Fallen Giants

[saxonaxe]

I went to the wood for Yule, locally the weather was mild and settled and I sat long into the night by the Yule fire as the year changed. A few days later on the eve of Christmas, life in the wood took a different turn. Since my return from the wood I've learned that many areas had Hurricane like winds at that time and that was certainly true for where I was.
The wood was filled with the shriek of the wind and the crash of falling trees and branches, with just a couple of millimetres of tent fabric between me and the chaos outside it sounded and felt like Armageddon but daylight revealed that nothing (large or heavy) had fallen closer than about 500 metres away, so all is well..:)

Some photos taken when life in the wood returned, if briefly, to normal..

http://i.imgur.com/RUp4LINl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/yRri8Jpl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/GmsD9url.jpg

The big old Beech trees fell with a terrible splintering roar and even on that wild night there seemed to be a few seconds of shocked silence immediately afterwards.

http://i.imgur.com/z4TTyyql.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/KOlv9YHl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/1PKjoDxl.jpg

300 hundred years of growth ended in a few seconds and the great Queens of the Forest were down. But the cycle of life goes on and the gaps in the woodland canopy will let the light in and new growth will appear.

Even the younger, slender trees like the Ash suffered.

http://i.imgur.com/Si4AEo8l.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/SFYLzqtl.jpg

The constant heavy rains have cut new water courses in the woodland floor

http://i.imgur.com/NRHkhfXl.jpg

And if my boundry stream gets much livelier, I'm going to take up white water rafting...:D :D

http://i.imgur.com/Iv5puB1l.jpg

While I was in the wood I experimented (played) with dehydrated vegetables to bulk out the Wayfarer/ Rat pack type meals I usually eat. Now this may be no big deal for you Bushcraft Gourmet Chefs..:p but for me it is a dark art. I'll try to post something about it, once I've sorted and dried my kit out as the last few days in the wood were ..errr Damp!!:p

I must add..
Hello and welcome to all those who have joined the forum while I was away in the Ulu..

[OakAshandThorn]

Dang....strong winds indeed! :O
I've seen similar damage from an early (October) blizzard back in 2011. The trees literally exploded because the outside temperature cooled-down so much...it was sickening to hear the loud popping.
Looking forward to seeing the results of your experiments :).

[alvino78]

wind at its most evil

[Adam Savage]

That sort of thing happens a lot if trees at the end of the woods are cut down/cleared. The outer trees have grown up in windy conditions, whereas the inner trees are sheltered from most of it. When you remove the outer trees, wind whistles through the inner ones and can do this exact thing. Many people don't think of this, especially councils when they change road layouts, widen paths, or remove trees with suspect branches.
Also, after a certain age, mature trees weaken in locations where nutrients in the soil are in short supply. This together with heavy rains softening the ground, lead to many apparently healthy trees coming down :(

[Rasputin]

Good to see you back in 1 piece John, was begining to worry about you out there in that hoolie hope you enjoyed the peace and not so quite, will speak soon atvb,Ken ps. have you been down to your boat since you got back ? is all well ? T^

[saxonaxe]

Yep, second night on the boat since Yule, Ken. All is well with my boat, although the pontoons themselves need some serious maintenance. The continual movement of some of the bigger boats tugging on their moorings in the high winds and tides has pulled out or loosened many of the piles/ bollards. There's a 60 ton boat tied to a tree here mate!!..;) ;)
I'll check your boat later when I get a chance. (and turn my 'phone on for the first time since 20/12/13..:p..:) )

[palerider]

great pictures, same thing has been happening in my local wood too.....sad to see

[headshot]

all those years and gone in one gust of wind...they are the same size/age as the one that came down in the back garden at my work,differance is it landed on my flower beds and i had to move the flippen thing piece by piece :(..glad your xmas in the woods went well,sounds like the perfect way to spend it..atb kev

[Tigger004]

always seems a shame, especially when you think most of England was forest ?

[saxonaxe]

Sixty odd years ago I can remember being really upset when a big Oak tree that I seemed to spend most of my summers climbing in, sleeping under and even talking to..( I know.. I know, even then the Vicar had given up on me..) was felled by a bad storm. Not a good photo with a Kodak Box Brownie, but if you look closely you'll see that on that day I had visitors who were allowed to climb 'my' tree..:D

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk136/highandry_photos/File0024.jpg (http://s279.photobucket.com/user/highandry_photos/media/File0024.jpg.html)

A lady who understood, told me about Mother Earth's plan for all living things, and now although I don't like to see the big trees lying on the woodland floor, I know it's the beginning of a new purpose.

http://i.imgur.com/D7syciXl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/V0tMCDOl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/qW8RhI9l.jpg

Just the way I look at it..:)

[ratcatcher]

always a shame to see the big one's go over, I have a few that have carried on growing in that position, adds a bit of character I think, and enjoy seeing the different fungi growing on them, perhaps one day I'll learn if any can be eaten, although have thought of trying to grow my own on the decaying silver birch stumps we have

[Adam Savage]

The most likely fungi to grow on birch stumps, is birch polypore (birch bracket, razor strop fungus). Apparently edible (needs to be cooked though), but very bitter. Makes good stop (as the name suggests), as well as reasonable tinder and a quick plaster for small cuts.

There was a program on last night, which showed a garden with a "stumpery". Basically a pile of rotting trees stumps, left to gather moss and breed fungi. Looked very attractive, and a nice alternative to a rockery :)

[rawfish111]

That right there to me is the winter king and the wild hunt riding.

The awesome raw energy of nature and how she can spend 200 years or more building what she can rip apart in seconds and then spend the next century reabsorbing to start again.