Meanderings by the Sea side, The Robert Hardy Longbow shoot & Woodland Dave visits!

Willow and I went to play by the seaside in the beautiful, hot & sunny weather. We found a spot where the river meets the sea & we played & paddled & splashed & swam!

I then hunted in the rock pools and found crabs, whelky type things, anemones, shrimps & stunning seaweeds.  I got into the habit of poking things. Gently mind. I poked an anemone & before sucking in all its arms it sucked onto my skin! Such an odd feeling! Above is me poking a shrimp. Unlike the anemone the shrimp wasn't scared of my poke & fought back... and won.

While I was being bullied by shrimps, Willow took a moment to soak in the peace of the ocean. 

Last sunday Leo & I took part in the Robert Hardy Roving Mark Shoot. We shot our longbows beneath an unforgiving Sun.  World famous archers, newbies Leo & me, side by side. 

 I managed to score 20, which I was very pleased with! The woman above was amazing, she won the beautiful Robert Hardy Trophy with 70 points.  I would urge you to have read about the men of the Medieval Society at the shoot here: http://www.archers-review.com/magazine/april-2010.  Scroll down to find the article on the Medieval Society Roving Marks & a great interview with Chris Boyton.

I had a visitation from a twitter friend - @Woodlanddave! He's also got a great Facebook page here: Woodland Dave . Wow, what an inspiring man he is! What incredible energy!  We had a great time exploring the land & spying on all the critters! Above is Dave modelling at Otters Rock! Where he found some otter spraint! Between you and me I did actually explode when he confirmed it as otter spraint... well.. I got a little excited...

Dave took this picture :)

Here is said Otter Spraint (*holy holy*)

Dave said that a good way to find otter spraint was to have a look for stones that had the moss rubbed off. As it was possible that otters may have been using it to urinate or defecate on for a while. There is no way I'd have thought that was otter spraint without Dave showing me. Next step is to actually SEE AN OTTER!

Dave took this picture :)

What an amazing time I had wandering the woods with Dave. We shared our stories, dreams & loves. Being with someone so rooted in the natural world, someone who's eyes shone with it & who wooped as much as me, was an absolute pleasure.

It was also great to hear Daves advice on how to thin the woodland, for its own benefit. He recommended haloing & underplanting with hazel & mountain ash.  Not to mention all his great design ideas for the new tree planting area! I am so fired up to get going on that!

We didn't manage to hear any bats as the rain kicked in that evening but Dave showed me his kit & explained how it worked.  He also played me some bat song, the sonar recording time-stretched. It's so beautiful, like bird song but ethereal with strange wing like noises. Never heard anything like it before. 

The next morning we were sitting chatting over breakfast when low and behold, no further than 30odd metres away a 5 pointed stag stood, glaring at us, framed in the entrance to the field by the hawthorn trees.  He was in no rush to go & watched us for a good while. When he'd had enough, he drew himself up, looking very strong & slowly turned, stamping his feet authoritively & walked majestically into the woods.

The stag in the photo above was sleeping in the tree planting area.  Dave spotted his antlers poking out the bracken. The photo shows a very pesked stag about to, very peskedly, walk off.

Dave took this picture :)

We explored the fields too.  We found Devils bit scabious, Common valerian, Wood sage, Woundwort, Yellow rattle, creeping broom, loads of different grasses etc!! Dave spotted this stunning little raggedy Blue Butterfly, I think its a Common Blue.

The other day I sat with this Meadow Brown buterfly, warming itself in the setting sun. *sigh* very peaceful.

Dave took this picture :)

Dave also spotted this Golden Ringed Dragonfly.  Massive, striking & exciting to see.  LooOook at him, gorgeous!

Of course, we had a ping! Dave was on the under sized, under weight, guest bow & he was a natural! In absolutely no time at all he hit the target consistently.

In fact... in absolutely no time at all he got a perfect bullseye! AWESOME!!

Dave took this picture :)

I pinged too & as seems to be the case now, with an ex-battery hen at my feet. So, all in all it's been a lovely few weeks & I'm manic busy trying to get everything sorted for our new Hebridean sheep! Who will hopefully feature in my next post!

As always, I write this with much love & with the hope that you can all find moments of peace. They're out there.. They're in there.. They're always there, waiting for you.

hen xx