2017 review. All or nothing.

It hardly seems possible that exactly a year ago today, shortly after returning from a 3 month trip to Nepal, I took ownership of my very own 6.4 acre parcel of ancient woodland. 

For the most part it has been a labour of love and an absolute joy... for the most part. (See here amongst other posts).

I do seem to have spent an awful lot of time at work in between trips away, and an awful lot of time working in the wood too (but that's a good thing). You can't enjoy the kind of travel that I do without working very hard to pay for it.

The Fungi Factor.

With my recent incapacitation I've been forced to enjoy my wood as a spectator for a change. 

Thankfully most of the work takes place in the winter months so I haven't got behind with my plans.

I have been popping down quite regularly to keep an eye on it, and to enjoy the changing of the seasons. It's very nice to just wander around rather than spend my time working away like a demented beaver.

Long gone are the tumultuous swathes of spring flowers. The soil is becoming damp underfoot, the woodland floor is carpeted with a million acorns, and the leaves are started to change & fall.

August and September have seen a proliferation of fungi blooms, some of which, as you will see from the photographs, have been spectacular. I like fungi, a lot. It's fundamentally important to the health of the wood, and I seem to have quite a variety. I am, however, hopeless at identifying individual species, but I do enjoy spotting new ones.

An unwelcome return.

After spending a month in Sri Lanka I was looking forward to getting back down the wood and enjoying the beautiful late spring weather.

Unfortunately it seems that other people have been enjoying the wood in my absence.

My log store (full of seasoning logs) has been razed to the ground, several other fires have been lit, a lot of my timber for projects has been burnt, signs and boundary fences damaged, the compost toilet has been upended, beer cans, bottles, and litter, are strewn around the area.

I'm disappointed that people feel that this kind of behaviour is amusing to them. I have put in extraordinary amounts of work only to have most of it destroyed by morons. I'd estimate that the real-time cost of all of this damage is in excess of £2000.

Fortunately the police have taken an interest and will be collecting the bottles and cans for DNA and fingerprint analysis. I sincerely hope that they catch someone for this.

I have contacted a local newspaper and I'm hopeful that they might run the story, if only to shame the scumbags that did it.

Actually there's not much point in trying to analyse the behaviour, if someone is prepared to do this then they really don't give a shit. 

At considerable cost I have now ordered, and will be installing, motion sensing HD surveillance cameras; if they come back then I'll try to make them famous.

Damaged boundary fences.

Tarp ripped down.

The ladders etc were chained to the log store. The log store is ashes and the ladders have actually partially melted.

The compost toilet has been upended. It must have taken them a lot of effort do this.

The large cordwood pile of Oak logs has either been burnt or scattered.

A number of very large Birch logs that I put aside for a project have been burnt.

Yet another fire. The morons very kindly burnt a lot of my timber.

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Consume less, live more. Plant more trees.

The times they are a-changing. Springing into Springtime.

It seems an age since my last woodland blog. A lot has happened in the last two months; the Lesser Celandine and Wood Anemones have flowered and withered, a vast carpet of Bluebells then sprouted, flowered, and are now also on the wain. They have been replaced by Ramsons (Wild Garlic, delicious), the enchanting Yellow Archangel, Greater Stitchwort, and now after a day or two of light rain the Ferns have burst forth all over the place. The Springtime is a wonderful time to be at the wood.

I completed the construction of my compost toilet (more of which later), cleared some large fallen tree's, and installed a gate and some small sections of boundary fencing (for insurance purposes).

And best of all I have had a few friendly visitors popping along to see what all the fuss is about.

A (silly) walk around Bluebell Wood.

A few days ago I decided to film an impromptu walk around the wood using Facebook Live so that people could see how beautiful it is. I was very excited and got a bit carried away :D

For those who haven't seen it on our FB page here it is for your amusement.

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Consume less, live more. Plant more trees.

Chalk & Cheese. The trials of a woodland hobbit.

Braap braap.

The last few weekends have proven to be quite diverse, and occasionally challenging.

One weekend was so vile that I opted to stay at home and get stuck into the construction of the compost toilet just so that I could escape the horizontal sleet and snow occasionally. I spent both days alternating between bouts of potential hypothermia and hiding out in the kitchen brewing coffee and simultaneously de-frosting my lifeless fingers.
I did eventually pop down to the wood for an hour or so when a glorious break in the weather materialised late in the day. I wandered around daydreaming and had a little session of bramble pulling (it's very therapeutic).
Amid all this darkness the Bluebells have begun to arrive.
I spotted one sprouting through the leaf mould whilst clearing an area of brambles (I currently do a lot of bramble clearance) and once I had my eye in, as it were, I began spotting them everywhere. I'm pleased to report that the springtime display should be wildly profuse, they are in every nook & cranny it seems. It's dead exciting (for me at least).

The Bluebells are beginning to make their presence felt on the ground.

A bridge over (un)troubled waters.

I've been building a few bridges lately (actual as opposed to metaphorical).

When I announced that I had bought the wood quite a few friends offered to come down and help out. Unfortunately the January weather seems to have put them off, I'm sure come the spring they'll be beating a path. I won't hold it against them, I have questioned my own sanity on more than one occasion recently. My parents have been regular visitors and have helped me out a lot. My old mucker and mountainbiking wingman Mitch Bryan called in to assist me in between his rigorous Strathpuffer training sessions and has promised further labour in the near future when his off-shifts coincide with mine. And my good friend Phil Evans (he of Yak Attack fame - the race organiser/director no less) lent me his considerable construction knowledge for the bridges. We spent the best part of a cold Sunday digging, sawing, and hammering to our hearts content. Phil has also pledged further assistance and I will happily take him up on it; particularly when it comes to laying a base for the shed and then constructing said shelter. I, in return, provided fresh coffee and Chocolate Hobnobs, a fair exchange if ever there was one.

Weekend (woodland) Warrior.

Bluebell Wood. 

After the agonising four week wait for the completion of the legal process for purchasing the wood I have now been able to get down there and get stuck in.

I managed a few days immediately after the completion date before I had to pack my bags and head to the big smoke for work (London. Noisy place).

I have been down and done a lot of work during the last two weekends. It's hard graft at the minute but it's a very rewarding process.

I'm slowly getting a feel for the place and finding my bearings.

The wood is triangular in shape with a 350m road frontage (not too noisy except for commuters using it as a rat run during rush hour) and about 150m at its widest point. It slopes gently upwards, in an east to west direction, from the pointy end to the wide part; and has a lovely little brook meandering throughout its length. The westerly end on the road side of the brook has a steeper gradient. The perfect spot, it seems, for rope swings (Unfortunately I've had to remove them for insurance purposes).

A crappy screenshot from Google maps but you get the general idea. 

Rather fortuitously the quiet corner furthest from the road is relatively flat and is the perfect spot for my HQ. This is where I'm currently focusing my time. 

If you go down to the woods today...

...you might find me there.

I got confirmation from the solicitors today that everything has gone through smoothly and I'm now officially the owner of almost 6.5 acres of mature woodland.

It hasn't been an entirely smooth passage however.

Unfortunately my mate Dave couldn't raise the necessary capital to fund his half of the purchase and so I had to make a decision; let it go or go for it. I went for it.

For the first time in many years I've had to borrow some money, but sometimes in life you have to take a risk.

I'm finding the whole thing both exciting and slightly scary in equal measure. One thing is certain though, no matter what happens now, I am going to gain a great deal of pleasure from the whole adventure.

An Unexpected Twist.

Nepal was as beautiful as ever :)

I've barely given my bike a cursory glance in the last two weeks let alone climbed aboard. Firstly I haven't been particularly interested in doing so, and secondly I've been rather busy; much busier than I planned to be.

Landing at Manchester Airport on a fine Sunday morning after ten weeks in Nepal was surprisingly less traumatic than expected. It wasn't particularly cold; I had been expecting Siberian level chills.

A cancelled train to Manchester Piccadilly saw me hopping onto a rather posh coach; far too posh for a vagrant like me I'd say. And then my delightful connection on The Trans-Pennine route took me through the heart of the Peak District National Park and onwards to gritty Sheffield. From Sheffield I tootled towards home on the East Midlands Trains service to Alfreton. On the way I called my Dad to let him know that I was on time, which took him by considerable surprise - he was expecting me to arrive three days later.

On the Monday I went, with my mate Mad Dave Martin, to have a look-see at some local woodland that was due to be sold at auction.

On the Tuesday we bought it.

I had absolutely no idea when I returned from Nepal that I was about to become joint owner of a six and a half acre wood.