliant basket weaving sessions.

Angelo displayed his canoes…

… while Jason displayed and sold his excellent leather pouches. I was extremely proud to think that Woodlife Network had brought all these talented guys and girls together.

This year, once again, we had George helping us out at the stand and doing a father and son bow demonstrations.

It was a delight to finally meet Dave of WildScience. He took us around the Lake one evening for some bat detecting. Certainly an inspirational bloke if ever I’ve seen one, with his infectious enthusiasm about all things outdoors – but especially bats.

JP worked tirelessly on the bow drill and explaining about our newest member of the Table of Death, which proved to be a great hit as he was placed on people’s hands. This was yet another first for Woodlife Trails as we try to get more people hands-on (literally) with nature’s wonders.

As with previous years, Woodlife ran the Extreme baking competition. This year there was only 5 entries. The winner smothered the cake in After Eight mint chocolate, which proved a hit with the judge, Roger Harrington (the organiser's) young son.