Spring Equinox on Exmoor and How to tap a Birch tree!

It's been a glorious Spring so far! I wrote a wee poem on Facebook earlier to celebrate the Spring Equinox...

Dear Spring, 

I love you very much. 

So much you make my heart leap and my belly flutter. 

I love you so much I spend weeks searching for you and then weeks watching you emerge, stretching out of your buds, leaves unfolding like a dragonfly's wings. 

Spring, when I wake up I grin at the feel of you. That unmistakeable energy you bring as the sap shoots up the tree and nests and dens are filled with the sound of the young. 

I love you for having the greatest soundtrack of all. Birds singing, bees humming and woodpeckers keeping the beat...

Dear Spring, I love you!

...It's been a tough winter ;)

I went for an explore of the wall at the top of one of our regeneration areas. I found many wonderful things. Like this Apple Moss... (thanks to David Spain for ID help!)

Lots of pennyworts, nettles and whispers of ferns too and many scuttles and shadows. 

I'm still blown away by the amount of work that's gone into building these hedge banks, miles of them! 

This beech tree is a really old hedge bank tree. It's girth at the base is 5 hen hugs. Which makes it.. erm... oh, it's just very old indeed.

This is the first bud burst of 2012 for me! Wonderful, gorgeous Hazel! This one is on the track, so it's really sheltered. I reckon it's another week yet before any of the other's start bursting properly. Can't wait!

One of my favourite wee flowers, the female flower of the Hazel. It's the colour I love and the joy at trying to spot them in the tree is one of my Spring treats, they're so tiny!

The farm is covered in barren strawberry. Absolutely beautiful but incredible disappointing for me... no strawberries... gah! 

I present to you, my wonderful beans, the Bluebell... throughout the coppice there are more and more bluebells appearing! In some areas there's a carpet of them. It's such a wonderful change and has taken 4 years to start to come back. The issue before, I think, was heavy grazing and erosion on the slopes. 

This is the leaves of Common Valerian. A beautiful plant that flowers later in the year. This is also growing in ever greater numbers in the single area that it lives, at the end of the river meadow on the edge of the coppice.

One of my favourite plants at this time of year is the opposite-leaved golden saxifrage. There's carpets of it down in the valley. 

It's an incredible sight at the moment!

The photograph above is of a mix of wild plants.  This is how I learned to identify some wildflowers by their young leaves, before they flower. Not including the grass, I can name 4 plants in this photo. How many can you name?! : ) 

Birch Tapping

Today I did some Birch tapping. The sap is just right and was flowing freely! Here's how I did it..

What you need: 

• An old water bottle, sterilised (I soaked it in a light bleach solution for a few hours).
• Thick string (I use old baler twine)
• A strong, sharp, CLEAN, knife. (I used my Chris Grant knife)
• Bit of solid wood about as thick as your arm, for a mallet. (I used a seasoned length of hazel I found near the Birch tree) 
• A green twig as thick as your pinky finger. (I cut a fresh hazel twig)

How to tap a Birch tree:

• Choose a Birch tree that looks strong and healthy, with no visible fungi & with buds that look ever so slightly 'awake' or swollen. The girth of the tree should be over 25cm. I like to make my incision on a clean bit of bark (not knobbly).
• Taking the middle of your length of twine, make a clove hitch, slip it on to the neck of the bottle and tighten. Tie the twine around the tree, securely.
• STOP

Now you need to make your peg:

• Collect a fresh, green twig from a nearby tree, that's as thick as your pinky finger. Here I used a Hazel twig.
• Carefully, cut the twig to size, about inch or so is normally ok and scrape off the bark. This will give you a good clean bit of wood. 
• Carefully cut both ends to a slope (in basketry we call it slyping). Make one end flatter than the other, this will be the end that goes into your incision. The flatter end of my peg is on the right of the picture below.
• Carefully cut yourself a small channel in the middle of the peg.

Making your incision:

• Use your peg to check where you need to make the incision, remembering that about quarter of an inch will be inside the tree. Obviously the peg shouldn't over shoot the top of the bottle!
• Angle your knife upwards, with the blade horizontal. (see the pic below)
• Using your sturdy bit of wood, firmly and in a controlled manner (!) thwack the end of your knife, TWICE. The TIP of your knife should be in the tree up to about 1/4 inch.
• Give the knife a small wiggle, you do not want to break the bark. You should see a bit of sap gather on the knife.
• Remove the knife.

Putting in your peg:

• Gently put the flat end of your peg into the incision. You don't need to shove it in, just put it in a few millimetres till you see the sap start to run down it into your bottle. Make sure it's not going to fall out.

Notes:

• Birch sap is clear. If your sap is yellowy discard it. 
• You can let your tap run for as long as you have bottles to catch it in. It will only stay fresh for a few days once collected and it's not recommended you drink too much as it can give you a bad belly.
• Don't tap this tree for another three years. (Is dependent on how much you take & how big your incision..)
• You can make all sorts of things with it. A syrup, wine, tea, cordial... I tend to drink it straight or make a cup of nettle tea with it & some honey. Quite a powerful energy boost for me that tea!

MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL:

You must show the tree gratitude for the gorgeous elixir you've just taken by making sure the wound is clean, small and will heal quickly. A small slit like this will pose no threat to the tree as long as you follow those small steps. When I'm finished collecting the sap I press down on the slit for a little while and it slows the flow of the sap and finally stops altogether.

Let me know how you get on! 

hen xx

Photo Blog of a Week on the Farm

Please click on the photographs to enlarge them, as making them small has made them a wee bit fuzzy.

Willow rounding up the foraging ex-battery hens.

Mrs Cluck Norris overseeing my foraging efforts.

Chantrelles

Penny Bun

Field Mushroom

Non-edible but astonishingly coloured wax cap.

Natures' bouquet beats any florist I've seen.

Sweet baby slug lovin.

Ancient & magical.

A close up of the most beautiful tree in the world.
Draped in jade lichen, adorned with precious blue sloes.

Checking the Hebridean sheep in the morning.

Small gets her own back on Willow!

New arrivals! Cuckoo Marans. The two hens are in the back &
in the front we have the cockerel. Only 20wks old (give or take!) 

The purple heather on the moor catches the sunset.

No words today. Hope the pictures explain what I'm trying to say.

Warmest hugs,

hen xx

Bushcraft Weekend on the land with @WildelyCreative!

I had a visitation on the land this weekend, Karen of Wildely Creative came to stay.  The weather was foul so instead of bivvying in the woods we made camp in the bender.  After a tour of a bit of the land it was fantastic to sit by the wood stove, carving spoons and spatulas, sharing stories, beliefs and dreams.

When the weather was good, we had a ping. Karen was a natural at it. Strong stance and good eye.. 7 bullseyes wasn't it Karen?!?! :) The only thing to distract us were the Buzzards playing over head, oh and the odd pesk from Stinkhound!

Last night I got a new bow which is well over 6ft, 34lb & much more powerful! That's my last ping on the bow in the pic below. My first bow...

We tapped a young Birch tree and managed to collect a cup full over night. The purity of the sap is astonishing, after a few minutes I get a wash of feeling totally energised. Only lasts a short time but it's definitely there.

Ok.. now I appreciate that the next picture is probably not going to excite you at all but it's one of the most exciting things I saw this weekend! There's Bluebells in an area of regeneration between the woodland and the coppice. In the few years I've had the land I've only ever seen one Bluebell. This deer track has created a perfect seed bed for Bluebells to pop out of. After decades of over grazing with cattle and Bracken creeping in, finally, finally, finally I'm seeing the benefits of letting the land rest.

 On Saturday night the stars came out and the half moon was diamond bright. Intensifying the weekends spiritual adventures. The next day everything was luminous. Mosses, lichens, branches, grass, stone, all of it, totally luminous.  Everything was bursting and glowing with spring.

We saw 8 stags over the other side of the valley on Saturday night too. They got chased off by my neighbours lovely little Exmoor ponies. Who celebrated by chasing each other as fast as they could up and down the side of the hill!

I'm really grateful to Karen for keeping us warm using her fire lighting kit and cooking the best breakfasts and BEST baked chocolate bananas ever! I'm also grateful to her for being efficient with fuel, water and our space.  Thank you Karen :)




hen
xx

Felling Trees is Hard, Poo, Birch Tapping & Ruin Advice needed!

Been coppicing and chopping down Trees this weekend. Not properly, but in our own small way which is last minute & messy but with clean cuts and great reverence for the Trees! This might sound a bit soft to some of you but I can assure you I'm not as fluffy as you might think :)

Coppicing doesn't pose a problem to me but felling a Tree does. I spent some time sitting with how I feel about it and trying to understand why my needs were important enough to take down the Tree. Truth is they aren't really. However, in order for us to be able to afford the land we have to make a living. Leo makes incredibly beautiful things from wood that, if sold, could enable us to continue to care for the land. We also need fire wood for next winter and we need wood for building. [EDIT: Thanks Coyopa! I should have mentioned how, by felling these trees, we're enhancing the life of the coppice & the health of the standard trees we've elected to leave.]

Since humans began we have had this relationship with Trees. Treating them almost like a parent, taking them for granted until it's almost too late. Well, I think we're in the 'almost too late' part of our relationship with Trees.

My sense of this gives me the motivation to share as much of what we do on the land and with Trees with others. That way, I'm hopefully giving something back to the Trees, helping to fight their corner and showing them how grateful I am for what they give me.

Which is why I'm planting 6000 trees on the land! Exmoor 6000 Trees Project




I have to say that I wasn't sorry to see this giant Laurel go. It was dangerous to fell as it's very snappy & we didn't take the top heavyness off of the branches before felling. However... it's mostly down now and I'm excited to see what pops out of the ground now the Sun can get to it!




Leo found this little noggin in an Ash tree branch, where a small mammal sat and tested these nuts for nutty goodness. I don't know what little mammal made these holes... hopefully one of you can tell me! Click the picture to see it bigger.




I went for an explore along the river to see what I could see. I didn't see any sign of Otter sadly but it was very beautiful down there and there's a lot going on!

I found this poo amongst the Hazel trees next to the river. What did it come out of? Click the picture to see it bigger.




I also love trying to spot the female flowers of the Hazel tree ( I do like other, exciting, things too!)! You can just see it bursting out of the bud in the middle of the picture below. I remember the first time I saw one I couldn't believe I'd never noticed them before! Click the picture to see it bigger.




I tried Birch tapping for the first time this weekend and unfortunately my tap was pants. Luckily though we were felling some Birch so when we made a cut into one and the sap started to gush out I ran for my cup. That first spurt slowed down by the time I got back with my cup but it was still flowing!





I did drink some straight from the tree and it was very beautiful. Hard to describe but like very pure, subtly sweet, water with a hint of the smell you get when you cut green wood. I felt amazing after drinking it too, totally energised. I could get addicted to that!




That evening I collected some nettle tops & gentle warmed the Birch sap (I didn't boil it) and made some Birch sap and nettle top tea. It was beautiful and had the same effect on me as it did when I drank it straight from the Tree. I was energised!




The Laurel that was felled is growing on the bank opposite the old linnhe. So lots more light is getting to it now. It got me thinking about how to care for the ruin as I've got no idea about looking after old buildings. So I thought I'd post this photie and see if I could get some advice from you! Help!


Much love,
hen
xx

Foraging and basketry tools

Here is my basket making tool kit.  It's minus it's tape measure actually, but never mind! NB:  The basket at the top I didn't make!  I use it to store everything in.  

In the picture there is... a lap board for working on, a cutting board, secateurs (kept sharp at all times), a good knife, cow horn with tallow and sisal in (for greasing my bodkin) and next to that the Little things basket I woved to keep it in.  My lovely weights for holding the basket down while I weave.  (I got the cast iron pot lid from a car boot sale and it's perfect!)  The red snips next to my secateurs are for cleaning up the basket when it's finished and they're brilliant at the job - much better than secateurs.  The bits of bent willow on the chopping board are my handle liners.  I shove them in while I'm weaving to leave a space for the handle bow to go into.

Im working on a basket making tutorial at the moment.  Here's a couple of pictures from it...

This shows how I insert the base sticks using the bodkin to keep the slits open.  It's a great way to put the sticks in without damaging the bark.

Here's a giant base I've been working on today.  

I took my camera today to get some spring shots!  This is Butchers Broom.  Below is the flower of the Butchers Broom.  The buds spring from the middle of the underside of the leaves.  

Below is the Scarlet Elf Cap.  It's all over the woods where I live and it's gorgeous.  Like little precious gems scattered about the place.



I love Celandine, so here it is...

This is my first ever this year ever Blue Bell Bud!!!!!!!

Below is cleavers or sticky willy where I'm from.  At this stage you can pinch off the tips and put them in your salad.  They're scrummy - a bit like Granny Smith apples.  A salad with some of these in, some chickweed, ramsons and anything else you fancy makes you feel almost healthy again!

hen

xxx