Paul in the woods

Just an evening fire here for the last couple of weeks as we cook on it, heat water and it keeps the damp away. Not using much wood up which is good.

Does the black gunk smell of anything? If it's tar it'll smell strongly of tar (strong smokey sort of smell of you've not smelt it before).

I know it's obvious but it might be worth checking your fencing is ok. I don't own any cattle but one of my neighbours has then in her woodland and they often escape into mine. They seem used to roaming free and now just tend to wander through mine literally to pastures new. I don't really mind them there but they do make a mess of the paths and slopes.

Do you think in a decade or two we're going to be able to store a few weeks worth of wind/solar energy for all our needs? I'm still to be convinced we'll not need the new nuclear stations to live in a way we've become accustomed to.

It's that time of year again...

Well, when I had mine done in a neighbouring London borough the roadside kerb stones were replaced by larger stones that were sunk several inches deeper than the old ones. It's not just a dropped kerb, it's a vehicle crossing which is going to remove soil and grass, dig down a few inches to install a subbase before adding a surface layer with the top typically being an inch or two lower than the old surface. I expect the council is working on best practice so is assuming the loss of 6-8 inches of soil, even if the contractor only digs down a couple. I also don't doubt if the council wished to do something like this for their own reasons there would not be a problem. Having said all that I would have thought some of those parking grid structures to offer a solution, if the council will listen. The OP might need to find someone used to installing them and dealing with councils.

I had an ash pan with mine when it was a multi-fuel stove, I removed the grate and installed the wood only catch bar. The multi-fuel setup had its own catch bar and the door catch caught in a similar hole. Something like this: https://www.hunterstoves.co.uk/product/hhr08083/

I've got a double door Herald 8 and the door is just held in place via a small tab on the end of the door knob grabbing the spot in the middle of a catch bar. Here's the handle assembly: https://www.hunterstoves.co.uk/product/dch4/ and the catch bar: https://www.hunterstoves.co.uk/product/hhr08112/ if that helps. It's a shame Hunter can't make you a replacement.

Do you have any more pics, one of the top of the cap? It could be a slender parasol but I'm always wary of white gilled fungi if I'm considering doing anything with them. Slender Parasol WWW.WILDFOODUK.COM A fairly common, tasty mushroom on alkali soils in grassland, woodland and even occasionally on sand dunes.

Would it be rude to ask roughly how much that load cost? It's just out of curiosity as that lorry would have no chance getting down our road but it's nice to drool occasionally.

I think the problem with letting nature take its course is that we don't / can't give it enough room. Take the pond for example, when there wasn't anyone to get in nature's way there would have been ponds filling in along with new ponds being created. When rivers used to be allowed to meander they would often create new lakes but we don't leave rivers to their own devices now. We also extract vast amount so water and drain land so ponds don't get the water they used to. So in may cases there is no option left but to manage what's left. If we could leave nature to it there would be no need to plant trees (and no need to import trees and new tree diseases from abroad).

Looks like corn smut, Ustilago maydis, a sort after delicacy I gather. Seems to be a fair bit about this year.

If you search for young specimens they can be light pink/grey https://first-nature.com/fungi/daldinia-concentrica.php However, it still sounds like a slime mould to me, Reticularia lycoperdon which now seems to be called Enteridium lycoperdon aka false puffball. This pic looks a bit dangly https://spotwild.org/en/type/chPEiZ/false-puffball

Looks like a slime mould, possibly Reticularia lycoperdon.

"Has produced the odd small yellow fruit which someone who wasnt sure suggested was a cherry" Small, yellow, cherry like fruits sounds more like a Myrobalan plum or Mirabelle plum, both spread from suckers.

Well, I agree it's a beefsteak fungi so you could cook it rare. It looks like a very young one so more of a veal steak?

Our wood burner is in our lounge and we often cook on it and boil water etc. For the kettles we just use ones we've collected over the years, stainless steel and with a flat bottom that sits directly on the top of the stove. We use our normal saucepans which are stainless steel and have a flat bottom. I've have often used a deep baking tray, covered in foil, to roast potatoes and other vegetables, works well for us. Our stove is fairly old so don't worry about the top but it can get a little dirty from oil splashes etc so if you've got a posh stove in a smart lounge it may not be for you. In an ideal world we'd have a range in the kitchen but we don't.

It depends if you have someone who likes shooting. I seem to have cleared them from the patch of woodland around our house by baiting an area and shooting any I saw over winter. The problem is they move back in quickly if large areas aren't cleared. I've done the same with lethal trapping with my other patch of woodland, cleared them all one year and had no damage (and a good nut harvest) but the next year some returned and the year after back to a fair bit of damage. I've also read reports that the pine martins are not the great saviour that has been touted and remain a bit sceptical of proposed contraception plans. With the cost of living crisis you would hope more people would be eating the little "tree kebabs".

I can understand not wanting anyone shooting on your land. I shoot and trap mine and I've found if you can get the numbers down you get much less tree damage. I doubt foxes, badgers or cats will take a healthy squirrel. If you live trap grey squirrels you still need to cull them. With regard to the trees. Mature oaks have established when there were no or less squirrels about. The problem these days is that there's a very high density of squirrels and in many places virtually all young oaks will be severely damaged. In years to come I can see far less healthy mature oak trees about. As said, squirrels seem to like the trees when the canopy closes, in my woodland the trees are about 25 years old. I had hoped the squirrels would only damage the same trees and for a few years that did seem to be the case but sadly this year they've gone for some not the untouched trees. It's also not just oaks, they damage beach and have wiped out the few hornbeams I had growing.

Yep, grey squirrel damage. Looks like it was done last year as the bark has started to heal although in my experience they return year after year so there could also be fresh damage. The dead tops may not be down to drought at all, just damage. Tends to happen as the young trees grow and the canopy closes.

Who dropped the litter, the public? Anyway, you might have some luck with the Magic maps if someone is claiming grants on any of the land. https://magic.defra.gov.uk/magicmap.aspx

Well, I didn't bother to mention the vegan logs were not woodsure accredited so possibly illegal to sell now... I actually liked what they were doing, I expect you would pay far more for bbq woodchips imported from half way around the world.

I think it is getting quite common to see vegan on all sorts of stuff, I picked up a bottle of bubble bath the other day and that has a vegan label right on the front. Funnily enough, I expect the logs to not actually be vegan if they are anything like mine as all sorts of things like to live in, on and around them.

I hope their bark is worse than their bite, even if all calls are logged. (No, not heard of any fines yet although I'm not sure how you would know. Still see people selling small loads/bags with no woodsure signs).

Yes, just a bit older. From a foraging point of view the top Chicken of the woods would be far more tender than the bottom one which looks a bit past it.