A new photo gallery is now live on our website for the Introduction to Bushcraft course, showing some of the pictures taken by staff and students over this year’s course season.
Just one of the leaf shelters built by students this year
For what seemed like the first time in years, students were lucky enough to have the sun shining over them while pitching their tarps, learning fire-lighting techniques, cooking over the campfire and building their leaf shelters.
The following article was kindly written by Woodlore field staff member Sarah Day:
I found this moth larvae on an apple tree in my garden. It is the larvae of a vapourer moth as far as I can tell though it doesn’t have the ‘tail’ tuft shown in a lot of photos. The odd thing about this species is that the female is flightless, looking a bit like a hairy overweight woodlouse! They live on a variety of trees and shrubs, as well as broad bean plants it would seem, as they have demolished mine very efficiently.
A larvae of a vapourer moth found in Woodlore field staff member Sarah's garden
Annemarie Hopper, a student of a number of Woodlore’s courses between 1998 – 1999, including the Introduction to Bushcraft as well as a wilderness cooking course, kindly got in touch with us recently to say she had some photos to hand that she had taken all those years back.
The resulting pictures were great to see, offering a glimpse into Woodlore’s past. After all these years, it’s amazing to see just how much has changed, while so much has stayed the same…
Ray Mears demonstrating the bow drill technique of fire lighting
The following article was kindly written by Woodlore Field Staff member Sarah Day:
“Foraging for wild foods is not like just walking round a supermarket. The availability of foods and materials changes with the cycles of the year. We’re used to being able to eat strawberries at Christmas and have fresh apples all year round. If you’re foraging, it simply doesn’t work that way. Continue reading
The hand drill method of fire-lighting
As you may know, Woodlore’s very first Traditional Living Skills course took place in late June – a brand new course aimed at teaching traditional living skills & classic wilderness Bushcraft.
The Course leader and office staff member Steven managed to get some photos of just some of the skills and techniques being taught on this course, and the resulting Intermediate Bushcraft photo gallery is now live for all to see.
The following post and accompanying photos were kindly put together by Sarah Day of our Field Staff team:
Foraging for fungi and the resulting activity in the kitchen is often thought of as an autumn pursuit; not so. Chicken of the woods (sulphur polypore/Laetiporus sulphureus) is one of many types of fungi that appear over the summer. This particular fungus often appears in late June, rather obligingly in the same place year after year; its dead whitish fruitbodies signposting the way to next years crop.
Laetiporus sulphureus, commonly known as ‘Chicken of the woods’
The following article was kindly written by Woodlore Field Staff member Keith Whitehead:
On my way home from a course, I was walking a stretch which takes in part of the Basingstoke canal’s towpath. One stretch, between two locks, had been drained for maintenance and the muddy bed was covered in what looked like mussels. I decided to take a closer look and removed my pack so that I could climb down the bank.
One of the mussel shells found by Keith
I found tens of empty freshwater mussel shells, some of which were of a considerable size. All of them had been scavenged by the time that I found them, but I was still amazed by the richness of the resource that I had been completely unaware of beforehand.
Whether eating a filter-feeding shellfish from a stretch of water such as the canal would be a wise thing or not, is another matter. I’m just glad that I know that they’re there and that my eyes have been opened a little further.
The extremely popular Trips Money Can’t Buy programme, featuring Ray Mears and Ewan McGregor in the Honduran jungle, is repeated later this week on the UKTV Documentary channel Eden.
It’s a great chance to catch this programme which was unfortunately never released on DVD. If you’ve never seen it before, the above clip should give you an idea of what to expect.
Thursday 15th July
12:00, 15:00 & 20:00 PM
Sky 532, Virgin Media 208
As many of you may have noticed, deliveries of the popular Short Tripod that we sell have been few and far between recently. One positive move that has come from this, however, is that Ray has now worked with British blacksmith and long-time friend of Woodlore’s, Andrew Kirkham, to design their very own take on the bushcraft cooking tripod.
The Ray Mears Folding Trivet in use with a Zebra Billy Can
A couple of us from the Woodlore offices took some time out to visit the Traditional Living Skills course last week to see how everyone was getting on. This is a brand new course for Woodlore which has been designed as a ‘next step’ from the Fundamental. The Traditional Living Skills course is aimed at teaching you how to live comfortably in the forest with minimal equipment.
Steve having a go at the hand drill method with some help from Dan
The Ray Mears & Woodlore Bushcraft Blog 