Previous Newsletters
February 2008

In this issue:

  • Online Ordering
  • Sap Rising
  • Axe Throwing
  • Green Driving
  • Tree Of The Month - Holly
Online Ordering

Spend Spend Spend! Our online shop is now open. It's taken longer than we'd have liked, but you can now buy our courses, gift certificates and tools online with all major credit/debit cards, any time of day or night! All the security protocols you'd expect are in place of course, and we hope you'll find it all quick and easy to use - and far less hassle than having to send cheques.

Sap Rising

If it's taken a bit longer than I'd hoped to get online payment-taking up and running, this year the sap is rising far earlier than I'd have expected.

I've been working in the woods all last week, finishing the first prototype wishbone stool and finalising the loft ladder mentioned last month, and it's been quite stunning in the workshop. I had some 6" diameter, 12 foot long ash felled for this work, and the amount of sap dripping from the base was a real surprise. The photo shows the base of the pole sitting in a (large) bowl: it produced a good cupful of sap in about an hour.

Sap Rising

You can produce a beverage from sap ... we might well be adding to our cider-making skills later in the spring!

Axe Throwing

People often comment how lucky we are to do what we do for a living. And well, yes, we do appreciate it and yes we are very lucky to be able to do what we love doing and call it work. But it does beg the question - what do we do to relax when we're not green woodworking? Well, by way of an answer, we've been throwing axes, and that's great fun!

Axe Throwing

As many of you tool buyers out there will know, we import a range of specialist axes. Looking at one supplier's range, I noticed 'throwing axes'. Intrigued, after just a little bit of research I discovered that this is a competitive sport with quite a few teams competing in the UK.

And as anyone who knows me will appreciate, I've never been one to resist a new big shiny tool! And so a nice new throwing axe arrived just yesterday and it's already seen its first tentative (well, not that tentative) launches (a photo is online). That's what I call fun! The noise as it lands in a log exactly twenty feet away is superb. The next job is to make a regulation target and designated throwing area: more on that when its done. Then it'll be a case of swotting up on the competition rules and away we go. The only question is whether this is a suitable diversion for the lunch breaks on our courses ... all feedback (unless from our insurance broker) welcome.

Green Driving

We try to be a green as we can. It's part of what we do and, indeed, what we teach. So, naturally, I find myself pondering how we can do more - and one area that has long made me scratch my head is the question of travel. We know a lot of our guests are similarly keen to be climate-friendly, but then they have to drive here. It's understandable, but not ideal. As you can imagine then, I was very pleased when a local taxi firm (King Kabs) announced they've added bio diesel cars to their fleet. What that means is that guests can now take the train down to Dorset and then get a bio diesel cab from the station to one of the local (walking distance) pubs / hotels / B&Bs. Brilliant! So, if you are keen to cut your carbon emissions on your green woodworking break this has to be worth considering. Their details are on the links page on the site.

 

That's it for February. After I finish this I'm off to the woods to start preparing for a custom course we're running. (Don't forget that we do run courses for groups, tailor made to your requirements. From parties of friends to corporate team building, social clubs to extended family get-togethers, we're nothing if not flexible! Just give me a call to talk it over.)

The snowdrops have been out for a while and the smell of wild garlic is returning to the woodland workshop - happy days!



Guy and the team


Tree of the Month - Holly
Ilex aquifolium

And as when all the summer trees are seen
So bright and green,
The holly leaves their sober hues display
Less bright than they,
But when the bare and wintry woods we see,
What then so cheerful as the holly tree?

Robert Southey

Close to, many trees in woods and gardens are beginning to announce the coming spring with swelling buds and tumbling catkins; the wider landscape though is still brown and winter-green, the trees skeletal. It is good at this barren time to see the holly with its strong, dark green leaves and those red berries as yet untouched by the birds bringing colour and life to gardens and woodlands.

Holly is, of course, associated with Christmas, but the use of holly and other evergreens as decoration during the time of the winter solstice is both ancient and widespread throughout the continents as a universal symbol of the continuation of life in the dark, dead season. In warmer climates bay, box, rosemary and juniper were used, but in Britain and other more northerly locations holly, along with ivy and mistletoe were used from pre-Christian times to the present day.

The holly, Ilex aquifolium, is by far the most common and widespread of our native evergreens, thriving or surviving as it does in a huge variety of habitats, making small trees in woodlands and hedgerows, or sturdy, stunted clumps in the more extreme habitats of an exposed hillside or pebble beach. The holly is widespread because of its hardiness and adaptability, but also because it has been widely cultivated and protected. Valued as a strong, stock-proof hedging tree, it gives shelter to livestock in the fields, both a deep, reliable shade in summer and shelter from wind and rain in winter. In the garden, it makes an attractive, secure, evergreen hedge that is also good habitat for garden birds.

Holly

In folk lore, hollies have been protected by the fact that historically the trees were thought to have magical powers making it unlucky to cut a tree down - witches appear when hollies go - so modern-day foresters are sometimes still reluctant to fell a holly. My local forester, however, tells me he has no compunction in clearing holly in a woodland where necessary, as it can become invasive and crowd out the regeneration of more valuable species. In some areas, a branch of holly would be hung in a barn to protect animals from parasites and disease, and the tree was also thought to give protection from fire, and especially from lightning. The basis for this may be that as the tree is relatively sappy and 'wet' even in the winter, it may function as a natural lightning conductor for nearby buildings. Although the wood burns well even when green it was considered unlucky to use it for firewood, although boughs were burned in some places as part of seasonal celebrations. Holly was also thought to have power over horses, hence a favourite use for the pliable wood was for horse whips.

The importance of the tree to livelihood and landscape can be seen in the amount of present-day place names and surnames that preserve ancient references to holly. The Middle English hollin or holegn originally referred to a single tree, but came to mean a group of hollies that were regularly pollarded for winter fodder, a practice once common, and still carried out in some areas like the New Forest. Although the hard, spiny leaves seem an unlikely foodstuff, after being crushed to make them more palatable they provide a valuable winter food that is high in calories and nutrients. In areas where this was common practice, the name 'hollin' commonly occurs as both place name and surname. 'Holm' which can indicate an island, is also frequently a place name reference to holly, and is also seen in the name of the Holm oak - Quercus ilex - an evergreen species of oak with spiky, holly-like young leaves.

The many cultivated forms of holly have been developed by horticulturalists over a period of some 300 years, exploiting the variety of form, colour and leaf shape seen in naturally occurring varieties. I aquifolium, for example, occasionally grows wild with entirely smooth, spineless leaves, one of the useful characteristics that have been exploited by plant breeders developing ornamental varieties. In normal growth the spineless leaves grow only towards the top of the tree, where they are above the browsing height of hungry animals. These leaves are known as 'free' holly, or 'slike' holly in Shropshire where boughs are harvested and auctioned annually for the Christmas market, with the 'free' holly fetching the highest price. Berried branches are most sought after for Christmas decorations, with the berries being found only on the female plants. Most varieties of holly are unisexual, with the female plant requiring a male plant growing nearby in order to produce berries. Some well-known garden varieties can cause confusion in this respect; 'Golden King' is, in fact female, whereas 'Silver Queen' is male.

Carolyn Brightwater