Utter dickery

The utter dickery of folk never ceases to astound me! Some plum (or plums) has built a fire against one of the Sanctuary's trees...what a remarkable lack of cognition. Fortuitously, by luck rather than judgement, not too much damage has been done to the poor tree. Where did we go so wrong that we forgot how to use the fundamental tools which were foundational in the human journey? Of course, it may have been they just didn't give a toss, wilful ignorance is certainly in vogue. Though I like to believe it's more a naïvety, for which I blame a lack of socialization to bushcraft or survival skills, due to our belief in the infallibility of modernity and our dominion over nature...silly monkeys. You know, we could have those believes seriously tested if we carry on our current trajectory. How many people know how to build and feed a fire, the different tinders or methods of igniting them or the properties of individual woods in relation to fire...or anything else for that matter. That's just the tip of an enormous lost essential knowledge iceberg too. How to read landscapes and skies, navigation, flora and fauna, medicinal plants, hunting and foraging, acquiring water, building shelter, and so much more all gone from our collective consciousness. We've lost all the basic survival skills which for thousands of years were innate to our ancestors. Is it any surprise we're lost too, so disconnected from the world that sustains us.

Testing testing

Looks like someone's been out in the woods testing their bushcraft skills, really recently too, those pine branches on top aren't too long cut, and there's still fresh food waste nearby. Nice little shelter, simple but effective, and definitely left to be reused. Interesting choice of site, it's a closely packed young coniferous plantation, though recently (last couple of years) damaged by fire, leaving it far more open and exposed that it would naturally be.  Still, the close stands provide good cover, enough to conceal a small fire from a distance, and a degree of shelter from the elements. More people practice their bushcraft/survival skills or wild camp out in the forest than you'd think. I come across the evidence regularly, and that doesn't include those who leave little or no trace behind them.

Drying up

The forest has changed massively since the restoration program, old water courses filled in, even older water courses reopened and renewed, and overall the stream environs becoming wetter and more seasonally lush. The main reason for this is that the streams flow slower and the woodland now retains the seasonal waters for longer. It's changed how you can traverse the wet season forest, making some areas impossible to navigate without wellies. Though, at this time of year though the waters are receding, with many of the more ephemeral water courses are returning to their 'wadi' (dried seasonal stream bed) state, only flowing for a few months a year. This is nowhere more apparent than in Brinken Wood, which in a particularly wet season can be near aquatic for months, with even the dry looking bits actually being sodden underfoot. To me it's the season of the old tracks, the routes I traditionally wandered throughout the year before the restoration. I like the changes, mind, it adds to the forests magic and seasonal differences that define the wheel of the year. If you were to dig into these seemingly dry 'wadis' though, you'd find some will continue to flow underground throughout the year, a good bit of survival knowledge to have, as even in the driest season  digging a 'gypsy well' may supply you with much needed water. The forest has much to teach and much to offer in the way of resource.

Leafy den

Somebody has built a very tidy little 'leaf hut' or 'debris shelter' in Wilverley enclosure. A nice wedge shaped version of a standard a-frame shelter, solidly constructed with tightly woven sides, and about a 10 - 20 cm leaf litter covering. And, you know what...although the forest floor is wet, it is perfectly dry inside. It was clearly built before the recent wind and rain, as the area around the shelter where the leaf litter for the covering would have been gathered was deep in leaves again, accordingly the shelter looks very organic, as if poking up from the forest floor naturally. It just goes to show how effective a shelter you can construct from woodland debris, and how it blends with its surroundings, had it been a lower profile, it would have been easily overlooked at not too far a distance. Of course you can always improve, and you can never have too much covering on a shelter, the deeper the leaf litter the better.

Camouflage and concealment

Do you ever think about camouflage and concealment, or things like escape and evasion when you're out walking? No. It's just me then, isn't it. Today I was wondering how hard it would be to be spotted from above whist travelling beneath a summer canopy. A person must be near impossible to spot, don't you reckon?

Purple poppy

To me poppies epitomize delicate transient beauty. Intricate and fragile they shine for a day and them they're gone, no slow decline for them. This year they've been some gorgeous colours, deep rich reds through mauves and pinks to the most imperial purples. Always keeping on a prepping tip, and with an eye the countries slow demise, it's worth remembering that the poppy is also a useful and very potent medicinal plant. Even our British Opium Poppy (Papaver somniferum) will produce low grade opium, effective enough as a pain killer if required. An understanding of our field and hedgerow plants medicinal, food and resource uses would have been commonplace in the past, and may well become invaluable in the future.

Nettles

The nettles (Urtica dioica) are just starting come up. I've not seen enough for a meal yet (not without clear cutting which I don't like to do when plants are just starting out) although it wont be long. It struck me that frequently when I write about plants I'm taken by how many uses so many of them have and how nature provides us so much. Take the humble nettle here, the 'stinging nettle', enemy of the bare legged; an invasive, enemy of the gardener. Yet this common plant can not only provide nutritious food (and can be re-cropped several times in a season), it provides fibres for clothing, string and rope, a wool dye (yellow from the root and green/yellow from the leaves), as well as having medicinal properties. And people call it a 'weed'... silly people.