Weekend at Mark’s

I was looking forward to a weekend away as the last time I was due to go was scuppered by work.

I knew this would be a chilly one, having had temperatures all last week below zero and even down to minus twenty centigrade in some parts in Scotland.

As it happened, the temperatures rose slightly; so I entered the wood with the temperature reading about 3C.

Again, I brought my camp bed along as opposed to the hammock.

As there was no wind and no threat of rain, we didn't put the parachute up. It was quite noticeable as the evening went on. The fire tends to trap the heat in under a parachute and we kind of missed that. Needless to say, some mulled wine kept out the winter chill.

The next day, we went foraging for birch and for component parts for Matt to make a Christmas wreath (under his wife’s orders.) I wanted to have a go at making a wood-spirit in the birch.

Matt had success in making the wreath but I ran out of time making the wood-spirit, but under Adam’s tuition, I learnt a few tricks to have another attempt at a later date.

The meets in Mark’s woods tend to be quite a musical affair, and as the night drew in, the wood was filled with the haunting sound of the Native American flute, played expertly by Mark and Adam.

That evening, I decided that I would put the Alpkit down bag into the snugpack stratosphere bivi bag (without the hoops). This worked well as it kept the draft off my back and I had a much more comfortable night’s sleep.

The morning brought bright sunshine but very cold temperatures just on freezing.  As I packed away, my fingers suffered as they came into contact with the nylon material and I was glad to get everything packed away and stand in front of the fire to warm up.

It was a great, relaxing weekend with the usual good company. Thanks to Adam, Matt, Nick and of course Mark.

Thanks for the visit.

Weekend at Mark’s

I was looking forward to a weekend away as the last time I was due to go was scuppered by work.

I knew this would be a chilly one, having had temperatures all last week below zero and even down to minus twenty centigrade in some parts in Scotland.

As it happened, the temperatures rose slightly; so I entered the wood with the temperature reading about 3C.

Again, I brought my camp bed along as opposed to the hammock.

As there was no wind and no threat of rain, we didn't put the parachute up. It was quite noticeable as the evening went on. The fire tends to trap the heat in under a parachute and we kind of missed that. Needless to say, some mulled wine kept out the winter chill.

The next day, we went foraging for birch and for component parts for Matt to make a Christmas wreath (under his wife’s orders.) I wanted to have a go at making a wood-spirit in the birch.

Matt had success in making the wreath but I ran out of time making the wood-spirit, but under Adam’s tuition, I learnt a few tricks to have another attempt at a later date.

The meets in Mark’s woods tend to be quite a musical affair, and as the night drew in, the wood was filled with the haunting sound of the Native American flute, played expertly by Mark and Adam.

That evening, I decided that I would put the Alpkit down bag into the snugpack stratosphere bivi bag (without the hoops). This worked well as it kept the draft off my back and I had a much more comfortable night’s sleep.

The morning brought bright sunshine but very cold temperatures just on freezing.  As I packed away, my fingers suffered as they came into contact with the nylon material and I was glad to get everything packed away and stand in front of the fire to warm up.

It was a great, relaxing weekend with the usual good company. Thanks to Adam, Matt, Nick and of course Mark.

Thanks for the visit.

Billy and Pablo’s Grand Day Out

Typical! The weekend’s here; but is there any snow? No Sirreeee!  It’s all gone. Last week I had just one hour of daylight each day to study the gait patterns in the snow. Now there was nothing left. I looked at Billy the Bichon. Well, there was nothing for it except to go on a mini expedition.

Now, we quite often go on mini expeditions. In fact it’s quite a big expedition for a little dog. We get our lunch and plenty of water and we saddle up and hit the fields that surround the house. Today’s expedition had a simple objective. To plot out the local woods to see exactly where it extended in the 1800s. Simple.

We set out at 10 o’clock. The wind was a chill north westerly, but it wasn’t the freezing easterly of last week. In fact the temperature was just on zero degrees C.

Before we attempted the woodland task, we circumnavigated the fields to have a look for any tracks and signs.

We skirted the edge of the fields for a couple of hours, spotting fallow, fox and muntjac tracks and of course rabbit and hare. 

We had lunch in the lee of on old oak, which was a welcome rest.

I had bacon and egg in an edible plate.

Bill had… bacon and egg in an edible plate. The mini trangia came into it’s own again.

For a change, I took just a canvas shoulder bag. My mate Maverick gave this to me in October. I think it’s a Highlander bag and cost no more than a fiver. Great value.

You can see that I’ve put a smaller bag inside just to organise the  contents a little better.

We followed the edge of the field for quite a while until we came to the actual edge of the local wood. You are probably wondering how we’re going to find the edge of a wood that existed over 180 years ago. Well, enter 21st century technology.

The iphone has a great piece of software which I’m sure many of you know called Memory Map ordnance survey software mapping. As well as your local area in 1:25000, you can also purchase older maps; in this case an ordnance survey 1825 map. It’s now a simple case of overlaying the old map onto the position given by the GPS.

So here we see my position at the edge of the wood “in 1825” according to the GPS…

…and standing in the same spot and looking back east “into” the wood. In this photo, you can see that the start of the west side of the wood is about a quarter of a mile away. Fascinating stuff.

I plotted out the rest of the wood, surprised to see how large it had been. I’m now going to plot this information onto an ordnance survey map proper so that people can see the extent of the old woodland.

So why am I doing this? My ultimate aim will be to plant trees to extend the wood to it’s original size or at least plant them in an area the same size in the vicinity. Of course, the idea is inspired by hen and her wonderful 6000 tree-planting project in Exmoor.

Don’t laugh now. Who’s interested in this mad idea and who’s going to back it? Well, the local conservation group are already working to get the wood LNR (Local Nature Reserve) status and they are working to secure funding for tree-planting from the MOD landowners; so my woodland extension idea might just be viable.

Meanwhile, I could tell that Billy was getting a little tired. We had been out for nearly five hours and it was time to get home. The inside of Doris the Discovery was a welcome sight and we drove home tired but happy.

Thanks for the visit

Billy and Pablo’s Grand Day Out

Typical! The weekend’s here; but is there any snow? No Sirreeee!  It’s all gone. Last week I had just one hour of daylight each day to study the gait patterns in the snow. Now there was nothing left. I looked at Billy the Bichon. Well, there was nothing for it except to go on a mini expedition.

Now, we quite often go on mini expeditions. In fact it’s quite a big expedition for a little dog. We get our lunch and plenty of water and we saddle up and hit the fields that surround the house. Today’s expedition had a simple objective. To plot out the local woods to see exactly where it extended in the 1800s. Simple.

We set out at 10 o’clock. The wind was a chill north westerly, but it wasn’t the freezing easterly of last week. In fact the temperature was just on zero degrees C.

Before we attempted the woodland task, we circumnavigated the fields to have a look for any tracks and signs.

We skirted the edge of the fields for a couple of hours, spotting fallow, fox and muntjac tracks and of course rabbit and hare. 

We had lunch in the lee of on old oak, which was a welcome rest.

I had bacon and egg in an edible plate.

Bill had… bacon and egg in an edible plate. The mini trangia came into it’s own again.

For a change, I took just a canvas shoulder bag. My mate Maverick gave this to me in October. I think it’s a Highlander bag and cost no more than a fiver. Great value.

You can see that I’ve put a smaller bag inside just to organise the  contents a little better.

We followed the edge of the field for quite a while until we came to the actual edge of the local wood. You are probably wondering how we’re going to find the edge of a wood that existed over 180 years ago. Well, enter 21st century technology.

The iphone has a great piece of software which I’m sure many of you know called Memory Map ordnance survey software mapping. As well as your local area in 1:25000, you can also purchase older maps; in this case an ordnance survey 1825 map. It’s now a simple case of overlaying the old map onto the position given by the GPS.

So here we see my position at the edge of the wood “in 1825” according to the GPS…

…and standing in the same spot and looking back east “into” the wood. In this photo, you can see that the start of the west side of the wood is about a quarter of a mile away. Fascinating stuff.

I plotted out the rest of the wood, surprised to see how large it had been. I’m now going to plot this information onto an ordnance survey map proper so that people can see the extent of the old woodland.

So why am I doing this? My ultimate aim will be to plant trees to extend the wood to it’s original size or at least plant them in an area the same size in the vicinity. Of course, the idea is inspired by hen and her wonderful 6000 tree-planting project in Exmoor.

Don’t laugh now. Who’s interested in this mad idea and who’s going to back it? Well, the local conservation group are already working to get the wood LNR (Local Nature Reserve) status and they are working to secure funding for tree-planting from the MOD landowners; so my woodland extension idea might just be viable.

Meanwhile, I could tell that Billy was getting a little tired. We had been out for nearly five hours and it was time to get home. The inside of Doris the Discovery was a welcome sight and we drove home tired but happy.

Thanks for the visit

Snowy Tracking

We were probably the last in the UK to get some snow and it hasn’t been that deep compared to other parts of the country, but certainly enough to engage in my favourite past-time – Tracking!!

There’s so much to learn from the tracking in the snow. You might not see pristine tracks as they might be in mud, but you can certainly work out what animal it is by the basic compression shape. This is a badger print.

The best learning comes from examining a series of tracks in the snow. You should be able to establish the gaits of the animal and how fast it was going. The above is a galloping fox. The last print in the series of four is the right rear paw pushing off just before all four paws are suspended off the ground. Of course you can also establish where it is going and where it came from.

…but where do you start with this little lot? There’s some good stuff if you look closely.

Grey squirrel… This one dropped his leatherman juice.

Unfortunately, my tracking walks have been restricted to lunchtimes – hence the rather fetching (and cold) office attire. I reckon this badger was briskly walking home towards his sett. It must have been about 7am because at 6.30am when I woke up it was still snowing. There is only a little bit of drift snow filling the track. Fun ain’t it?

This is our local phriendly pheasant… well his left foot anyway.

This fox is at a fast amble and is crossing an older rabbit track.

Sorry if you’re disrupted by the snow.

Thanks for the visit.

Snowy Tracking

We were probably the last in the UK to get some snow and it hasn’t been that deep compared to other parts of the country, but certainly enough to engage in my favourite past-time – Tracking!!

There’s so much to learn from the tracking in the snow. You might not see pristine tracks as they might be in mud, but you can certainly work out what animal it is by the basic compression shape. This is a badger print.

The best learning comes from examining a series of tracks in the snow. You should be able to establish the gaits of the animal and how fast it was going. The above is a galloping fox. The last print in the series of four is the right rear paw pushing off just before all four paws are suspended off the ground. Of course you can also establish where it is going and where it came from.

…but where do you start with this little lot? There’s some good stuff if you look closely.

Grey squirrel… This one dropped his leatherman juice.

Unfortunately, my tracking walks have been restricted to lunchtimes – hence the rather fetching (and cold) office attire. I reckon this badger was briskly walking home towards his sett. It must have been about 7am because at 6.30am when I woke up it was still snowing. There is only a little bit of drift snow filling the track. Fun ain’t it?

This is our local phriendly pheasant… well his left foot anyway.

This fox is at a fast amble and is crossing an older rabbit track.

Sorry if you’re disrupted by the snow.

Thanks for the visit.

What a Week That Was!

It started off well and deteriorated as it went along.

I was delighted with the reception JP and I got when we showed the National Trust our proposed Countryside and Woodland Awareness Course last Monday. The Countryside manager and three other staff came along, and we had a great time wandering around a small part of the forest.

It was in fact quite difficult to show experienced people what we would hopefully be delivering to families who were not so experienced and we were careful not to to be too condescending, but I think the end result was that the staff learnt quite a bit. The team unanimously thought that what we provided in terms of Countryside and Woodland awareness was excellent and they all enjoyed the session [quote]. So much so that the rest of the team want to tag along when we go live next year.

As the week got colder, so did work as I got stuck behind my desk for longer and longer until eventually, I came to a grinding halt. Unfortunately, I couldn’t release myself to go the planned Tribe meet in East Sussex at the weekend.

I managed to get out today. The air was crackling crisp having had overnight lows of minus 5 degrees Centigrade here in East Anglia. While many part of the country had snow, we only got a heavy frost. This made me doubly angry that I missed the weekend meet, because I like to test myself and the kit in colder temperatures.

Any early Christmas present was this Woolpower 400g zipped sweater to go over my 200g base-layer. It felt comfortable when going for a walk and with a ventile over the top, it should be warm enough at these current temperatures. I still have an additional Swandri layer if necessary.

This time of year is the time when I like to look at kit maintenance. Wooden axe handles get a thin coat of linseed oil, knife handles and wooden spoons get a coat of walnut oil and the leather stuff like belts, pouches and boots get a layer of dubbin followed by leather wax.

So, while this week was a bit of a write-off for excursions, I suppose staying in had some advantages.

Thanks for the visit.