At the weekend I went to my favourite spot just outside Edinburgh to check up on what has been happening. I cycled out of Edinburgh on my black road bike, taking a backpack with some essential bike repair stuff like a multitool, patches, tyre levers and a pump. I also took a few small bits used for wood-working, an axe, big fixed blade knife, spoon knife, and a folding saw.
The autumn leaves were at their peak, with beautiful golden coppery colours.
When I got to my spot, which I don’t think many people know about, I found that I had a lot of work to do. The oak tree that I normally sit under had lost a limb, presumably it had split off in the high wind we had in September. I found that the fallen limb had covered a lot of the space so I decided to process some of the wood and hide it in a spot under an overhanging tree root to keep it dry until I came back.
There was also a large straight silver birch that had been uprooted in the high winds and had slid down the hill a bit. I intend to go back and collect some of that later with a big saw later in the year.
The sedges that mat the woodland floor around there are really nice to sit on to do some woodcarving
