Issue #89 A Misadventure in the Woods...

...and some misc adventures too

Have you noticed? The days are growing ever lighter! Little by little we are veering away from darkness and shifting inexorably towards brighter days. Over the last few weeks we have been noticing subtle changes as we work outside - buds on hazel trees are glowing bright green, birds are starting to chatter again and we heard one of our favourite sounds, that to me seems to ring the death knell of winter, a wood pecker drumming. When our son was little and we lived in the woods, we used to say “Woodpeckers drumming, spring is coming” and I think that holds true. Other changes are afoot too - amongst the leaf litter and along the edges of hedgerows and paths, tiny green shoots of all sorts of flowering plants are creeping towards the light; lesser celandine, pignut, the sharp spear-like tip of bluebell shoots appear in the soil, filling the void that winter brings. I wonder what it must be like to not notice things like this? I used to be ignorant of such subtle changes I suppose, but it’s hard remember those days now and I can’t imagine a life without the joys that noticing Nature brings. Plants fill a void in our spirits as well as in the earth.

It has been a strange few weeks. I cut my hand quite badly with my billhook whilst working in the woods; a momentary lapse of concentration. I’m annoyed at myself for my mistake. A billhook has enough heft to keep going once on its set trajectory, cutting deep, and the feeling of sharp metal hitting bone is not one I want to repeat. I have been surprised by how incapacitating such a small injury can be; I’ve been unable to grip with my left hand so working outdoors has been mostly impossible, as was driving. I couldn’t even tie my own shoes for the first week. In truth it’s rattled me a little. Using my ability to make, build, and create with my hands is such a big part of who I am; one tiny slip has put all this in jeopardy, even if only temporarily. If you have all your limbs and digits in tact I recommend using them to their fullest potential and never taking them for granted. Make things, create things, learn to play a musical instrument - don’t waste your thumb’s remarkable power just scrolling through social media feeds on your phone. Anyway, it’s getting better every day, thank you for asking, but I am still finding it hard to play the guitar which was actually my biggest worry.

The billhook in question

Last Friday, Storm Éowyn battered much of the UK with high winds - the worst in 10 years apparently - resulting in many fallen trees for us to deal with at the places we look after. This week we have been tackling big windblown spruce and larch trees that fell over a forestry track; it’s been harder than usual because of my hand (did I tell you about my hand injury?) but there’s been a lot of chainsawing and winching and dragging which has been fun, in a type 2 kind of way.

We have been hiking a couple of times with mixed outcomes. The first was a total failure; we had to turn back halfway up to the summit of a craggy, scree covered peak that had more scrambling than we had anticipated. It was too much to tackle one handed, but that meant a slippery scree slope descent back the way we came and we were left feeling a little dejected.

The following week, we faired much better, heading over to Keswick to hike to the summit of Cat Bells with our good friend who knows the hills in that area and all their secrets very well. In truth, I have always been put off from heading up Cat Bells due to its popularity - often on sunny weekends when passing that way we have seen tiny figures marching up its shapely ridge towards the conical summit in droves. On this cold, windy weekend it wasn’t all that bad, and it was a lot more fun that I was expecting with a couple of small scrambles and amazing views all around.

Near the top a cold and fierce wind drove in passing showers of hail and snow leaving rainbows in their wake, all of which helped this fairly easy hike transcend towards something more sublime. It is hard to pin down what makes a hike a good one; a combination of variables that come together at just the right time for that particular journey. Everything aligned perfectly for Cat Bells thanks to the weather and the good company - just what we needed after our failed attempt the week before.

It has not been a very good few weeks for photography, but I did get some time to edit and make some music for this short video of one our recent hikes to the summits of Middle Fell, Seatallen and Buckbarrow on a very cold but gloriously sunny day at the start of January.

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Well, that’s about all for now. Fingers crossed we’ll be back to full capacity next week.

Until then, warm wishes,

Andrew, Emma and Benji

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