Thank-you Ginger.

Tools required, are:

And that’s it.

with Barney Spoon.

This winter, we were visited by a man named Barnaby, who calls himself Barney (though we named him Barn).

Barn makes spoons, with style and profound expertise. He taught us a lot, which is still slowly sinking into our craft consciousness.

We filmed Barn’s spoon chronicles, in order to spread the knowledge as he himself shared it. Here are the four short films, detailing exactly how to make a great spoon. It’s worth getting through to the final video, as it features Barney playing a song on his new spoon.

To add to his glory, Barney is currently on a long walk about Britain, living outside, and trading spoons for hospitality and a bit of food. Where he has reached by now, we cannot say, because he is wise enough to not be encumbered by a website. If we can get updates on his progress, they will be published here.

So, for the videos. Please enjoy them, and tell all your green woodworking friends that the definitive guide to spoon-making is, at last, online. Hurrah for Barney.

Barney Spoon part 1

Barney Spoon part 2

Barney Spoon part 3

Barney Spoon part 4 (the musical one)

Excellent.

Hopper had already taught us the rudimentary techniques of hurdle-making (CLICK HERE), and in this video he shows us how to split hazel rods.

As well as the practical techniques of splitting, Hopper also shows how to measure the height of a tree, with a stick. Interested?

There’s also an interesting discussion, on recycling, universities, and Martians. And there is a very blunt billhook, the inadequacy of which led Hopper to loan us a nice sharp replacement.

The video might take a short while to buffer, but please be patient. Hopper is worth the wait…

It is a series of clips from our first days in the woods last November, when we trolleyed in all the canvas, hand-tools and books that we felt necessary.

The track soon bogged up thickly. And once we’d done the many runs each, to bring in all the bits, we found a shortcut through a sheep field that would have saved us hours.

The film also shows the first part of building the A-frame, which was our immediate shelter while the main house went up.

And the fiddle tune was recorded by a doctor in a stone circle in Cornwall, on an earlier walk. It is a Breton tune, called (trans.) “the jumping chicken”.

Llandegly Rocks

We found much changed for us during the winter in Wales, but Spring was not quick in coming. Indeed, winter lingered hard, and the dreams of new leaf and soft warmth were slow to be realized.

Lesser Celendine, herald of Spring

Here are some of those exciting indicators, and events, of the newly risen Springtime.

Enjoy.

The winter just passed was a hard one, and temperatures in Radnorshire reached 18 below. Luckily, our hazel-house protected us from the worst of the cold, and woolen clothes and contant movement did the rest.

Frosty cold times

As Autumn faded, soon after arrival, the leaves disappeared, and buds took a long time to return to the boughs.

bare boughs, soon to change

But when things seldom come, they wished-for come, and so it was, with great happiness, we noticed the first signs of seasonal shift.

moss flowers

oak buds later

Primrose comes early too

yellow sign of willow awakening

willow yellow goes

oak-apple releases the sleepy gall wasp

There are a number of other interesting sights and sounds from this period, which are worth a share we reckon.

a fence-line division makes one hill into two

Daffodils announce the kissing season

straight as a gate

Holly flaunts its biceps

birch paper unrolling

Rowan twisting without visible prompt

big fella stands up

one leaf, many paths

No buds on the lightning struck oak

two full moons in february, this the second

colourful landline

There is very very much we’d love to tell and show of our winter experiences, and slowly we’re trying to do just this. But with another walk to plan, the sun shining, and elderflowers, chamomile, cherries, borage and plantain to pick and process, sitting on a computer can seem the wrong move on a rare summer’s day.

So bear with us, and we’ll get this old story told properly, while the next one takes shape…

And a huge good summer to you all.

Mother Beech holds her babies in her branches

Its a year now since we were in these bluebell woods near Michelmersh. Accompanied by Ayla and Susie we found shelter for a few days beneath a magnificent beech. Days were spent wandering among the glowing blue, with visits to the local gastro pub to see if we could sing for roast potatos.

Please do read on….

Grimbled nodes

One night we awoke to stomping feet around our heads, heavy clumping and breaking branches. Coming closer, the invisible night monster started shouting….NO! NO! NO!

There was nothing for it but to lay still and wait for it to pass by or perhaps tear us to shreds.  None were willing to grab staff and grapple like Beowulf the angry beast of the woods, and eventually it roamed away, its cries echoing into the distance.

Morning brought bluebell glow to heal worried sleepers and we soon forgot our fright and lingered more in the otherwise friendly woodland.

Here are a couple of recordings of Ayla, Susie, Ed and Will in Michelmersh church:

After a time we moved on toward Salisbury, crossing yellow fields of rape seed , through cowfields, where we often pause to sing. The cows will always respond to a good song, and they themselves sometimes at night sing also, a stange and eerie music which at first sounds like lots of noise. Listen for the harmonics they hit, and suddenly the depth of cow song is revealed.

The cows want Ayla to sing again

Reaching Salisbury, we sit to take a morning coffee. Fresh from an article in the Telegraph, people keep approaching, “are you those boys who….”, “yes, thats right” we reply, starting to get a small glimpse of what it must be like for those poor public faces, who can no longer enjoy a peaceful streetside morning coffee.  We take the warning, and embrace the blessing as a tour guide comes up and asks us to perform for her audience.  A mornings work in a matter of minutes as notes are squeezed secretively into our hands with knowing winks and smiles.

After busking awhile in the town centre we visit a pub we are recommended. There we sing for the bar and drink a  pint. It is a day of meetings as Lucinda comes to join our crew of four, so for a day or so we are five strong, without a place to stay. While busking a kind lady had offered us her house or garden for a nights sleep. We asked her tentatively about the possibility of sleeping five and she batted not an eyelid, accepting us all into her home.

Fiona, Stefan and Olivia invite us all to stay

An evening of song and fine French food followed. Ayla and Susie sung some wonderful new tunes, while Stefan showed us bows and arrows he had made and green wood chairs he learnt to construct with Mike Abbott, the chap Ginger went off to learn from. Good luck to Olivia on her new naval career, and thank you to a remarkably welcoming family.

Some of us awoke in the garden, others in the house. It is a morning of goodbyes as we become once more a duo, and prepare to cross Salisbury Plain.  We have a date with Radio 4 on the Wiltshire downs.

On the way out of town a car pulls over. “Are you those boys walking and singing…” comes the Salisbury chant, “yes thats right” comes our jaded reply. “Would you like to join us for lunch then?”  Well, we had left town now and had no desire to go back, even for a feed so we declined the surprise offer. But the kind couple would not take a no, and arranged to meet us up old Sarum outside town for a picnic. This was a first, having a full lunch, with sandwiches and chicken legs and cake and beer and juice and all sorts of goodies brought to us en route.

Surprise picnicking up old Sarum fort

So with belly full and packed leftovers for dinner, we thank our fortune and our benefactors, give payment with what we have (songs),  and set out north across Salisbury Plain.

We supplement our packed lunch with some young, soft beech leaves. We were told by a fellow in Dorset that they are good for the eyesight and thats why the deer eat them. They are certainly tasty.

Beech leaves in their new light green spring form, tasty, nutty, a good salad snack

The morning after next we are to meet Clare Balding for a recorded radio walk across the Wiltshire downs to Avebury.

We walk until late and dip into a copse for some sleep, with miles to cover on the morrow to make our appointment.

Its raining hard when we wake, so we move along quickly, stuffing wet bedrolls into our bags for later.

When the rain ceases for a while, we rig up a washing line, while army trucks thunder by wondering why people are doing their washing on Salisbury Plain.

A brief gap in the rain

We try a busk in a small town on the way. A solicitor leans despairingly out of his window above us. “Excuse me, some of us have work to do, would you please go away”, so we walk on.

Come late afternoon we stop for a replenishing pint in Upavon. Singing quietly outside, a fellow asks us to come inside to sing some songs for an Irish lady’s birthday party.

Accordian player at the party, The Ship, Upavon

One thing leads to another. Songs all round with accordian too:

Pints line up and buffet supper is provided, the evening unfurls into uproarious revelry.

We end up on the floor of the landlords flat above the pub, with alarms set for 6am ready to rock the next 8 miles to meet the radio.

Ed doesn’t sleep a wink, hes up all night feeling nautious and poisoned. The sun rises too early, and we stumble out slowly on our way to the Wiltshire downs.

Making slow shuffles toward Dragon Hill

Along the way a rock commemorates a blood pact between King Alfred and his brother before they set out to war against the Danish invaders. It makes us feel weaker, but drives us towards strength. The radio ring and we ask them to bring us coffee.

A barrow (burial chamber) on Salisbury Plain, complete with graffiti lorry

We meet Nicola and Clare in a car park where they instantly point a fuzzy microphone at us and ask us to describe each other. Will gives lavish descriptions of staves, feathered hats and brass lions while Ed mumbles that Will looks like a 19th century farmer. Its a start.

We drink our coffees and off the four of us walk up to Adam’s Grave hill and onto the downs.  The recording is for Ramblings on Radio 4 with Clare Balding, in which she walks with ‘interesting’ folk upon their favorite landscape.

Adam's Grave, the start of the Wessex Downs

It all went passably well, Ed recovered into vague lucidity half way through, while Clare and Will waxed poetic about the beautiful hillocks. At one point we got a bit lost and had to climb a couple of barbed wire fences. We visited West Kennett long Barrow for a song, then on to Silbury Hill and Avebury Henge where we say goodbye to our new friends. If you’d like to listen to the program, click here.

Ed, Clare Balding and Will at Avebury

Avebury is a village surrounded entirely by a series of stone circles, with stone avenues and a couple of great big Long Barrows.

One of the circles and some sheep

It lies on the Ridgeway path, said to be the oldest path in Europe, which seems to indicate that Avebury has been a pilgrimage destination for many thousands of years. It feels good to be here.

Resting against one of the stones

We climb  the nearby Silbury Hill, a huge ancient manmade hill which was built using ox’s shoulder blades as shovels.  Last time we were passing through here we found diggers tunneling into the top of it, looking for something, we presumed.

Silbury Hill and Will

Atop Silbury Hill

Swallowhead Springs, the source of the river Kennett, feeding the Thames with half its water. A hop and a skip away from Silbury Hill.

Feeling all shattered out, we find a tiny hidden patch of wood by a field and slink in to get some sleep.

Goodnight.

Bedtime

This is a photographic exhibition. It contains no narrative, so please enjoy these simple images, of us and friends, taken during our winter stay in cold old Radnorshire.

suzi comes to visit

Ozzy Ben the maker of machines

raggler on lookout

Ayla's sister Elly

cookery

dome mornings

cycled return from the busky yonder

eat zone

rosie pose

ayla's arm moustache

staying dry

les amoureurs

pupstart and pals

Ay-rag finds the sea-beet

pebble rain into hand

ayla and her wet papa

rose helps ed hand hole

hole made by sharp ax

the lads and their fads

face in cloud smiles

long drop

teddy bears picnic

sweet ayla all agrin

christmas morn song

not quite bitey

comfy will

and up

frog in the snow, where do you go?

Eddie de Mellowcroft

rockstar cart-horse

chook foot

2 birds in the hand

our friend Charly, well wrapped up

a flock of morris travellers

hometime

Holly chewing on a cow's ear.

Holly came into our lives in late January, brought to us by our friend Eddie who had the pick of the litter, his dog being Holly’s father. We had a few days to decide whether it was a good time to take on such a responsability, but soon enough we realised that this was a really intelligent, quick learning animal that we could train well and would in time become a loyal companion on our travels.  She is called Holly because she loves to chew on the  holly leaves.

For more about Holly and a couple of other new friends, do read on….

Will made her a mini bender structure, lined with straw, for her bed which was on the porch of our dome house til she outgrew it and chewed it up, so we made her another one. We feel it is important that she gets used to living the outdoor life (within reason as shes only a puppy) since we will be travelling in all sorts of conditions. She needs to grow up adaptable and strong, not overly tied to home comforts. Still, she comes in and sits by the stove when shes been a good girl.

Growing up in the woods

Stalking invisible rabbitses

We have chosen to take a positive approach to training. This means that we give her treats if shes been good, if she comes when shes called, sits, stays, poos in a good spot, goes to bed when its time. And when shes bad, she gets a vocal reprimand and certainly no treats. She’s really learning quickly this way.

We’re feeding her as much raw meat as we can reasonably afford since this is a natural doggy diet along with bits of grain, vegetables and herbs (found in a hunted animal’s belly), with puppy biscuits. Most butchers are not aloud to sell you bones for your dog, or leftover old meat they can’t sell. As with many things now, they are not insured for it so the healthy dog food gets buried and so people feed their dogs from tins of cooked old abertoir scrapings.

Rose and holly play tumble in the wood shavings

Hey mister, enough pictures please

Holly has brought a lively focus to camp life. Chasing her tale, chewing up boots, being scared off by the sheep (thank goodness), constant playfulness….she  gives us laughtert, friendship, new smells and responsability.

Gwendollin Psycho and Gwyneth Paltry, let loose in the woods

When Ginger and Little Ben came to visit us, Ben brought us a couple of chickens, not long rescued from a battery farm. They arrived looking half dead, bald and dozy, not knowing how to be chickens at all. Eventually they worked out how to scratch in the leaves and find worms, how to be cheeky where humans are eating, and how to put themselves to bed.
Now they are looking much healthier, though we havn’t had a single egg yet.

Lucky chickens coming from cage to woodland

There is an organisation called the Battery Hen Welfare Trust that rescues battery hens and gives them new homes, all for donations. It is good work when you see the state the hens come out in and how quickly they recover from their ordeal once they begin a normal life. The more we can do to stop eggs being produced in such a macabre, sadistic way, the better. Do we love our omlettes that much? If so, get some chickens or buy eggs from somewhere you can see the chickens roaming free.

A teenage puppy, Yarrow, came to visit and taught Holly a thing or two

We look forward to seeing how our journey will be affected by having a dog, the advantages and limitations, and to seeing Holly grow up big, healthy, active and strong.

Holly and Will enjoy the sunset.

]]> http://www.awalkaroundbritain.com/journey/journal/a-new-companion/feed/ 5 http://www.awalkaroundbritain.com/journey/photographs/for-more-photographs http://www.awalkaroundbritain.com/journey/photographs/for-more-photographs#comments Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:59:49 +0000 Branching Arts http://www.awalkaroundbritain.com/ visit our flickr page where you will find most of the photos contained on this website in one big bundle. ]]> http://www.awalkaroundbritain.com/journey/photographs/for-more-photographs/feed/ 0 http://www.awalkaroundbritain.com/journey/journal/a-show-of-ice-and-snow http://www.awalkaroundbritain.com/journey/journal/a-show-of-ice-and-snow#comments Sun, 17 Jan 2010 18:50:17 +0000 Branching Arts http://www.awalkaroundbritain.com/

The snow is melting away, the streams rush full and the ground squelches again. The birds no longer pester us for food as the worst of the cold is over……. for now.

Our friend Mr.Robin looking fluffed up

Its been a hard time for everyone, we are sure, and we have received reports of people stranded and roads closed. We’ve had lots of folk write in and ask how we’re coping in all of this cold and snow, so here we’ll show and tell. Read on……

Wonderful White

The first inklings of iciness made the mud disappear and we were happy. Movement became easy and work progressed fine. Rain water was no longer coming from the generous Welsh skies and our water containers froze solid. We started fetching our water from a nearby stream, boiling and filtering before drinking.

Approaching winter Solstice the first of the snow arrived, as did Ayla’s birthday and some friends to celebrate.

Ayla with Ed on her Birthday

Birthday Ice

Puffy snow house

Rose and Will on Christmas Day

A new and exciting stillness lay over the woods, the mice cleared their front porches under the oak trees for the first few days, throwing the snow aside to get to the ground. After a few more days and more snow, dry firewood became scarcer, the mice gave up clearing their porches, and our excitement solidified somewhat. Still, we managed to have a beautiful quiet Christmas with Will’s birthday following shortly after and visits from a fair few friends, which we will talk more of later.

Christmas day singsong

the sea, the sea...

Its amazing how quickly you can get used to the cold once it settles in. As the days and nights got colder, we became more able to handle the frosty weather. The snow disappeared for a time, but soon after New Year the temperatures plummeted. We had nights of -18°C, where we wrapped our heads to stop out brains cooling and found it very difficult to get out of bed.

Ed melting snow

chop chop will

The mornings were down to -11°C, our hands hurt without thick gloves, and at one point Rose had frozen snot. It became more important to keep the home fires burning and water boiling. The stream decided to freeze except for a tiny trickle beneath the ice, but we were able to break a hole through and get enough water. We tried melting snow, but it takes so much snow for so little water at the end. We made sure that we started melting it in a bit of hot water to prevent the pans burning through.

The cold slowed everything down. When more energy was needed, less energy was forthcoming.  Anything we foolishly left outside froze solid. This included our vegetables, which became almost unusable. The wood was also all frozen solid, so cutting into stove bits needed both axe and saw, as the saw on its own just got stuck. Tis gave Will very stiff cold hands.

Human's nest

Purpling Hills

How beautiful it was to see the white hills when we left the woods. Its so easy for us to forget about the world outside, the clogged, slippery roads and the wrapped up people.

Rolling down the hill

We managed a few fundays in the snow. On Ayla’s Birthday her friends whisked her off to the hills for snowballing. Just the other day Ed and Will rode on Eddie’s sled being pulled by his sturdy dogs. The speed is really something. After that came evening snow battles, wrestles and ambushes., and wet clothes.

Girls on the hills

So as everything thaws out, we breath a sigh and stare in wonder at how green and brown everything is. Work seems so easy without the snow. We can actually get on with something other than just firewood, water and keeping warm. Still, we came through without too much trouble, a little tougher, a little more clued up on how to ready ourselves for the next heavy frosts if they should come. All in all its been a ‘character building’ experience as our Eddy says.

For more of our wintry photography, click HERE.

Breakfast in the snow

Thanks to everyone who worried about us during this time. We’re ok.