Blog

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.

A couple of weeks ago two students created some painting ink from the Shaggy Ink Cap mushroom. It is quite astonishing how the mushroom decays over a few days and all that is left is black ink. It stinks of shellfish but makes a great paint if you can brave the smell! This afternoon, we worked as a team and raked the track again and cleared the leaf litter away. We also cleared the guttering of leaf litter, sawed up a pallet, sanded the new acorn chopping boards, work was als

On Tuesday we spent the morning busy working at the woods. It was great to finish digging the area by the gate's new post. It now can swing open freely which is very helpful. The pond was cleared of leaf litter and in the process we discovered a much larger frog appears to be living there- very exciting news! Work continued on the chair. In the afternoon, we all went for a longer walk to visit the ancient Sweet Chestnuts, near Herstmonceux Castle. They are very special and we

It's been a very autumnal couple of days at Heartwood this week. We raked quite a few leaves to prevent the tracks becoming all mushy with leaf compost as they begin their next life stage of decay, before they can nourish the next growing season in the spring next year. I suspect there'll be quite a few more leaves to rake before the seasons out. We use these leaves to create a powerful soil improver called biochar when mixed with horse manure and charcoal fines (an otherwise

On Wednesday, we completed the big task of replacing the fence post and rehanging the gate. Firstly, the post hole was dug deeper and the final piece of rotten post removed, meanwhile the new post was finished being charred. The post was then placed into the hole and cemented in. Finally, the gate furniture was added and the gate hung. It has been a real team effort. Whilst the gate was being worked on some other students were making progress with building a new chair; it is

This week at Heartwood we have had to focus on a major repair to fix the rotten gate post. On Tuesday it was all about cutting and peeling the post to remove all the bark. The lower section was then charred over the fire, this reduces the speed of rot in the sunken section. It had to be all hands on deck as the old rotten post needed to be dug out and all the undergrowth surrounding it removed. After all the wind and rain, Fruit Corner needed some tending. We removed all olde

Another couple of blissful days at Heartwood. Harvesting this year's apples, raking the track and gathering the leaves to make biochar were some of yesterday's woodland offerings and today we have been making a mallet and a ''Thor'' hammer, braking up pallets and making kidling, as well as foraging sooo many chestnuts. Some for roasting and some for planting with some acorns in last years coppice area. This has been such an abundant Mast year for chestnuts, acorns and apples,

On Wednesday we got creative and made some conker soap. We smashed the conkers into pieces with hammers and put in a large pot and...

This Tuesday we started the day off with foraging for sweet chestnuts. There are an abundance of them in our woods at the moment and it...

On Wednesday we managed to finish a few projects we'd be working on including these great acorn chopping boards and a new wooden box for...

Happy birthday to Sam and what a stunning autumn day it was to celebrate. We enjoyed sharing birthday cake and playing hide and seek to...

On Wednesday it was one of our student's birthdays. We celebrated with a cake and a couple of games, including 'Splat the Rat.' We had a...

On Monday it was the Autumn Equinox, the time where day and night are equal in length. It is a time of reflection and a season of...