Forest Hike

Had a big hike through the Forest today with Gary & Jed...we found the Fairies Wishing Well.

Wonder where Jed's going to be spending these long, cold Winter evenings?

NEW

Right here's the new fire...

Got a Kodak MD 41 from Currys today - its got more than twice as many pixels as the old camera (which was only 4 years old) and was less than a third of the price...

New Woodburner

We got back from Yorkshire last Friday and I spent Sunday & Monday fiddling about with oak beams, steel plates, self-tapping screws, bolts and fire cement and last evening we lit the maiden fire in the new log burner and cracked open that bottle of champagne that had been chilling since August! 
I can't believe how efficient it is - we burnt only a fraction of the wood that we would have put on the old fire and the room was so warm we had to open the doors.  That also helped get rid of the awful smell of the paint curing.

Sorry...no pics yet.  Hopefully we'll get another camera today.

Camera RIP

This is the last image I'll be able to post until I can sort out another camera (Makes a nice desktop picture).  Unfortunately I dropped the camera and now the shutter won't close or the lens retract...I've got a feeling it's dead.

Birthplace of Aviation

Really enjoying our holiday - walking on the beaches and in the forests.

Were at Scarborough this morning

Had the best ploughmans lunch ever in The Anvil at Sawdon and then had a walk in Wykeham Forest.

 Part of the forest nursery at Wykeham - a field of Larch seedlings.

These Yorkshire Forests are huge - mainly conifers with loads of massive Larch.  Yesterday we were at Dalby Forest which bills itself as "The Great Yorkshire Forest".

George Cayley pioneer of manned flight was born just down the road from where we're staying.

A Salty Dog

Jed had his first taste of the sea today when we took a walk along the beach at Filey.  He really loved racing around on those acres of sand with all the other dogs.

One thing I love about Yorkshire are the drystone walls - proper walls. 

I remember travelling up to Yorkshire when we were kids.  There was a constant chorus of “Are we nearly there yet?” - in the end my Dad said “Don’t ask again until you see a drystone wall”.


Had a walk down Wy Dale yesterday and saw this sign...

This blog coming to you courtesy of a ‘3’ dongle (mobile broadband) which only cost £20.  Unfortunately after I have used it the computer ‘freezes’, won’t go to sleep and the cursor vanishes...(any ideas on this gratefully accepted).

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.