Woodlife Trails

After a week of rain the weekend turned out nice with sunny spells. Saturday saw me back into the local woods armed with camera and the Korean Samick SKB bow. I am going to take the bow to the bushmoot next weekend, so I wanted to do a couple of practice shots. As I had the video camera with me, I had a go at doing a movie of the practice. You can see the results at the end of this post or on Pablo’s Video Channel link on the right.

After doing the shoot and after breaking two arrow points and losing an aluminium arrow in the undergrowth, I gave up and sat in my favourite spot deep in the woods. The undergrowth was growing up fast and I imagined that after next weeks moot, my return to these woods would see the secret clearing completely enveloped by the nettles. It would soon be time for a little cutting back.

After a cereal bar and some water, I went off in search of some new wildflowers in bloom in the area. I wasn’t disappointed as I soon came across large areas covered by Forget-me-nots and Speedwell. Ragged robin also made patches of early appearance as well as Common comfrey.

I was pleased to see this plant as I’d not seen it in this area before. It is a well known herbalist plant; the roots being used to make plaster of paris type sludge for setting bones and in fact some English folk names reflect this use being called ‘knitbone’ and ‘boneset’. The juice from the root can also be mixed with sugar and liquorice and used as a cough linctus. The whole plant can also be boiled and eaten like spinach.

I also spotted a clump of Woody nightshade. Unlike the nightshade namesake of the deadly variety, the red berries which appear in the autumn are not poisonous, but they will give you an upset stomach.

Next week I gear up (literally) for the moot and I’ll post my preparations on Wednesday or Thursday.

All the best,

Pablo.