Blog

Today the door and roof on the kitchen cupboard were finished! It is all looking great and will be so much easier to store and access our cooking equipment. More willow stakes and another tipi pole were peeled and we dodged the rain by putting up our tarp and working under the shelter. The final touches were put on the bird table and we added extra charcoal to the temporary path in the clearing as the ground is saturated from the heavy rain today. Two pallets were dismantled

Today we enjoyed a dry day and managed to do a lot of peeling bark. This week is the RSPB's Big Garden watch where the public are encouraged to take part in Citizen Science. For one hour we took it in turns to sit in the bird hide with binoculars and the bird ID chart and recorded what we saw. It was a very relaxing activity but we heard more birds than we actually saw. Another tipi pole and a number of willow stakes for the new build Yoda Hut were peeled.. More felting on th

What a difference the dry weather made after such a rainy previous day. We started off by laying a charcoal path across the clearing and raking charcoal around the fire site as it was very slippery with all the mud. This helped to create more traction and a drier and safer underfoot experience. Felting was attached to the kitchen cupboard roof and another tipi pole was peeled. In the afternoon we walked over to Herstmonceux Castle to cut some willow from around the moat. It w

There aren't many days when it rains from dawn until dusk but on Tuesday it really did!. We had the tarp up over the fire so we were dry and warm for lunch and breaks. A roof was put onto the cupboard for the kitchen and another of the tipi poles was peeled. We went for a very rainy walk after lunch but it was good to keep warm.

On Wednesday the tap eventually thawed as the temperature rose. Some further work was made on the new kitchen with the start of a roof for the Tardis cupboard. Our resident and very friendly robin came to visit throughout the day and we left out plenty of bird seed for it. It was interesting to notice the returning of the bird song today. We heard a woodpecker, great tit and wood pigeon for the first time this winter. It was very welcome. We had a walk with the dogs in the af

On Tuesday, it was quite the magical winter's day. The weather had turned incredibly cold and was well below zero so we put up the tipi in the fire space and lit the wood burning stove inside. It was so nice to have a cosy 'indoor' space to have our breaks and lunch. It was very special when it started to snow a little after lunch; we all rushed outside to enjoy the rare pleasure of the snow. The temperature was so cold that the water in the tap had frozen on Monday and remai

On 30th and 31st December we had two stunning winter days. It was cold and clear and sunny. The frost was stunning on the leaves. Huge progress was made on Tuesday with the frame completed on the new kitchen area. In the afternoon we went for a a walk and saw three donkeys. On New Year's Eve the kitchen was finished! It was a massive effort by Mark and the team and we are thrilled with the new spacious kitchen area. It even has a plate drying rack! We started clearing the bra

We had two very festive days on the 23rd and 24th December. On the Tuesday we dressed up in our Christmas outfits, even Barley and Twig! Pizzas were made and cooked in the pizza oven by the students and we ate together at the banqueting table. It was decorated with holly and ivy which we had foraged in the woods. Wreaths were also made from foliage we cut from the woods. It was a wonderful couple of days.

Today was an industrious one. We fixed a broken chair, continued work on a bird table and burnt the end of the final support post for the kitchen. Construction has sarted on building the frame for the worktop. A wooden spoon was sanded and oiled for a Xmas gift and a fallen tree was chain sawed up and the logs moved to the kiln area to season for next year's charcoal making. It was a fun day.

Today we really appreciated the dry weather as the ground is less slippery. We enjoyed a lovely walk with Barley and gathered some birch twigs for starting the fire. More progress was made with the posts for the kitchen and some were sunk into the holes. Chopping boards were finished, posts peeled, kindling created and a huge quantity of willow that Mark had coppiced was moved. It was a great day.

Today we've had a welcome dry day at Heartwood and we're hoping for a few dry days to help the ground recover a bit. To manage some of the slippery mud and leaf litter on the track, we scraped and removed the top slippery layer of mud and added it to the leaf litter piles we raked from the clearing. This will help the leaves to rot down and make more rich soil for Fruit Corner. Helen's large mallet got fixed and the final support post for the new kitchen area was burnt. The l

Today at Heartwood we were delighted to see that the two Heartwood pups are getting to know each other and play together. One of the big jobs for the new kitchen is to burn the bottom of each of the supporting posts so they don't rot in the ground. One of the students really enjoyed building a hot fire and did the burning very skilfully. More acorn chopping boards were cut and the sanding started. Further work on the coffee table was done and more kindling made. Wood chips we

On Wednesday we had a rainy morning and were very grateful for the new tarp again. We were able to seat all 11 of us comfortably around the fire at lunch. However, the fire site and under the shelter is incredibly muddy after all the rain. Twig has found her confidence both in the wood and with Barley and they have begun to play together. A few ongoing projects were completed - the Thor hammer for Aaron, and the wooden rake that Mark had made earlier in the year. Two large su

It's December and we were delighted when there was a shower this morning as it gave us a chance to try out our new tarp. It fits the fire circle perfectly and of course, once we put it up, the sun came out. Puppy Twig was back in the woods and she and Barley are getting to know each other. The coffee table is still being built and some fixing jobs were undertaken. The big news of the day is that work has begun on the new washing up/kitchen area. Helen is very excited that the

On Wednesday it was another gorgeous sunny, blue sky wintery day. We spent our day with a variety of different projects. Some continued with the coffee table and bird table, logs were stacked for firewood, rocks moved, hot drinks drunk and puppies and dogs cuddled and entertained. It was a joyful day.

On Tuesday we welcomed Twig, Helen's new puppy and fun addition to the Heartwood team. She settled in very well and Barley was great at sharing his woods, water bowl and friends. As she grows she will be a great play mate for Barley. We had a busy day raking the leaves off the clearing, finishing the scooter, made boxes of kindling, making a new bird table for Helen and Sam's 'Nurture in Nature' woodland cancer support group. More progress was made on the coffee table and Fru

What an incredible change in the weather on Wednesday! It was so rainy and cold in the morning that it sleeted! We didn't take any photos, except this one, but we put up the tarp over the fire to keep dry. We did lots of physical jobs like moving wood, raking the leaves from the path and had lots of hot drinks to keep warm. Once the rain stopped after lunch we went for a long walk in the woods. It was good to be out in the winter weather and enjoy the change of seasons again

On Tuesday we spent most of the day busy with a number of different woodworking projects. We needed a new jobs board so a hedgehog shaped chalkboard was created by using the jigsaw to cut out the silhouette shape, sanding and painting it with chalkboard paint. It looks great! More reindeer were created as gifts, another drawer was fixed, kindling made and more work on the wooden scooter- it's looking so good. Some of the students went for a walk with Barley the dog and we not

On Wednesday it was Mark's birthday and he was treated to an incredibly warm and sunny day. It was blue skies and sunshine all day! We celebrated his birthday by going for a birthday adventure walk, eating a cream tea and playing 'Splat the Rat'. It was a lot of fun. In the morning we worked together to clear the track from a thick layer of leaf litter. It took a lot of energy and raking to remove all the fallen leaves. The final chair was finished and it looks fantastic, the

Believe it or not, this Tuesday we got a little ahead of ourselves with regards to the festive season and did a reindeer workshop? We created nine fabulous reindeer and had a lot of fun sawing and drilling, we worked as a team and really enjoyed finishing them off with their antlers and legs. Each one had its own unique character. The acorn chopping boards were finished today by sanding and oiling and they looked great.