There won't be too many of these around now until next summer, so I thought we could enjoy the last of the summer dragonflies.

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Rightho, I've had a think and I guess that it'd be a lot more fluid to see this blog thingy as a weekly or fortnightly update on what is going on around here. There may well be exciting things happening some days but more often than not, its the slow steady progress that I'll be reporting.

Recent events have gone as well as could be expected and the Christening comes up this weekend - after that the diary settles into a more leisurely pace, so I'm hoping to get things done around the house.

I had a good long chat with someone who is close to us all on the forum, and it has inspired a few ideas - I just need to think them through and see if the possible course of action is

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I decided to spend some time watching the ponds at my local Forestry Commission wood. There are about 30 permanent ponds of various sizes. Sunday was bright and warm and I was rewarded with the standard appearances of the Emperor, the Common, Southern and Migrant hawkers and Common darter.

I have been advised to put a stick at a 45 degree angle at the side of

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Hi All,

Just a list of my other kit that I have accumulated, first off is my lights and torches etc

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the left is a cheapy headlight from Aldi or Lidl or something, takes 3 AAA and I can't remember changing the batteries on it ever, there is 8 LEDs but it's not that powerful, enough for pottering about under the tarp

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...But this time I feel there has been a reasonable excuse. After a short illness amounting to a few weeks, my grandmother has died the day after her 94th birthday. She spent a while in a hospital that was embarrassingly poor at caring for her - leaving most of her daily car to my elderly Aunt and a family friend. It was imporant to the family that she was taken home to pass on, back to the house where she was born back in 1913, which she did last week. So yesterday was her funeral, a very well

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I spent Saturday specifically on a special kind of tracking mission. To track down a couple of local landowners to seek permission to use two local woods that I've wandered through, but never spent any time in.

After a bit of detective work, I ended up in front of a typical manor house (sculptured garden, lake, the whole works). I introduced myself and explained that I wanted to ask permission to track and watch the wildlife. I didn't mention Bushcraft. I thought that this would

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Well its almost 5:30pm and i am going to pick something up i left in the woods then im going to be dropped into these woods close to me for the night and only equipment i am taking is my axe, flint and a bit of food and water - not exactly survival! :) , but im going to have to get a fire going and get a decent shelter up before night and hopefully just relax.There is no doubt by about 10pm by dad will have had second thoughts and come pick me up! :( we will see...

I've been quite busy in the last couple of weeks since the Bushmoot. It's always happens. You get inspired by new skills and the kit you've seen... Mmmm... especially all that nice new shiny kit! I've actually listed kit I don't use regularly with the intention of avoiding the "I'll take it just in case" syndrome. Inevitably there's a wish list of more stuff I'd like to get "Just to see if it works." Can't win can you?

Despite

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A poor alliteration but never mind!!

I started a thread on the firecraft forum asking about charloth and was directed to this excellent tutorial by tadpole and also this one by maver. Both are really all you'll ever need.

I was musing about starting fires and the path from spark to ember

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This was my first bush moot and I must say I was mixed with various emotions and thoughts on the upcoming event. The bushcraft community was new to me and I wasn't sure what kind of people I would encounter (harbouring a fear of meeting some end of day believers or casualties of the millennium bug fever) so you can understand that I was excited and worried and all of the emotions in between as I was also bringing my partner Charley and daughter Maya (age 4) and assuring them that we

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