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In the morning, we harvested some potatoes from Fruit Corner and in the process Mark discovered a stinkhorn mushroom- it certainly lived up to its name! We cooked some of the potatoes up for lunch and ate them with butter and mint, also from Fruit Corner. Work was finished on the two rounders bats and they look great. Other activities involved tidying up the tool cabin, separating the elderflowers from the stalks to store for tea and starting work on another planter. In the a

On Tuesday we had a very different and fun day at The Heartwood Project. Today it was all about making charcoal. Mark dusted off the charcoal kiln for the first burn of the year. It was an exciting team activity which needed us all to work together to stack and light the kiln. It took most of the day to fill the kiln and then one of the students helped to light it. It was great to see it up and running again. Other activities some of us did was tending to Fruit Corner, which

It was an extremely hot and lovely two days. We found a dead mouse and buried it. I found a hawk moth in my dress and it sat on Mark and one of the student’s clothes all day! We called it Nelly. Some of our activities across the two days included: Feeding tadpoles We finished the toilet box Planting our seedlings Sowed more seeds Shady walks in the woods laying in hammocks more work on the bench.

On Wednesday we spent the morning erecting a marquee. It is going to be our semi permanent shelter for working under. It was a fantastic group effort - moving logs, clearing the ground, puzzling over the many white poles and joints, adding the roof and anchoring it down. In the afternoon we worked on a variety of different jobs: cutting back brambles from the paths, using the pole lathe, finishing a planter and more work on the toilet box.

On Tuesday we had a day of two halves weather-wise. In the morning we had a huge downpour and were very grateful for our two tarps and the polytunnel. Work continued on the compost toilet boxand weaving the Yoda Hut. Once the sun came out, we enjoyed an exploratory walk and discovered lots of foaming tree soap at the bottom of lots of the Sweet Chestnut trees. This is caused after a heavy rainfall. The force of the rain water cascading down the tree trunk agitates the dust an

It was an incredible day for varied weather, we experienced warm sunshine, heavy rain, wind and thunder and lightening. Quite rare for May but it kept us on our toes. Work continued on building a compost toilet, clearing the coppiced area, axing logs and stacking them for seasoning, pallet breaking, de-nailing and making an acorn chopping board. In the afternoon, some of us went for a short walk after the rain had stopped. It was a great day.

We had another fun and productive day. We fed the tadploes with cucumber, peeled a chestnut pole, saw and split two crates of kindling, started making another rounders bat and completed a mallet we were making. In the afternoon , we went for a longer walk with the dogs to the 1066 footpath alongside Herstmonceux Castle. It was a lovely sunny day so we went on a foraging walk with the dogs and Mark made sun hats for us from large burdock leaves. We foraged for Elderflowers and

Today we were thrilled to finally receive the apple juice we had pressed from the apples we picked last autumn. Everyone took a bottle home; it was delicious! Work continues on a garden table and two benches and work was completed on a rounders bat and a hefty oak mallet. Twig and Barley had lots of chill time in the sunshine and had lots of fuss made of them too. We crushed up breeze blocks to make hardcore to fill a couple of potholes in the carpark and made a start on the

​What a spectacular day it’s been! The woods have truly come alive under the lovely warm sunshine, and the energy around the campfire has been just as bright. Here’s a little look at what our team has been up to: ​A Scaly Surprise ​The highlight for many of us was a rare encounter with one of the woodland's most misunderstood residents: a slow worm! While it looks like a small snake, it’s actually a non-venomous legless lizard. It was a wonderful opportunity to practice our g

Today we had a busy and productive day at the woods. Clasps were added to the kitchen cupboard and there was some cutting back of brambles on the footpath. Work was started on another planter as well as an outdoor picnic table. Kindling was sawn and split and one of the wooden chairs was fixed. It was another warm and sunny day with the bluebells and wood anemones still looking good.

This week we had a fabulous trip to Herstmonceux Science Centre. We walked through the woods to the science centre and took our packed lunch. We spent three hours exploring all the different exhibits; it was great fun and there was a lot to see and do. When we got back we did some gardening in Fruit Corner to prepare the beds for the seedlings we are growing in the poly tunnel. We even had to water Fruit Corner for the first time this year.

Today was a busy and productive day. We worked hard on lots of small jobs that is helping to tend and take care of the woods. An old door was smashed us and burnt, lots of the felled branches were chainsawed up into logs and all the logs were moved into the newly situated corrals. A mallet was completed, new support stakes replaced rotten ones for a brash wall and old pallet wood was de-nailed. After lunch we went for a walk to the pond and played Eye Spy - Helen won!

On Tuesday, we were treated to another warm and sunny day. We spent most of the day fixing things and moving the corrals of logs. They are being relocated to give us more space around the fire area. The bluebells are in their prime this week and we took the opportunity to sit amongst them and have a sit spot. They look and smell incredible at the moment. It was nice to go for a morning walk with Twig and lay on some of the fallen trees. One of the students has a birthday this

Today the temperature reached 20 degrees in the shade on our thermometer- the hottest day of the year so far! We made a start on weaving the willow sides of the Yoda hut, which felt very exciting. More moving and sorting of wood from the newly coppiced area took place, as well as three wooden mallet projects getting finished. The acorn chopping boards had more sanding and were oiled and the bench in the car park was also completed. Everyone is happy to have a seat in the shad

It was another beautiful sunny day and we really appreciated the warmth and dry ground again. We even had to water Fruit Corner! Some of us have been tidying and moving wood in the newly coppiced area and this has created such a sunny spot for new growth.So me of the wood was axed into smaller logs for firewood in the autumn. Acorn chopping boards were sanded and kindling was sawn and split. At lunch time we had a picnic lunch under the oak tree; it almost felt like summer,.

Happy Easter to all our students, staff and their parents and carers. We had a lovely day today and were delighted to celebrate Easter with a delicious chocolate Easter cake made by one of our student's mum, as well as cooking apples over the fire, rolled in cinnamon and sugar. In the morning we moved the brash from the recent tree felling to build up the screen for around the bath, made more kindling, worked on the bench for the car park, finished a mallet and took the dogs

On Tuesday we had a relaxed day which flowed well. Everyone was engaged with different activities and there was a gentle pace to the day. Some students fixed a couple of chairs that were damaged, a new shave horse was assembled, we had a nice walk with the dogs and climbed a tree. We made lots of kindling and sorted out the tool boxes.

We decided to spend time in the morning taking care of the woods. This involved clearing fallen wood, cutting down a fallen branch overhanging the foot path, raking and clearing the bark peelings and generally having a tidy up of our working space. It looked and felt good once we were done. Work continued on the bodger shelter, building a new shave horse and using the pole lathe to make a mallet. It was a very different temperature at Heartwood today from last week. In the af

This week we have been sowing radishes, beetroot and tomatoes to germinate in the poly tunnel, as well as planting out some spinach and rainbow chard seedlings donated by one of our staff. It feels exciting to get our hands back in the soil and we are looking forward to seeing things starting to grow again in Fruit Corner. Our main focus was to use some pallets to build an addition to one of our sheds. We managed to finish it and fill it with deconstructed pallet wood for fu

We have had another sunshine spring day and today were delighted to discover that the frogspawn we rescued has now hatched and the pond is full of tadpoles! We look forward to watching them develop. Work was started on a planter for one of our volunteers and a fixing job has been started on one of the poppets on the pole lathe. The new bench for the car park has had both support logs peeled and the ends burnt and the bench seat has been measured up. More trees were felled as