Herbie is a Winner!

Another award for Old Copse. This time it's for the best Woodland Dog. Many thanks to Woodlands.co.uk. We won a couple of years ago both for this  Blog, and  for our beautiful traditional  log cabin made from our own trees. Now it is Herbie's turn. He is borrowed from friends each week to accompany us to Old Copse. He completely enjoys the whole experience, and we love having him with us.

Though  he didn't get a rosette,  he's been enjoying his other prizes - bags of chews, and a useful collapsible travelling food bowl.  We did rather better on the prizes front, (sorry Herbie) with a woodland related book, a smart hardbacked notebook,  a Kelly Kettle, a sturdy canvas bag for log burner  kindling, a woodland themed  tea towel  and  tin mug, and lastly a fire steel which we will be trying out soon. 


Here is Herbie a couple of years ago romping through the bluebells. A deserving winner!

Herbie, presented by Sue Davis and Sarah Axon

“Herbie the Cockapoo is used to the urban life but is a very enthusiastic woodland volunteer. Likes: sticks, digging, exploring, paddling, tracking deer, keeping guard. Dislikes: machinery, having to go home.”

 His favourite game at this time of year is flushing out pheasants. He has yet to actually catch one though. 

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Autumn is here

September has come and gone, with endless rain. While this has made more difficult the mammoth non- Old Copse project that has taken up almost 20 months of our time, the wood has enjoyed a good soaking. Even though it's mid October, the leaves are only just beginning to turn and some of the oaks remain stubbornly green.

Our big project  has kept us from doing much in the wood, apart from quick visits to restore our sanity. It really brings home how the wood operates on a different timescale to urban life. There really is no tearing hurry: the wood operates on it's own time frame. The growing season has finished and everything is now slowing down and preparing for winter.

This autumn has been marked by an astonishing crop of fungi - much enjoyed by the West Weald Fungus Identification Group who made their annual visit on October 16th. The purple web caps were the star of the show, and this year are growing in multiple locations. Up by the car park I found over 20 individuals. Full report to follow once Dick Alder has collated their findings.

Purple web cap growing on the ride

Much work remains to be done in the autumn, once time and other commitments permit.

There's still this fallen beech limb to process for firewood - it came down in July

There's work to begin on our planned hazel coppice for dormice

Not to mention more planting - trees to order and arrange to plant in OC2.

Looks like we'll be busy....