Cut Wood Mountain

  Those of you who regularly visit the website will know that we had fallen well behind with the coppicing due to the weather.  Our target was to cut all of Cant D by the end of March, and that was fast becomming an impossible dream.  About half of the Cant remained to be cut, with only four weeks left of the season; much of which would be devoted to tying up product. 

Enter our very good friends from the Second Durrington Sea Scouts.  One of our regular youth days was scheduled for the 6th. March so we decided to ask the Scouts just to cut as much as they were able, and not to sort out the product.  They managed to produce three moumental piles of wood, which the Woodlanders sorted.   The picture above is just one of the piles, and probably not the largest.  During the weekend of the 6th. and 7th. the regular coppice team sorted the cut wood, leaving a small pile to be processed next weekend.

We have almost caught up with the work, and will only fall short of our target by a small margin.  Our sincere thanks go to the Second Durrington Sea Scouts for all their hard work.

Cutting Coppice

  After cutting several coppice stools they sorted the wood.  This is where the real skill is – deciding what to keep and what to throw away.  This is particularly important because the charity relies on this income for essential costs.

Using Loppers

Sorting Product

During the day the oil drum kiln was loaded with wood cut by the boys and lit. They were given a talk on the ancient craft of charcoal burning and the various uses for charcoal both in the past and present day.

Kiln Burning

They don't call him Smokey for nothing

Cutting Coppice

When the trees were cut the Guides sorted it into our regular products – mainly Beanpoles, Stakes,  Pea-boughs and Etherings (binders used when laying a hedge); and for themselves Gadget Wood.

Sorting Product

After a busy morning we stopped at midday for a well earned break and baked potatoes.

Lunch Break

Baked Potato

…..And for those of you still puzzled by what Gadget Wood may be, it is used to make camp furniture, especially for kitchen use.

The following picture is a draining board and bowl holder at use on camp.  It is near the end of the week and is starting to show signs of wear, but that is the joy of green woodwork – you can always make another one!

Gadget Wood In Use

Our sincere thanks go to the 1^st. Midhurst Guides and their Guiders.

Primrose

We have performed an annual floral survey since the inception of Tottington Woodlanders. For the first three years this amounted to a full survey of all 13 acres of the wood. More recently we have limited this to a survey of the areas which have been coppiced in the preceeding season.  This year the cants (a defined area of woodland) surveyed were C and T. 

The results are outlined below.

Cant C

Cant T

Snow, trees and Sky

It is strange how snow completely transforms the wood.  Orientation becomes difficult and the wood takes on a completely different feel.  The tracks of humans and  wildlife  cross showing how paths have been refound, or created.  The normal birdsong is surpressed and there is a silence which is awsome in its vastness.  On this trip out the light was brilliant, but at other times it is dull and brooding with a sky pregnant with unfallen snow.

Frozen Pond

Pond Edge

Track Behind Pond

Snowy Oak

Snowy Bench

Tree Down

Tree Cleared

Coppiced Products

Despite the very wet season we have been in the wood most Sundays since the clocks changed.  We are opening up the area to the south of the industrial estate to complete the work we started in that area last season.  We have also cut back the butterfly glade and extended it to the large crab apple tree.  This should make that area even more inviting to butterflies next summer.  In a further effort to encourage butterflies the Countryside Rangers and their volunteers have cut the meadow on the mounds east of the pond.  This will not only help butterflies and other invertebrates, it will also help to suppress rank grasses and tree saplings, which tend to inhibit ground flora.

Anybody who would like to help us with our efforts as a volunteer, please contact Malcolm through the contact us page.

Working as we do with nature and the seasons, and with a calendar punctuated with certain events, one tends to notice the time and how it goes by. I think each season has its own beauty, the spring offers hope, the summer long days and the sun, winter atmospheric days with dramatic weather but I think perhaps autumn is only matched by the spring. The countryside can look stunning, and there are lots of interesting things about like fungi and as the summer migrants go home interesting early winter visitors. As the weather starts to cool down, you get those misty mornings, which can be so wonderful.

Autumn will see the clocks going back and this signals the start of the coppicing season so until March, Sunday means early starts and a keen eye on the weather.

If you fancy getting out into the countryside and learning about a traditional craft and its impact then I suggest that you come along to see what goes on at a Woodlanders’ coppicing day (for more details see later on).

I might be biased but when it is a nice frosty sunny winter’s morning then there can’t be many better places to be than in a wood, coppicing, carrying out a craft which has been done for many years. And perhaps it is in a different way more important now than it was a hundred years ago.

Hardly have we started coppicing then our thoughts turn to the Wassail, yes believe it or not, we have already started planning certain parts of the day.

This event seems to have grown and grown every year and become part of Woodlanders’ tradition as much as the coppicing. There are more details to follow in the flyer but if you have not been to this event I suggest that 2009 should be your first time. If you are unsure, ask other members who have been and they will surely tell you how magical the wood becomes.

I hope that I have convinced you that Tottington Wood is not just a place to be enjoyed in the kinder months of the year but it has a certain qualities in the autumn and winter which are as enjoyable.

Let’s hope we see most of you at the Wassail or maybe on the occasional Sunday morning helping with the winter work programme.

Regards

Chris Burchell Collins

Chairman

I have just come back from spending a morning working in the wood, it started cold and misty but the sun burnt its way through. As I was sitting enjoying a welcome flask of tea the sun was shining, a robin was flying through the cover and singing. The recent cooler nights combined with the shorter daylight have started to turn the colour of the leaves, and as I sat there a lot of the ash leaves were falling to the
ground; very similar to flakes of snow. A lot of people reckon spring is the best season, but I reckon that autumn is equal in its beauty. With all the depressing news you read or hear about every day, it is so refreshing to get outside and enjoy the British countryside in autumn. Maybe with less money about, people might realise that the simpler things in life, like the sounds, sight and smells of an English wood in autumn cost very little and are there whatever else is happening in the world.

Autumn is not just about the leaves but also fungi can put on a good show if the weather is favourable for them. There is a chance to see birds feeding on the autumn harvest and any winter visitors. Also autumn sees one of natures best displays – the deer rut. Should you be out and about in woodland in the next few weeks and hear roaring this is likely to be a fallow buck marking his territory, seeing-off newcomers and trying to impress the fallow does. Even though Ii have heard and seen Red, Sika and fallow deer rutting it is something which still excites me and reminds me that autumn is here and winter not far away.

As I write this, the Woodlanders have now finished their show programme and even with the dull and wet summer it has been a successful season and enjoyable, even when the cold and rain made it feel more like winter. Many thanks to all the volunteers who turned out to help during the last few months in whatever capacity, if it wasn’t for all these endeavours we wouldn’t have the funds to carry on all our work.

The funds we have raised enable us to put on two events – a craft afternoon and the Wassail (earlier than normal this year due to commitments for the Patcham Silver Band.) The craft afternoon on November 9th is both a chance for you to see and maybe have a go at making a variety of Christmas decorations. Maybe with the credit crunch, people will be looking for some more rustic and homemade items this Christmas, and what better way to spend an afternoon then learning a new skill. Also you may feel inspired to make something for the Woodlanders to sell and this is a good way of supporting the group.

I will finish as I started talking about the winter work programme this is due to start on 26th October (see details on our calendar), this is really what the group is about and is the most important function we carry out. I hope to see most of you in the next few months in the wood (on Sundays) or at the Wassail or at our craft afternoon.

Regards,
Chris Burchell Coliins
Chairman

The weather could not have been much different from the two preceding weeks and this had a knock on effect on the attendance, which was well down on the last few years. The Woodlanders’ stand was manned by Jo, Mark and myself and apart from trying to keep dry, we were making bird feeders and tool scrapers to bolster the stock.

Compared to previous years, takings and interest were down but I reckon this was due to the weather but as always events at West Grinstead are fun.