Issue #5 The Miscellaneous Adventures Digest

Working in a winter wonderland.

What a beautiful week or so of wintry weather! It’s been absolutely freezing here, the thick frost formed every night under alarmingly clear, full moonlit skies has lingered throughout the days. A dusting of snow here and there adds to the magic, white highlights picking out the tops of drystone walls and capping the fells with crowns of ice. We didn’t get much snow where we are near the west coast but there was more further south with snowy scenes greeting us as we made our way down to Halecat in Witherslack for their annual artisan Christmas market. There’s a lovely community of makers and doers in Witherslack; Mountain Oak Woodcraft who featured in last week’s issue have their workshop here alongside furniture makers, artists, potters and the Witherslack Woodworks sawmill.

I was surprised to see how much snow there was towards Coniston on Monday; as I wound my way around the hills to the other side of the valley the landscape grew steadily whiter and the roads icier. A staggeringly beautiful winter scene lay before me as the Old Man of Coniston came into view covered completely in snow and glowing slightly orange in the morning light. Every branch and twig on every tree stood frozen, coated in sparkling ice crystals, the whole landscape transformed into a winter wonderland. How fortunate we are that our planet is not only habitable but full of such beauty. I love the transformational nature of snow, it’s particularly good at hiding the ills we have inflicted on the land, so for a short time at least we can feel only joy and forget the precarious state that nature finds itself in.

The snow has lingered all week making for glorious but very cold days at work. I’ve been installing a cleft oak fence near the lake shore and it’s taken much longer than it normally would; everything is buried in snow, the ground is frozen solid and fingers and hands are not working properly. I’m definitely not complaining though and would be happy with snow cover the whole winter through. I must admit, a few times the breathtaking views have left me pondering whether I’ve done the right thing by opting to leave the estate so soon, it’s such a lovely landscape in which to work. But, you can’t survive on good views alone and so onwards we go…

I’m happy to have finished the cleft oak fence just in time before I leave. We cut the timber out of a windblown tree way back in May and have been steadily chipping away at cleaving posts and rails, shaping with the drawknife and cutting mortices in between doing other jobs. It’s felt like a long project but we probably could have done it in a week or so if we’d tackled it all in one go! Being part of every step of the process of making something is deeply satisfying, from tree to final product is quite a journey. Georgia, my apprentice, had a hand in every step of the process too and watching her skill level increase along the way makes this one extra rewarding.

A return to wet and wind is on the cards for the weekend; I’m going to miss the snow and all the winter wonders we’ve been lucky to be surrounded by all week. Fingers crossed for a return to wintry weather soon.

For now, we hope you’ve been able to enjoy nature’s icy bounty and wish you many more magical days as we head towards solstice and the start of winter proper.