the morning after the night before

Woke up quite a few times and there will need to be some minor adjustments made to my bed before next time - mainly leveling - I kept sliding down towards my feet end and waking up half way along the tube.
Also need to make a better pillow for next time. the boys however faired much worse than me... they got pretty wet when they slept, but fair play to them lasting out til at least 9am in a soggy bed!
We moved the tarp from under the trees yesterday to the new tiered bank area which held off a lot of the rain but I had to cover the clay ground in bracken to a least be able to walk on it without heavy lumps of clay attaching themselves to your boots. The folded piles of chicken wire Ant spent all week pulling out of the Rhodies made a great springy base to put all our stuff on and keep it off the ground so not all bad.
Had a lovely fry up on the fire for breakfast which miraculously only took a few twigs and some snot rag to get going again after the torrential downpour, (a damned site better than mine and Helen's failed attempt yesterday!).
The boys left soon after lunch time and we weren't far behind. Our week off has been excellent fun, and very productive, but it's also been exhausting, painful at times and agonizing at others. I didn't even know I had muscles in my fingers, but every single one of them aches. I've eaten 4 batches of homemade flapjacks, (now named "power jacks"), more sausage sandwiches then I have eaten in the last year and even swallowed a bug of some kind - not to mention the multitude of germs I am now playing host to. I need this afternoon to make myself (and my finger nails) presentable to an audience of customers in Poland tomorrow. Bring on the bathtub.

First all-nighter!

Chucking it down with rain, so Ant spent the morning sewing canvas bed tubes and I went to the office to catch up after a week off and prepare for a couple of days working in Poland.
When the weather cleared and we got down to the wood, the camera trap had a lovely collection of deer shots on it from around 630am this morning.
The canvas tubes fit like a dream and after some faffing with wooden tent pegs and bungee cords we both had dry, off-ground beds, under tarp to sleep in. Which was a good job as the heavens opened again and very quickly the bank was a slippery mess. Paul turned up with the boys in the afternoon and quickly set about doing what boys do ... tipping buckets of muddy water down the bank to slide on! They were covered head to toe in mud whilst Paul was busy building them a shelter to sleep in - brave is not the word. By the time the den was finished and beds made it was time for dinner and dry clothes for the boys. The fire quickly turned into both a cooker and a laundry dryer and eventually the clouds cleared and the odd star was spotted before we turned in for the night.
Getting into a sleeping bag and then inside a waterproof bivvy bag proved a little tricky balanced on the canvas, but once in, it was truly toastie. Took a while to get to sleep, but thankfully no mosquitoes round the head which was my fear. No sooner had I got to sleep than the heavens opened again and the noise was incredible, not only sploshing from the trees onto my own tarp, but on the tarp in the clearing too. It was a good hour before it stopped and I was expecting to hear the boys get up due to den flooding, but heard nothing.

Friday

Yay - bought some navy waterproof material and some green fabric canvas from Baldwins this morning and hopefully have enough to make 4 tube beds.

Dug out the cooking area and formed a couple of tiers in the bank.
Not sure what to do about the contours of the ground - to step it or to slope it? will see what happens when it's wet. Shouldn't have to wait too long as forecast is not good for the weekend.
More Rhodie and dead wood clearance and I took a wander looking for new wildflowers. Found a few as well as this funnel web in the moss.
Ant started sewing at night but the machine we have was way too loud so we had to give up and go to bed.

the first rains

Today was another busy one and thanks Dad for naming yesterday's white frothy flower as Common Marsh Bedstraw (Galium palustre) no wonder I couldn't find it in my book - it's definitely not in there!
we dug out some of the bank today to provide a level (ish) cooking area - looking at Bob and Rita's patch yesterday, it became clear we really have got the bumpiest part of Blackfold wood - we think there could be flat ground enough for maybe four 2-man tents around the camp area, but anymore than that and it's shovel and spade time for sure.
The camera caught a lovely deer checking out my clay seating just before we arrived, as well as a squirrel on the bank about six this morning.
We alternated digging and dead wood clearance and didn't manage to find anything suitable in canvas to finish our A frame beds yet, but will keep looking. The weather doesn't look too good for this weekend anyway, so not sure if it's too much of a problem. Still doing enough muddy work and gaining enough injuries each day to warrant a long soak in a Dettol-spiked bath when we get home.

By six o'clock the heavens opened and the noise was incredible - the tarp quickly sagged with water and I was desperate to go check out the newly cleared section of stream, but had stupidly left my mac in the boot of the car. So we waited it out and cleared away before trekking out in a light drizzle.

Wednesday

On arrival, we saw our new neighbours were in and so we stopped to introduce ourselves to beekeeper Bob and his wife Rita. Lovely couple, retired and "pleased as punch" with their new purchase. Bob followed us down to our clearing for a nose about and stayed for a couple of cups of tea and a good natter about all sorts. What a fantastic start to the day - sun shining for the fourth day in a row too.

We cracked on with more deadwood and Rhodie clearance - the two piles are getting quite large now, but the woodland floor is finally receiving dappled shade and feels as if it's opening up a bit more - instead of the gloomy deep shade and the sense of being slowly choked in rampant non-natives it looks marginally lighter, airy and optimistic.
Ant with his new bedding and me with my determination to sleep over this week at least once, we made a start on our "A" frame beds this afternoon. Looking promising but still need the "mattress" parts to be able to sleep there. After pondering re-using the chicken wire to form a tube between the two horizontal poles (like a stretcher) we decided the risk of tearing our slightly inflatable sleeping mats was too great and so we are going to look at getting some waterproof canvas instead.

I also hacked another new pathway through the east side from Rais down to the log bog. There is still one section which is a bit tricky and ideally requires another bridge, but I will tackle that tomorrow.

The bracken on the top of the wayleave is already chest high and I spotted another new wildlfower today (pictured) which I cannot find in my book... it was in a boggy area, and so probably not common enough to be in my Collins guide so I now have an evening of trawling photos on the internet; It was right next door to the ragged robin which I love.