January 31st, 2022

Mike, who we use for garden projects, started on the clearing of the wood beyond the paddock fence this week. We don’t actually know how much land we own the other side of the fence line, and we have lived in Filleigh for nearly 22 years. The area, which is wider at the top and bottom, narrow in the centre and is bordered by a stream which is our boundary has been screened from view by brambles, stinging nettles, debris that has fallen out of the trees and no doubt a few fallen trees as well. When Mike was planting the new hedge down the side of the paddock in November and we surveyed the project he was calling out the trees, a hazel copse and a fair number of ash trees which I just hope won’t succumb to ash dieback.

I didn’t return to Filleigh until Monday night and when I looked out mid-morning Tuesday, I could see smoke rising from the bottom area from his bonfire. Time for a cup of tea and see what progress has been made.

By the time I had wandered down the hill in the wind, there was not much tea left in the mug, I will need to be more careful in the future, part of the missing tea had created a stain down both trouser legs and the wet of the grass was creating a tidal mark up my legs, I really must buy myself some wellington boots.

Wow, it is much bigger than I thought, half a thumb on the plans equates to about 50 metres/yards. Mike showed me signs of an old wire fence the other side of the stream clearly marking the boundary, the stream has worked its way into other flatter areas as silt has built up over the decades, but there is a clear bank the other side and a line of trees with odd bits of rusted wire attached. 

Mike has already been out with the chainsaw and sorted a pile of logs that can be used for the fire and a pile of rotting logs that can be used as a wildlife habitat. A few old bottles have been found including a Californian Fig Oil which it seems was used for constipation.

It certainly has been an exciting week, as each morning and afternoon I’ve popped down to see progress, and I can’t wait until the weekend for Victoria to see it as well. The row of young alders leaning across and obscuring the boundary fence line, which at 30 to 50 degrees were reaching out to the light have now been felled and the end of the stream is now flowing freely before it disappears into the laurels on the Castle Hill Estate land. This has created another pile of logs for carting somehow up hill and to our house.

This now exposes a lovely living tree that crosses the stream at a similar angle, that has ferns growing out of the thick moss on its upper side, gorgeous. Mike is making rapid progress; the whole hazel copse is now cleared and at this part the stream tumbles down a set of stone steps although the silted area is very soft, and thoughts of future projects are now springing to mind. As the wood is cleared you can see further into Spa Wood, which is Estate land, unseen by anyone except Gordon who lives in the old shooting lodge in the wood, Gordon has been down to investigate, Mike says. That part of Spa Wood looks to have the early signs of bulbs appearing, bluebells, wild garlic, both seem a bit early, but there is a definite haze of green.

At the end of the week, Mike has made it up to the top where the brambles are thickest, and he has cleared an access to the gate at that end. There are a few more trees that have fallen here crossing the stream which runs much steeper at this point, and through the branches of one fallen tree you can see a waterfall about 4 or 5 feet deep, with the clear sound that would have been masked from us up to this point. It is fantastic, on the banks of the gorge there are green ferns of prehistoric dimension, and it is only now you can see down the valley, and how steep it is in places. The middle section has a convenient looking area that goes down towards the stream edge, perhaps a few steps down at both ends and I expect this would give you a view up and down the stream. Oh yes, future projects are bounding into mind, perhaps there is the potential for one or even two ponds at the bottom.

At the weekend I spoke to Paul our nearest neighbour apart from any residents in the next-door cemetery, he is an arborist and gardener, and he joined me for a walk down the valley. Paul and Jo’s house looks down the valley and houses several bats of different species which he tells me pour out of their roof eaves and head down this valley, they probably roost in the thick ivy clinging to the ash trees. Paul was very enthusiastic, pointing out the early signs of Scarlet Elfcup (Sarcoscypha austriaca) a fungus which lives in the damp and mossy areas and lives off fallen branches and dead wood, until then these had gone unnoticed, I wasn’t looking down. “The hazel copse is prime ground for dormice”, he says, “the barn owl that lives around here and the buzzards that live at the top of that tree will love you, they’ll be perching in those ash trees or hovering around the end of this wood waiting for something to move”, I hope it isn’t the dormice.

Everything else this week pales into insignificance compared to Mikes work and the excitement of my daily visits. I played bridge online with Alan again this week scoring slightly better than the previous week. Hopefully the mask rule will be relaxed soon, and I’ll return to playing in Barnstaple. We used to have a good number of tables, whether that will return time will tell, but I expect some will be happy staying online rather than face to face.

I made my first contribution to the Podcasting for Beginners Community by posting an article ‘Module 1 and 2 Complete – What Next?’. There seems to be so many actions to take. I need to try to have my first Zoom call, record the session and start learning how to edit with Audacity and Descript. I need to set my grand vision and short- and medium-term goals, create a podcast logo, and source some suitable royalty free music, or learn and record a piece myself. 

I’ve started listening to Richard Midson’s podcast called “Can I Make A Hit Podcast” on my iPhone, Richard is one of the presenters on the podcasting course. I’ve now realised I’m thinking of creating a podcast but have never listened to one previously myself. I’ve got to say that after only three episodes, his podcast is super useful. Richard has been researching why some podcasts are successful and why many others fail, the term is podfade, and only 8% of all podcasts make it through the first ten episodes. Why am I thinking of doing a podcast again? I must do that grand vision, it will hopefully give me the answers I need, otherwise I may fade before my first episode is delivered. Anyway, I’ve convinced myself that if I do create a podcast, I’ll make sure there are 10 episodes, so that I can be in that 8% who have presumably made a success of it. Richard’s podcast is called AtHitPodCast2020, all one word.

One suggestion that Richard made is set yourself a target of one hour each day working on the podcast, much more than this and you probably won’t be able to sustain it. Another suggestion that came from one of his previous guests was focus on documenting, and presumably document each night while things are still fresh in mind. I’ll try this next week. 

I did go online with Canva and created myself a podcast logo for my podcast which I will call Maximo Bite Size. I’m quite pleased with it, especially as it didn’t take that long to produce. Victoria likes it, and I’ve posted a request “Your Honest Opinion” for the podcasting community to give it their critique, and I gave them permission to use four letter words, if that is what they think.

Victoria was down with Reggie and Badger at the weekend, next week I’ll be looking after both dogs, Olivia and Harry are going to Jamaica. After the excitement of showing everyone the valley, Victoria is equally enthusiastic, the rest of the weekend was a bit of a washout, no golf, and I had my tax return to complete. 

One of my New Year’s Resolutions was to learn to bake a cake, I’ve never made one before. I have set myself the target of one per month having learnt my lesson from last year’s resolutions with regards to making a pastry dish and an ice cream or sorbet every week for the first 10 weeks, it all got a bit much. The cake was coconut and cherry, with a bit of orange peel which we thought enhanced the coconut. It was really nice; I’m fearing I can only go downhill from here. It was a little moist the way I remember it as a kid, perhaps a little cream achieved this. It was a touch too dark on top, not at all burnt, perhaps a minute too long in the aga. It wasn’t in the right sized cake tin, too big a diameter, the next size down and I think the proportions would have looked better. A triumph on which to finish a good week.