The greening..

[saxonaxe]

The seasonal festivals of the year are important to me with my beliefs, and so a few days before Ostara I began trekking supplies into the wood. There are no tracks or vehicle access and it's about a 40 odd minute walk from where I leave the transport. I have a small isolated area within a much larger wood and it was just a matter of caching each load until I had enough basics for a few weeks.
http://i.imgur.com/TWAfvCjl.jpg
Tip number one..Always attend unit reunions as not only do you get to tell war stories but also to capture goodies..
My grown kids have been used to me disappearing while I was still working but my Law Graduate Grandaughter is not happy with the 'ol boy not having any comms...so to the rescue comes my "Wrinkly 'Phone Mk2"..
http://i.imgur.com/rcMMH7Pl.jpg
No sat-nav, internet,camera, music player and I can't monitor Moon landings or tell you the time of high tide in Hong Kong. It just makes telephone calls or sends text messages BUT it has got an alarm system built in. Enter some preset numbers plus a message and just hit the Green button and it keeps sending until someone responds by reading the message. This keeps her ladyship happy and brings the Cavalry..(Message reads..injured in the wood)

I've got no method of charging it so it lived switched off in a hard case in my smock pocket. To be fair when I moved into the wood on 13th March the weather was still very Winter and away from the safety of my tent and sleeping bag, a fall resulting in a compound fracture possibly, with night temperatures zero and below, the bitter wind chill, shock of injury and age (nearly 69) and there was no guarantee I'd see the next dawn. So the comms set up made sense.
http://i.imgur.com/VmFmtDJl.jpg

Basic personal admin I'd sorted long ago when I first came to the wood. I spend many nights there so the acceptable 'cat scrapes' used by people on 'over-nighters' were ruled out. The problem was solved by an end of summer sale at the local DIY...£5 and half an hour with a pad saw, pop rivet gun and an old plastic fuel drum with the ends cut out produced this..
http://i.imgur.com/nA8l3Cml.jpg
I backfill the latrine with fire ash and soil and move the site periodically. Judging by the healthy Bluebells which grow on the old sites, no harm is caused.

I'm lucky that there is an ancient well in the wood with crystal clear water, even in the height of summer. I run it through a decent filter and boil the water anyway.
http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk136/highandry_photos/1st2013009-1.jpg (http://s279.photobucket.com/user/highandry_photos/media/1st2013009-1.jpg.html)

The first week and winter still had a grip, ground cover was slow to show this Spring.
http://i.imgur.com/VeALq0ul.jpg
On many days these sleet or tiny ice particles in the freezing Easterly wind made it difficult to look to windward and I was glad of the fire
http://i.imgur.com/raL0rVbl.jpg

I had no radio so wasn't aware that parts of the UK were disappearing under snowdrifts at the time so I shouldn't moan about a little sleet..
The second week was no warmer but life was slowly beginning to appear..
http://i.imgur.com/99NBeVpl.jpg
These wild Daffodils had found some sunshine and the Deer trails show in the new growth..
http://i.imgur.com/f2rbwxql.jpg

I like the shapes that Mother Nature makes and managed to find a few..
http://i.imgur.com/SnmWYPxl.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/uLgv81Cl.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/YWNKmuHl.jpg
This big green Octopus once a great Beech, lies where she fell decades ago and is now home to Squirrels, Lichens and Mosses.
http://i.imgur.com/MhSzPGpl.jpg
There is death in the wood but there are worse places to die I know..
http://i.imgur.com/cp123UVl.jpg
But the cycle of life goes on and it made me smile to see how the Bluebells grow up through the fallen leaves.
http://i.imgur.com/DvYbxJrl.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/QEIO29Tl.jpg

A well trained Woodpecker fires controlled 3 second bursts..
http://i.imgur.com/nieaptCl.jpg

Slowly the cold wind died and as the weeks went by the wood changed colour..This deer trail over the fallen tree has made the bark shiny with the passage of so many feet.
http://i.imgur.com/cLkRrndl.jpg
Sappers and Miners at work..
http://i.imgur.com/opSAMGKl.jpg
And a tree for the desperate and totally lost. Her branches stretch towards the warm Southern sun and she wears a green coat of moss on her back against the cold North wind..and people think trees are just wood..
http://i.imgur.com/X0r6fFml.jpg

Kit wise, well I do know the value of good quality kit from working days, but I find I manage with some basics quite well and don't care much for shiney fashionable stuff. That's just me, everyone to his own.
My tent was under £100 in a sale and is 100% waterproof and has stood up to some fairly serious batterings from winter gales. Ok, not for a winter mountainside in a blizzard maybe, but fine for a wood in southern England.
http://i.imgur.com/Lc4YIC4l.jpg
I throw a cammo net over it not because I have to hide..it's my wood..but to break up the 'shine' which I think makes it less alarming to wildlife..

The little red handled folding saw (Chinese)I bought about 4 years ago in Portugal for 6 Euros, still cuts extremely well. I prefer the longer cutting edge and slight weight increase of the Cold Steel Pipe Hawk over the lighter popular Trail Hawk. It's a lot older than it looks, it's wearing it's latest coat of ..I think Ford Focus Black, courtesy of Halfords. I'm not a shiney axe man..
First aid and fire lighting kit in the pouches and the whole lot goes under my smock out of sight so I don't look as if I'm about to stack up on a balcony outside a window....
Knife is the only 'posh' exception..birthday pressie years ago from the 'kids'
I don't do carving or woodigami so have little use for small knives.
http://i.imgur.com/h6pnDOpl.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/nsNY6EXl.jpg

Just when you don't need it, the camera batteries start to die and the evening visit of the deer to where they feed near my camp results in out of focus lashups!! But 'Photos or it didn't happen...so..
http://i.imgur.com/dC98FUYl.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/3S32X8Nl.jpg

Regular camp visitor
http://i.imgur.com/njBjEekl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Jubk2POl.jpg
No radio, wristwatch and the 'phone switched off, so this calendar on a piece of dead Ivy stalk told me 35 days had passed and it was time to rejoin the world. Soon it will be Beltane and the wood will be 'home' again for a while

[Tommy]

Nice photos, thanks for sharing saxonaxe.

One thing that I have noticed when looking at pictures of an English forest is the lack of underbrush. Anytime of year the forest in England looks like a park to me.

Nice potty. I don't even cover my poo up, I just leave it as is. ;)

[NedB33]

Really enjoyed looking through your photos there, must have been a fantastic sight when the deer popped into view. Judging by how blurry the photos are, you took them in a hurry!

[Silverback]

fantastic write up and thanks for sharing, nice to see another forum member who follows the 'old' ways and codes....

[Sar-ian]

fantastic write up and thanks for sharing, nice to see another forum member who follows the 'old' ways and codes....

T^truely a lucky fella

[saxonaxe]

Tommy, until about 50 years ago this wood was worked commercially, it isn't a wild wood as in 'forest'. A great many of the trees as you see were once coppiced. They're mostly Hornbeam which was valued in this part of the country for it's very hot but slow burning qualities. It was grown to feed the Sussex iron furnaces where local iron ore was smelted to make naval guns back in Queen Elizabeth 1st time and after. Some commercial timber was extracted right up to the 1950's but I fear plastics killed the industry. Later in the summer the ferns grow and it looks a little more 'jungly'..

Ned, it was the stupid batteries. My fault I noticed the red battery light was on and it was too late to change them. Set on automatic it won't focus properly, I wasn't in a hurry really. Once I realised what was happening I changed the batteries...too late! all I got was this little scrounger who spent half his time stuffing his beak at my campsite..:D
http://i.imgur.com/YeFhRTll.jpg
Even the fire smoke didn't bother him..
http://i.imgur.com/qPqDWUYl.jpg

[Tommy]

Tommy, until about 50 years ago this wood was worked commercially, it isn't a wild wood as in 'forest'. A great many of the trees as you see were once coppiced. They're mostly Hornbeam which was valued in this part of the country for it's very hot but slow burning qualities. It was grown to feed the Sussex iron furnaces where local iron ore was smelted to make naval guns back in Queen Elizabeth 1st time and after. Some commercial timber was extracted right up to the 1950's but I fear plastics killed the industry. Later in the summer the ferns grow and it looks a little more 'jungly'

Thanks for the reply saxonaxe. Your reply explains a lot to me.

Well you do have lots of good fire wood then. That will save you a lot of work. I have mostly soft woods that burn quickly so I do a lot of chopping.

My fire wood warms me twice; first when I cut it and second when I burn it. LOL

[saxonaxe]

:D I couldn't post all the photos as the forum limit prevented it, but as you see in this one there's no shortage of standing deadwood for the fire. The old locals say the Hornbeam is so hard it will either 'break your axe, your back or your heart' just trying to cut it..:D Some parts of the wood are a little more wild..
http://i.imgur.com/N6RAFi8.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/w1O1gYw.jpg

[Ehecatl]

Enjoyed that - thanks for sharing

M@

[palerider]

T^ sounds like you had a great adventure!!

[jus_young]

Thank you saxonaxe

[OakAshandThorn]

T^ Marvelous photos, saxonaxe ;).
Go mbeannaí Bandia thú! /|\

[susannewilliams]

What an excellent adventure. Glad to see another follower of the Old Ways.

[JonnyP]

Cool pics. That looks a nice coppice.

[JEEP]

Awesome photos!

[alvino78]

thank you for the magnificent pictures and write up, I am in awe and jealous to the hilt, but look forward to your next stay! T^