caroline spelman

the environment secretary was on the news again tonight trying in vain to bullshit her way out of the governments decision to sell off the 18% of public owned forests left in england. she is now claiming that it has nothing to do with cost cutting (because it has been shown that it will probably cost the government more) and to do with some other shit which gives those that want a hand in governing the future of england's forests a chance to do so; even though those that want to do so don't want the government to sell them off, or would need financial support from the government to do the job properly. She went on to say access a lot as if those who care about forests and the crucial environment they provide for non-human systems, only want to preserve them so that they can ride a mountain bike in them at the weekends.

I only hope that the campaign fights on and that this consultation concludes that we (caroline spelman) didn't think it through and have decided to keep the forests. And nobody will care a jot caroline if you tell us (the public) that this is what you were planning to do any way and that the media gave us the wrong impression.

low brow view

the buddleja is sometimes called the butterfly bush, it is also much maligned and widely regarded as a weed. it's ability to seed in the shallowest of soils means that if you see something growing on top of a building or out of a drain pipe it is usually a buddleja. the one growing in our garden is beyond bush and more tree. as a garden ornament they have a similar aesthetic reputation to the rotary washing line. above is the view from our bathroom window.

a year to the day

walked the walk i walked on this day last year along an overgrown by-way in the Doynton Parish. not much has changed, except one large ivy covered oak had split and half the tree had fallen across the path. it is almost completely hollow but still alive. i saw one gold crest, one long-tailed tit, two deer, two buzzards, one sparrowhawk, one grey squirrel, one human with bike, a large flock of redwings (and the usual suspects: gulls, crows, tits and pigeons). i found a clump of badger fur, the badger set, the plucked feathers of a kill on a fallen tree trunk, an old rusty bucket with a spout and a bird's nest (which I took back to c's studio).

mantle wood

a selection of wooden objects, some homemade some made elsewhere, arranged on the mantlepiece.



Thomas Hardy - The Woodlanders

tree of heaven

the woodwork course has reached a point where making something other than a bodged joint is encouraged. I am planning to make a swift box (maybe a swift box terrace) for the swifts that return each May to our terrace and nest next door but two. I've seen them scratching at our fascia board in previous years and wanted to cut a hole in ours, but it isn't our house. I imagine a neat terrace of small boxes, but really this is where I'd like my mind to be.



Bruce Gilchrist and Jo Joelson - London Fieldworks

londonfieldworks.com
secretgardenproject.com

lap joints and straightlines

week two of the woodwork course and more practice at sawing a straight line through wood. After about 15 cuts on the slosh (Sue's term) I find myself wanting to smash the wood with the saw. We also had a go at our first lap joint, learnt about the rule of thirds and used a mortice gauge (the thing I've often seen at car boots and wondered what it was).


I hear her voice
and start to run
into the trees
into the trees - The Cure, A Forest

wood work

started a new wood work course last night in Bristol. spent a long time trying to cut a straight line. it turns out the first cut was luck and i'm not a natural. ben, who i don't think will mind me saying also struggled with the straight line thing, said that he had tried different stances, as suggested by our tutor Sue, but hadn't tried happenstance (or circumstance). best of all was Sue's wooden sample tiles of native species she uses to show to clients. we looked at 5 0r 6 ash tiles all with different markings and colours, the differences caused by such variables as soil type, climatic conditions etc. Sue wants us to think beyond pine. which i'm all for.



will rogan, light tomb, 2008

discovered at origin

sometimes it's better to let dead wood age naturally. discovered these wycliffestutchbury whilst here origin. also treating wood with love pachadesign.


When I grow up, I want to be a forester
Run through the moss on high heels
That’s what I’ll do - Fever Ray, when I grow up

Alder

A warm Sunday in January spent kayaking on the Avon with Ben. The river high, fast and brown is lined with (common) alders who seem to like their roots in water.

6. British Trees in Colour - Cyril Hart & Charles Raymond

Two snow walks

A walk through Charlcombe Vale. Found two frozen owl pellets in the the hollow of an old tree stump. Took one home. Two rodent skulls and various other bones and claws inside. The stump is a lone high point in an ungrazed field and I would imagine on future visits there will be others to find. Further on a small old maple tree covered in lichen overhangs a watering trough. It still hangs onto some of last years helicopter pods. Near the church a sulky buzzard skulked in a tree, unimpressed by the day.



The following day a walk into Doynton civil parish past the four farms: Toghill House, Babwell, Boyd and Woodlands. Followed an old overgrown by-way, made two aborted attempts to climb a tree, saw a tree creeper vertically circling an Ash trunk, then saw a wren doing the same thing in a more erratic manner, both I like to imagine know the tree well and during their search for food map out holes and nooks for roosting.

5. The White Diamond - Werner Herzog

Trees in town.

A walk into town looking at trees trying to share space with buildings. Pleased that so many have nudged their way in, or survived the chop. Yesterday all the trees in the park were glowing with hoarfrost.


4. Robert MacFarlane - Wild Places

Dusk drive to Devon

Drove to Devon through the dusk, buzzards and crows adding new branches to the silhouettes of trees lining the motorway. On arrival warmed by the wood burner and its fuel of thin Eucalyptus logs.

3. Jean Giono - The Man Who Planted Trees

Ash

Apparently, if you take an Ash seed and soak it in lukewarm water for three or four days and then cut it open longways down the middle you will find within an Ash tree in miniature. Failing that, Ash wood is good for burning if you can't wait a year.


2. Roger Deakin. Wildwood - A Journey Through Trees

Rainbow Wood

A walk to Rainbow Woods via the skirts of Prior Park. Saw the burnt out tree that lives on. Climbed a bit of a tree with natural steps. Saw a mature Arbutus Menziesii (I think) lit by late afternoon sun.


1. John Stewart Collis. The Wood.