Photos

Chris Hickman of the Woodland Trust has sent me a link to a set of photographs of the scouting event in Croydon last week.

When you're in the thick of it there isn't time to take many photos or to have a look around at the other activities so it's great to see what else was going on.   Archery, Storytelling, Bushcraft & Survival skills, Willow Weaving, Woodland Art and Tree Planting. . . oh yes and Bodging.

See the full set of photos here.

Wooding

I always tell people that tree surgeons are a good source of a wide variety of timber...

Yesterday I went to visit my mate Tony at the Gaynes Park estate near Epping.  He's the gamekeeper on the estate and also works as a tree surgeon (a very good one).  Had a root through his firewood pile and managed to find Holly, Yew, Hawthorn, Sycamore, Beech, Oak and London Plane logs - he also gave me a couple of slabs of Sweet Chestnut.

Cheers mate . . . should keep me going for a while!

New Axe

November's started well...

I took possession of a Gransfors hewing axe courtesy of Jon Warwicker.

Carving axe & Hewing axe.

 I'd tried his out when we had a day on our plot a couple of months ago and found it much easier for roughing out bowl blanks than the carving axe. . . he also got it for a 20% discount!

Could the Gransfors standards be slipping?  This new axe has a dreadful handle on it - a really rough finish with splintery patches.  I may have to make a new Ash one.

All souls

A lot of little trick-or-treaters knocking on the door at the moment as Vanessa has excelled herself this year and put her jack o' lantern in the front window.

Well if you can't beat em...
I scared one little boy who ran away when he saw my fake vampire teeth!

Night shift

Maurice came to have a go at green woodwork today.

 

It was dark toward the end and you can see his gold badge of courage caused by talking and tiredness but mainly by the bad lighting.  I don't think I'll be able to run courses much later into the dark half of the year.

I gave the new Worksharp a go and sharpened half a dozen knackered chisels in about 5 minutes.

Get one...

Maurice was impressed!

Scouting in Croydon

Spent yesterday running a workshop for scouts and guides at Frylands Wood Scout Camp near Croydon which was organised by The Woodland Trust.
We drove down on Tuesday afternoon and stayed overnight in their Crew Cabin which was quite luxurious with washing and washing up machines, microwaves, central heating, tv and stereo.  I haven't slept in a bunk bed for years and Jed loved it as there was a plentiful supply of rabbits for him to chase.

Country/City

Had a meandering walk today through the Lea Valley Park and up to the top of the hill where the ack ack gun was sited to protect the munitions and explosives works at The Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills during WW2.



This is what Jed's looking at...a blurry impressionist image of the Smoke - wish I'd had a tripod.

The big building on the left is the Gerkin in the City of London, the King George Reservoirs in the middle and the M25 in the foreground. The right hand side of the picture is where the Olympics are being held in 2012.

Finally got the new woodburner in place. Vanessa's saving a bottle of champagne that we'll use to toast the first fire so there's some incentive to get on with it!

*