It’s been a hectic few weeks, what with one thing or another. But last weekend one of my wild food courses was cancelled at the last minute, which was a shame, but at the same time it gave me a free day to get out and get some bushcraft tutorials drawn up for the site, some of which are now on here and several which are still to come.

First things first though, the second I headed out into the woods I was stopped by someone who had just had his fireplace ripped out to rescue a wood pigeon which has been stuck down the chimney for three days. I know a lot of people don’t like pigeons and doves, something I have never understood, especially when it comes from alleged lovers of nature. The famous line “I love to feed the birds, but not pigeons or doves because they eat everything” is something I hear all too often. Anyway, I was stopped and asked if I would help release the pigeon, so I did. The poor thing had singed feathers, but after a quick check he seemed to be OK, so I released him and watched him until he flew off. The poor thing was terrified, as you can see from this picture.

After the release I headed off to see what was about. I heard Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps and saw lots of butterflies, such as speckled wood, commas and lots and lots of wood ants.

I made sure I had my trusty camera with me as always, so took a number of shots (some will feature on in the wildlife photography section soon). The bluebells were simply stunning this year and the stitchwort growing amongst them really set them off.

I spent the whole day there, joined by Andrew a friend of mine (the chap who often takes images for the tutorials of this site whilst my hands are tied up with carving, etc). After several hours walking and eating wild foods we set up camp and cooked up some nettles over the fire. It was a clear night and didn’t get dark until 9pm.

The fire burnt well as there was a fair old wind for a bit. We decided to break our wild food rules and roast a couple of marshmallows over the fire, and I confess these were not home made on this occasion, but nice never the less.

You may remember from a couple of weeks ago our fire had the face of the devil in it, well this time a snapshot of Andrew revealed why, its him look!

As you see, the image looks normal, but on closer inspection......

An enlarged shot of Andrew from the image above. I always knew that lad was somewhat dodgy!

I will be adding some more new tutorials and other bits & bob’s to the site soon.

Catch you on the trail
Kris