I recently went to the wonderful Wildways in Shropshire which was mentioned in my previous post and enjoyed a magical morning learning how to wattle. It may be easy to some but there is still an art to it. You have to pick the best material - hazel or willow, you have to be mindful of birds and other creatures when you take some to use and how flexible it is at certain times of the year. All of these things count.
I was also shown how to light the best fire. I have been used to lighting fires all of my life but I still learnt new things that can help to get a great fire going when out in the open.
All these magical forestry skills are so important. It's not just about keeping the poetry and stories alive, it's about keeping the ancient crafts alive too, after all that is how people lived centuries ago, they needed all of the basic skills to build and make places for worship or just to live and celebrate life, telling the stories of old in their roundhouses or just sitting out in the woods around a fire.
I have been experimenting with outdoor cooking and my fire pit and tripod work well. In fact the other day I boiled this 'potion' quicker than my kitchen kettle boils. Soon I want to buy a proper cooking pot and make food over an open fire but better get a nice clean cooking pot first as this one belongs to the chickens and they are not pleased that I have pinched their corn pot to experiment with!
