peds

I'm picturing big escaped leylandii hedge now... pretty much swallowing the neighbour's front garden.

Someone dropped me off a carrier bag full of mackerel a little over a year ago, they were still swimming an hour earlier. I duly set about preparing them for the freezer, around half of them had worms, and one of them was more worm than fish. Put me right off them it did.

Johan? J.A.R.V.I.S? Juggernaut?

Excellent, I'll give it a rewatch. It was like the film Memento.

Ah shit, I watched them in the wrong order, it made the plot difficult to follow.

It sure was. Photos start halfway through the day too, should have seen the place at 8am! Carnage.

Tidying up some wind throw. What a mess! Managed to plant a few of them again, they should be fine... 20250106_151744.mp4

What's the results? Do we need to get Dad's Army out again?

I feel the reception might have been a little warmer if the post had been worded as a request, rather than an instruction.

Oh, lovely.

Absolutely no argument from me.

Those are pretty. Would you consider drilling twice through the block, countersinking the holes on the bottom, threading the rope handle, and tieing two stopper knots on the underside, sat snuggly in the countersink holes? Don't want to sound picky or anything.

Not me, unfortunately, I never went down the route to getting any guide qualifications. There was a oft-told joke back in Chamonix, "What's the difference between a mountain guide and a large pepperoni pizza?" The pizza can feed a family of four... I can hold my own on pretty much any given mountain, and I've definitely never caused the death or disappearance of any of the people I've brought into the mountains, but I wouldn't legally be allowed to say "Follow me!" to a group of paying customers out there. Tempted to get an International Mountain Leader cert one day, that would open a few doors. Mightn't be enough for the BAS, though.

When I find the right boat, I'll give you a shout!

Ooh. Now that's an idea! Oh wow, now that's a pretty ship...

Thanks for the recommendation, I'll track that down. Sounds like a very entertaining read. Friends of mine have gone exploratory skiing up in Baffin. That place is off the hook, yo.

A pipe dream of mine, one day in the future, if the future allows, is to get a winterised boat, probably steel hull, with a wood stove and loads of insulation, and sail north to Iceland, eastern Greenland, and the tiny little speck a few hundred km north-east of Iceland, Jan Mayen Island, and do some ski touring right off the deck of the boat. It's got a volcano, a scientific research station, and naff all else. Heaven. A man can dream.

That's it yeah, tiny dried fish, peanuts, crispy peas, broad beans, and little shreds of nori seaweed.

Well, you can keep your Circue du Soleil and your caramel latté, I'll be off in a cave somewhere eating wild carrots and seal pemmican while learning the lyre.

Absolutely, get rid of the tree, stump removal is hella optional. Birch stump makes a great nursery for all sorts, and can be a beautiful centrepiece with the right sort of planting. Live fast die young, birch trees do it well.

It's horses for courses of course, but I'd be happy enough doing this if forced to.

When I lived in Chamonix I used to go skiing with a mountain guide who then moved to Greenland. He spends his time guiding exploratory ski trips, fishing, kayaking, dog sledding. Absolutely freaking idyllic. I'd choose Greenland over most other countries on the planet, Gaza and California included.

Ah, you're thinking of hawthornless. Different tree.

Definitely leave a few patches, as big as you can stand, where you do absolutely nothing and let nature take its course... if you can spare the space... but you also want to use and enjoy your woodland, which is fine. There's space for you and nature both. Walk around the woodland and choose a few of the biggest, nicest looking trees of the best species to you (might be pure native, might be a few foreigners that you particularly enjoy... only you can answer this question) and thin out any nearby skinny ones to give them the most room to breathe. Don't be scared to really open up some areas and raze everything to the ground... forests love a bit of sunlight to hit the floor every now and then, opening up a clearing provides the opportunity for new growth. It's a drastic change, but that's part of the natural cycle of things in a woodland. If you can spare any of the good trees, think about knocking over a few of them and leaving them as untouched as you can... whole trunks or collapsed crowns offer a different kind of habitat to stacked logs or brash piles. Start with that and see what kind of volume of firewood you get stacked up, and try to compare it to how much you use over a year... On top of that, definitely think about planting somewhere to specifically coppice for firewood and materials, it'll be more productive spacewise than harvesting firewood purely from the established woodland, you won't feel as pressed to do so, and you'll be able to dedicate more of the woodland space to nature... if that's what you'd like to do. That said, 3 acres should definitely sort your own personal firewood needs easily enough, unless you are trying to heat a 300m² barn with no insulation, 24/7... in which case, invest in some insulation!

There's two sides to every story all right!