So we’ve just finished the 5^th of our 6 family weeks, a fantastic Bushcraft Family Week run by the amazing Jonathon Huet. The week started off with a showing of how to use a bow drill followed by an impromptu lesson with flint and steel, which resulted in a fantastic fire where the 27 of us listened to stories about the old world, when wolves, boars and witches roamed freely around Albion (that's England to most folk).

Day 2 started with Jon teaching us how to light fires with a Special Forces survival tool, “Fire Steel”, and how to manage these fires to produce loads and loads of heat and light. With the fires we made wild teas, sweet breads on sticks, and charcoal. Although the charcoal wasn’t as tasty as the tea and bread, it would come in very useful for the days to come. After a hearty dinner we went on a walk into a wild orchard, across a flowing river and through a dark tunnel to watch and observe the Lesser Horseshoe bat, a trek that all enjoyed and survived.

After a long and deep night's sleep came more fire lighting techniques with flint and steel (the main fire lighitng technique until the invention of the match in 1805), the difficult but satisfying bow drill, and the building of dens in the wild. With fire lighting mastered we learned more bushcraft skills and tricks with woodcarving and cordage making from willow, nettle and lime trees. The woodcarving was brilliant, absolutely fantastic. I managed to carve a butter knife that was far too long and far too thin but a butter knife all the same. Others were more adventureous and managed fantastic and almost perfect spoons.

On the Friday we headed off on our walk down to Lyme Regis, which was hampered with heavy showers and a crowded beach but I had fun all the same and some of the party even managed a dip in the sea, brave souls. Upon our return we played some games and got ready for the “Pea Fair”, an event put on by two of the participants and run to absolute perfection and precision. It was a brilliant way to end the week, and after all the excitement we sat around the fire and ate plum bakewells, telling jokes and scary stories.

I have to say that this week and the group that I was with were among the best to date for me, mainly because in the evenings the kids, a few of the adults and myself played games and sports for hours and hours until too dark to see. We played all sort of games; tag bulldog, a European version of bulldog called spider, cricket, 40/40 and an in-the-dark tag (which was actually quite nerve racking never really being sure who was on and who wasn’t).

To finish I’d just like to say thank you to Jon and Christine for running the course and to all the adults and kids for making the week so memorable. I’m looking forward to you returning next year on the 16^th of August to run another. Cheers.

Thanks for reading.

Tom

So we’ve just hosted our second beekeeping course. This time it had a slightly different feel, firstly it was over 2 days not 3, secondly it rained on us for half a day and thirdly Kate Humble, 3 members of the BBC film crew and a photographer from The Times were in attendance. I had a brilliant time linking the course, it was just fantastic, an astounding group of people. My only problem was that I got stung, on the hand, not once but twice. How extraordinarily frustrating, but I took it well and didn’t cause any panic, which was important. The course was brilliantly run by David, our leader and next door neighbor, with a great mix of very entertaining chats about bees and hands on experience, in my case a little too hands on.
Just to blow our own trumpets, which is aloud I assure you, here are some of the more memorable quotes from the feedback.

About David - “Excellent. We had a very knowledgeable tutor”
“… excellent tutor and was patient with our questions”

About Us – “The welcome and the staff 100% excellent”
“Welcome v. warm, room lovely”

About the food – “Food far, far too good”
“The food was excellent”

Kate Humble and the film crew were here to film a piece for Autumn Watch to be shown in October and the photographer was shooting for a Times Supplement on Sustainability and the Environment to be published in August.

We’re hoping to run further courses on Beekeeping in September and in spring and early summer 2010.

Thanks for reading.