Wood Whittling

Since getting a birthday present last year to make an English longbow from scratch using traditional tools we have joined Spoonclub (Spooniversity) run by Tony Saunders of Ynot Coppice where we have been making various spoons (CumbrianRambler makes spoons) It has been fun to work with wood and interesting learning traditional techniques and tools such as a shave horse, drawknife and spokeshave.

From axing to draw kniving to spoke shaving to tillering all in the fabulous gardens of Greystoke quirky cafe

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Another glorious day whittling away in the woods, this time tent pegs for an Agincourt re-enactment. In October it will the 600th anniversary of the battle of Agincourt and my pegs will be there in French soil. Once I finished carving them with a drawknife I tested one out, it works! Though being chunky they probably also could be hurled at the French. Fetche la vache!

It works, next stop Agincourt battlefield!

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New tool: Pole lathe & treadle
New location: This time from the garden at Leighton Moss.
Difficulty: Foot-hand co-ordination with added public!

I was looking forward to helping out with carving and in Leighton Moss too so what's not to love. It took me a while to realise I was probably going to have an audience especially being a sunny Sunday at the beginning of half term. First time on a lathe so no pressure...

First off Tony had to make another Oak Dragonfly for the wildlife garden then on to a rounders bat for the nephews. It's a clever piece of Viking invention the pole lathe and treadle. Cord is attached to the treadle (foot pump) wrapped around the piece of wood and to a flexible hazel pole in the ground or in our case a bungee cord (a fine 20th century invention). As you press down on the treadle, the cord rotates the wood allowing you to use gouges to shape the wood.

Many folk stopped to watch which really didn't put me off my rhythm honest, not that I had any to begin with. It certainly was a work out for the legs but being up the fells a lot I didn't find that an issue. The issue was more of a mental workout. I was quite surprised how much co-ordination you needed to pump with one leg, moving the gouge towards and away from the wood all while also moving it in an even horizontal plane. "Foot down gouge out, foot up gouge in. Foot down gouge out, foot up gouge in..." I was thinking to myself.

I think it showed as a couple of the female spectators commented on men's multi-tasking and rhythm. Not sure if it was a subtle dig at me but to be fair in my case it was true.

I love the smell of Oak tannins in the morning

Splitting Oak isn't easy with the wrong tools

The natural twist in this Sycamore makes for bouncy pole lathing

Drawknifed smooth and mounted into the lathe

Tony's creation taking shape

to this fine Dragonfly

My rounders bat for the nephews taking shape

Tony's other creations

My 214 ramblings will continue...

It's a Fairfield to St Sunday Crag

Hartsop Above How – Dove Crag – Hart Crag – Fairfield – St Sunday Crag – Birks

10.3 miles

1st July

I parked at Brothers water where my first fell waited above, Hartsop Above How.  When paths shown on the map randomly start and stop in the middle there’s got to be a beginning and an end, an entrance and exit, even with sheep paths, unless farmers are now using the RAF planes to parachute them in. There was indeed a path.

A couple of Ravens where having a bun fight; not lunchtime yet so it wasn’t my bun but to be honest if they wanted it I’m not going to argue with them, they’re massive and so are their beaks.  I got to the tree line just to miss a pair of small fast metal birds whizz passed. As I made my way up the slope to Gale crag I stopped to take a photo when some larger slower metal birds glided over Kirkstone Pass and low over Ullswater. You want aerobatics we’ll show you aerobatics croaked the Ravens.

I made my way along the long flat summit of Hartsop above How, taking a moment on Dick’s seat, he wasn’t using it so I’m sure he wouldn’t have minded. As the summit began to fall away I stopped to view my route ahead and looked for the Priest’s Hole which is a cave in the crags of Dove Crag. So far it has be a dry warm year luckily this enables you to pass the peaty bog spots with ease and remain dry.

Hartsop ridge with Dove Crag to the left and Hart Crag / Fairfield on the right

Dove Crag and Priest's hole from Hartsop

The ridge continued up to Hart Crag but I took a detour down and across to the base of the crags of Dove Crag. You can’t see the cave from the main path that passes down to Dovedale but a small discreet path scrambles up towards it.

Zoomed right in from Hartsop

Priest’s Hole is a small narrow cut in the rocks and probably popular with the wild camping crowd. Evidence of cooking utensils, food packets and bedding lay at the back of the cave. After several attempts to get a widescreen shot of me in the cave a couple of sheep went flying over, I’m amazed at their agility clearly something or someone had startled them. It was indeed a group of guys taking an ‘interesting’ approach to the cave.  With lots of branches attached to one of their rucksacks I would say they were going to camp the night with a fire and I suspect a 6-pack or two.

I have always wondered what the wild camping etiquette is if someone has already set up camp in the remote area you wanted to camp in, do you ignore and squeeze in, pitch near by or go elsewhere?  Does it fall under the bothy social code. And when does the idea of solitude wild camping become a gathering. Imagine you planned a nice quiet evening to watch the stars and get up early to photograph the sun rise, would you appreciate the noisy late night or expect a few free beers and join in.

Lamb taking it easy in the afternoon sun

Looking towards Fairfield

I made my way up on to Dove Crag then carried on up to Hart Crag, passed the head of the valley, Rydal Head where Rydal Beck cascades down the valley into waterfalls above Rydal Mount. Reaching the highest point of the day, Fairfield summit you are able to look down the Grisedale valley and Grisedale tarn. A family had pitched a couple of tents next to the tarn, it looked really inviting, must do that one day.

Grisedale Tarn

Cofa Pike and St Sunday Crag

Coming off Fairfield, with Seat Sandal all on its own behind the tarn

I looked across to Seat Sandal and took a moment to consider “nipping over there”. It's kind of on it's own so it might end up being done on a seperate hike. It looked too much of a down and up then a return around Fairfield and with the evening sun approaching I decided against it. I shall consider it again when I’m on Dollywagon Pike after having done the Helvellyn ridge.

On to St Sunday Crag; dropping over the rocky outcrop of Cofa Pike down to Deepdale Hause is around a 100m descent and ascent on to St Sunday Crag. The south shore of Ullswater reveals itself as you walk to the end of it's flat ridge. It was now 9pm and the evening sun gave the grassy slopes of Birks a golden glow.

Sunset over the grassy slopes of Birks 

There were no paths marked to Arnison Crag and as the sun was already setting I wasn’t going to try to find a way through moor and crag to get to it, even though again this would leave it out on it's own. As I dropped down the steep path behind Patterdale it had turned dark so donning the head torch I marched the 2 mile walk down the road back to the car.

Walla Crag

Walla Crag – Bleaberry fell

3.7 miles

I had a disagreement with some food last night and was feeling quite ill. It wanted to stay at home but that wasn’t going to stop me from getting out into the sun. So after performing some peristaltic pyrotechnics I headed off to Keswick.

Turns out it was probably right to stay at home. It was too hot. Too hot to deal with a stroppy stomach at least.

It was only going to be a fairly short walk of Walla Crag, Bleaberry fell and High Seat so up I rambled up from the NT car park below Walla Crag and followed Cat gill to the top. The south east shore of Derwent reminded me of the Alpines and sort of has an Indonesian islands look where forested cliffs drop straight into the water.  

Felt like many Med hikes I’ve been on

 The main path takes you up along the right hand side of a wall and hides the views all the way till you reach Walla Crag. This is a good thing because the Derwent and Keswick panorama explodes out in front of you as you step up onto the crag; though here is stile lower down in the woods that allows you to pop your head out for a sneaky peek.  

Derwent Water and Bassenthwaite lake

I stopped to replenish my strength and watched the cruise boats below and army aircraft fly by. You can see the whole of Keswick below you and you realise it is actually quite small and must have a planning convenant that all buildings be white.

Keswick with Skiddaw 

After a lengthy rest I headed off to Bleaberry fell which is a prominent mound on its own.  I promptly lost all my strength; boggy moorland does that. Luckily there was a path for a short distance as you approach the base and steps all the way up to the summit. Half way there was a rock that was smoothed perfectly as a seat with back rest so I put it to good use.

Bleaberry fell

Skiddaw and Blencathra

I turned my attention to the next peak, High Seat. I looked at the map, it was only 1mile away but I knew from previous walks the paths are not as clear as the map suggests and that it was all boggy moorland. I was too worn out for boggy moorland and a 3.5mile round return so returned my gaze to the Skiddaw and Blencathra view and guzzled all my drink I was desperate for.

I did notice though the words ‘Threefooted Brandreth’ near High Seat and remembered writing some weird blog about bears and yetis when I approached this area from Thirlmere. Looks like they were from a threefooted Brandreth...