This afternoon I spent some time in the woods introducing my son Finlay and his friend William into the intricacies of shelter building (a post will follow on this).
We did have fun building the shelter however it was not free fun. I let the lads zoom off into the woods (I am still hobbling along) only to find them as usual at their favourite perch.
A favourite perch
This perch is all that remains of the root system of a fallen tree. It looks horrifying with all these spikes but they know only to climb up and down it from the back where it is smooth. I thought it looked rather lovely today in amongst all the bluebells.
It was my wife Alison’s turn to choose our trip out for the evening and she chose a trip to Morgaston Woods for the 30 Day Challenge.
Alison chose this area for its good access and that there is a rather lovely bird hide on the edge of the wood near The Vyne National Trust property. We were joined tonight by Finlay’s friend Finlay (yup I did say Finlay’s friend Finlay)
Straight off and having fun
I spotted this rather beautiful looking dead root system. It looks dangerous but relatively easy to climb onto from the back – makes for a great picture.
Magic roots
We had lots of spots tonight, from a lovely glade of foxglove, a little beetle and some chicken of the woods fungus. The kids are really getting their eye in now.
Foxglove, beetles and chicken of the wood
At the far end of the walk we came to the bird hide. Thankfully it was empty (we would have gotten some scowls from any serious bird watchers for our noise) and we had some good views.
I spotted a heron coming into land on the lake – my lens does not have great magnification I am afraid.
Quiet time – spotted a heron landing
On the way back from the bird hide we came across lots of camps and chainsawed seats in the woods (I love this bench – rustic and simple). There were a number of nettle stings over the evening but with a few crushed up nettles rubbed onto them they were soon away (best cure for nettle stings is the juice of a nettle).
Camp set ups
We found the old bomb crater in the wood and the lads ran themselves ragged around it trying to out do each other.
Running the crater
Looks like the weather is changing tomorrow with thunderstorms coming in so who knows what we will get up to then.
