Woodlife

The start of the bank holiday saw me in my studio finishing off the leather sheath for my new leatherman.

I bought the leatherman at the Gathering. There was a certain amount of head scratching as I tried to tried to duplicate the nylon case and its sleeve for the extra bit drivers. I also wanted a space for a small fire steel and some tiny tweezers to extract splinters which I know I will miss from the Swiss Army Knife.

After a few weeks I’ll do a comparison between the two. The sheath didn’t turn out too bad. The stitching still isn’t straight yet, but at least it’s reasonably strong. The sheath is designed to go horizontally on the belt.

On Sunday I went into Poor Park woods. I saw all the usual suspects including a fox, which I was pleased about. Rob, the ex-gamekeeper, likes to keep the foxes down which I know is necessary, but I like to see a few about. This was a sign that they were still in the neighbourhood.

The harvest has been safely gathered in and the fields are already ploughed in readiness for planting the spring crops.

I saw the fallow herd but only at a distance. They were all together this time and I counted about 15 animals including five or six fawns. I’d only seen two fawns on previous occasions. A Muntjac paid me a visit as I set up the hammock. I could hear him but not see him. I climbed into the hammock and promptly dozed off in the afternoon sun.

Today I mooched about in Park Woods. These are  my small local woods. I’ve been so busy this year that I’ve hardly visited this narrow strip of woodland. I seemed to have missed a whole season in these woods and I was amazed that now, at the end of summer, coupled with the recent dry spell, the undergrowth of tall nettles had literally been vanquished. The secret clearing was almost transparent and I could nearly see through to the south side from the northern edge.

I pinged a few arrows with the Samick bow to keep in practice, but gave up when one rebounded off a long log. I spent a good 20 minutes looking for it and, as usual, realised that you should always look farther than you think to find that missing arrow!

The dried bed of a usually large puddle showed up some good badger tracks.

The blackberries were out and I noticed a few gnawed hazelnuts on the ground.

As I came out of the woods, the heat hit me as I walked towards the car. Autumn might be just around the corner but summer wasn’t done yet.

Thanks for the visit.

Pablo.