LEAF Project Channel

A few changes to the design of the LEAF channel and a new trailer video.

Moved to Dorset

Moved from Hampshire to Dorset last night. In a nice area covered in trees, mostly pines, which gives the road its name of Pinehurst I believe. The place has an almost Scottish vibe, what with the conifers and place names such as Pinehurst, Westmoors and Ferndown. Many new places to explore, such as the New Forest, Holt Heath National Nature Reserve, Moors Valley Countrypark, etc.

View from my window

In the garden

Return to Scotland (15th-18th)

Day 1

Flight to Scotland

Over Scotland's blue mountains

Eilean Donan Castle at night

Day 2

Dunollie Hotel and Broadford Bay

View of Loch Hourn and Beinn Sgritheall (left of screen) on the Kinloch Forest/Leiter Fura trail in the south of Skye

Walk to Leiter Fura historic township in the sunshine

The Cuillin

Inside Dun Beag and The Cuillin range from afar 

Dun Beag Iron Age Broch

The Storr and Old Man of Storr

Waterfall and Stream

Mealt Falls and Kilt Rock

Day 3

Kenmore Club in Autumn

Loch Tay Crannog Centre (closed)

The Falls of Dochart in Beautiful Killin

Inverness at Night

New Project: L.E.A.F

I've decided to start a small project.

The Landscapes and Environmental Ambient Field-Recordings project celebrates the aesthetic details large and small and the myriad sounds of the natural world. LEAF at its core is devoted to atmosphere, ambience and appreciation of the quiet observation. From the chilling tundra winds to bubbling woodland streams to the chattering of busy townsfolk, this channel explores the often ignored sounds of the natural world. From a visual perspective, LEAF tries to capture the aesthetic details of the natural and “digital world" to create a deep sense of immersion.

Sparsholt College

Started Sparsholt Level 3 Diploma in Conservation and Wildlife Management.

*Sparsholt College.Week 2 - Ditch clearance at Mottisfont woods as part of the Estate Skills unit. Two weeks in and already gaining more valuable experience in great places (19th September)*

23rd September: Three weeks into Sparsholt Conservation and Wildlife Management course and thoroughly enjoying it. It balances valuable practical work with quite rigorous theory in places.

Secrets of the Heath Day 2

Day 2. The last day of the event was great, with much improved weather, but the start of the day was particularly good because I got to listen to Will Lord speak for about 15 minutes just before the Heath event started. At the end he rather generously gave me the top quality arrowhead he made in that time to me. When everyone else had left I of course expressed my gratitude and thanked him for the talk, which was about much more than just flint knapping, but perception of prehistoric reenactors, hunting, understanding nature, primitive man and more. Day 2 was much the same as the first, though I done a lot more paddling in the Eurybia. I did take some time out to go and see the Amphibian and Reptile conservation area and had a chat with a few of the volunteers there. I held a toad and slow worm. I wanted to hold the grass snake, but I didn't have time. So that's the Secrets of the Heath event over. It was an incredible two days.

Secrets of the Heath Day 1

I'm back from day one of the Petersfield Heath Secrets of the Heath event. And what an incredibly eventful day it was. Where to begin? I'll try my best to summarise the day and choose a few choice photographs after.

Turning up at the event an hour early, I helped sort out our Buster Ancient Farm stall and checked up on the Eurybia boat before it went on its first launch of the day. During this time, Will Lord came to visit us from his stall. It was decided that Ryan Watts, the lead builder of the Eurybia, dressed in full "Stone Age" clothing, would have a picture taken with Will in the boat. It was somewhat surreal, it has to be said, in that Will Lord paddled in a boat which I helped make. We spoke for a bit after said photographs were taken. Very much in the vein of Mears, Lord is down to earth and a pleasure to talk to. The rest of the day was somewhat fragmented, as I mostly spent it talking to customers and wandering around stalls and enjoying the atmosphere. At one point I walked with a friend and volunteer through the Heath Bronze Age barrows. Soon there came a more active point when I was paddling the boat a fair bit for the public which was nice.

After the event, around 5:30, we packed up and most of us went back to the Farm to celebrate. An Iron Age weekend was going on at Butser during the SotH, but by the time we got back to the Farm most of the reenactors had left or were hiding, so I didn't speak to many of them. I didn't stay long, but the barbecue was great and there were a couple of speeches of thanks to the boat builders and the Heath helpers. All in all, a very very eventful and exciting day.

I hope you all enjoyed the write up. Cheers.

On the Value of Work and Experience

As I sat in my sleeping bag in the roundhouse, I began to think about the value of volunteering and gaining experience in general. If you volunteer doing something you enjoy, you'll find eventually that time goes by really fast and you notice changes in yourself. That's been the case for me. Mostly I've been volunteering at the Farm, and I view the place very differently from when I first arrived on the 14th Novemeber, on my 20th Birthday. I now know the volunteers quite well and have had many great times. I have also volunteered at Queen Elizabeth Country Park, but I view that as more of an extension of other conservation voluntary work I've done before. Although I want to work in conservation, Butser is more unique in many respects, so I'll
use my work there as the primary example.

Experience to me is an interesting thing, because I never had much at all before joining these several voluntary groups, in Scotland and England. I believe I've said it before, but volunteering really is one of the great values in life, I think. It gives you experience in life, in the practical, theoretical and it all builds up. It also gives a better work ethic and lasting connections.

It's not just about volunteering though, in everything one does there's experience to be gained. I'm somewhat obsessed with not allowing my self to stagnate too much these days. I do have bouts of laziness, but I am at least concious of it, and that's what matters. I feel better when I've done hard work or have read something new. Everything I do now so different from my earlier years that I really see no value whatsoever in those days. Only in the last few years has there been any sort of improvement, and I'd say I've really thrown myself into having new experiences. You can't grow as a person and mature if you just don't do things. I just wish I had the sense to start doing work like this and developing my interests at an earlier age. I really didn't think I'd be working on a Mesolithic boat or sleeping in roundhouses just a few years ago. It's easy to write that, but you won't understand the full extent of why that's such an important realisation. It's because I did such vastly different work when I was younger. I mainly dwelt in the digital realm and although I worked hard, it's just such a contrast that I can never fully comprehend. Becoming interested in nature and the countryside was a colossal turning point in my life, and I dread to think what I'd be doing if I didn't take those first steps.

So volunteer, do new things and meet new, like-minded people. If, like me, you found it hard at first, I urge you to try it. You won't regret it. In the case of volunteering, you will be able to say you've lead a good life, doing good work for free. And on gaining experience in general, don't be afraid to jump in and just do things, visit interesting places, and learn and observe.You'll eventually find that the days will roll by and you'll find yourself moulded and changed by the experiences you've had.

Cartography - Sarturus (Ulthui) Map Progress

Hello. It's a cartography article today. The video below shows the current progress on my world project, with most of the first continent, Ulthui, complete. The video aims to give a broad overview of the regions and inhabitants of Ulthui, and the lore behind Sarturus.

I hope you enjoyed watching.

Eurybia Boat Build at Butser Ancient Farm

Since the 16th I've been back at Butser Ancient Farm. I heard about a new boat build project and was really eager to contribute in any way I could because I missed the last build as I joined the team after it was finished. This logboat, the Eurybia, is Mesolithic instead of bronze-age. Photos of the boat build and the Mesolithic enclosure surrounding it can be found here:

http://taylorhood93.imgur.com/all

http://www.theeurybiaproject.blogspot.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/theeurybiaproject?ref=stream
https://twitter.com/EurybiaProject

Youtube Channel Updates & Book Review

I've been working on organizing my Youtube channel as I'm going to be producing more videos. I'll be making cartography videos primarily, but also general videos related to nature will become more frequent. Here I discuss the organization of my channel:

And here is the newest video, a book review for the Natural History of the British Isles:

Volunteering Photo Albums

I've been organizing and upgrading my Imgur account for presenting my volunteer work after an earlier mishap. I had to reupload all of the Butser Ancient Farm photos again which took a long time, but I've actually been a bit less selective so there are quite a lot of new photos that weren't included the first time.

I mentioned I was going to attend Queen Elizabeth Country Park sessions over the summer. I've been to two sessions, one on the 17th June and the other on the 22nd. So far it's been quite nice. On the first sessions I did litter picking, monitoring flowers, dismantling kids' shelters (hazard), helping make some make-shift xylophones from hazel and went on a long tour of the Park. The second session was devoted to Butterfly and Adder monitoring.

You can see these and my older volunteering photos here now:

QUEEN ELIZABETH COUNTRY PARK:

https://imgur.com/a/Dfgql#0

BUTSER ANCIENT FARM:

https://imgur.com/a/CwcYs#0

YELLOWCRAIG COUNTRYSIDE RANGER SERVICE:

https://imgur.com/a/xSALK#0

BCUK Member's Leatherworking Kit Gift

I was lucky enough to be contacted by a member of the Bushcraft UK forum and he's supplied me with everything I need to get started in leather crafts.

- Taylor 

13th June Update: Crafts, Volunteering and College

Another archive video recording what I've been doing over the past few weeks and what I'll be doing in the future.

Thanks for watching.

Queen Elizabeth Country Park Volunteering

I've just been for a chat with one of the rangers at Queen Elizabeth Country Park and was shown around the facilities. Previous voluntary experience certainly pays off. It helps to have a fair amount of experience as things become more familiar and one better understands the processes of certain groups and the work that takes place. It used to be a case of having to label myself a novice from the outset, but as time goes by one certainly feels more accustomed to certain circles in which one's interested. In other words, it went quite well and I'll be volunteering at the Park over the summer as a precursor to Sparsholt to keep me from going rusty.

All this is to say that I would thoroughly recommend volunteering to anyone. If you have no experience whatsoever, well, that's what volunteering is for. You can show up on site and you're guaranteed to learn valuable skills and meet new people.

I'd be interested in hearing others' experiences in volunteer groups, mainly from a countryside perspective. It's something that fills my life now and without volunteering opportunities such as East Lothian Countryside Ranger Service and Butser Ancient Farm, I wouldn't have had access to such knowledge people. My acquisition of practical skills and knowledge largely revolves around volunteering so I couldn't do without it. It's a big part of my livelihood. This new volunteer group will be another chapter in my volunteering life, I suppose you could say.

For people with the right mindset, money means nothing. Working for free is valuable and you should try it.

Thanks.




Taylor.

First Wooden Cup/"Kuksa"

Hello, readers. I'm very proud to present my first wooden cup or "kuksa". I'd like to thank Jon from http://www.jonsbushcraft.com/ for providing a great tutorial on how to carve it. I followed his tutorial but chose a different handle style and made the triangular point at the back my own.

This is a tooled finish project all around, except for the inner bowl, which is sanded, as I found it a bit difficult to neaten it up with the spoon knife. I think this hybrid style looks and feels quite unique actually. I'm very happy with how this came out for my first ever cup and it looks rather nice, I think. 

I hope you like it.

Thanks.

Taylor. 

Hollybank Woods Overnight & Cup Carving

Hello, everyone. Here's a video for my latest overnight trip out with my brother. The main event planned was my next woodcarving project, a drinking cup. It was a pleasant experience carving in the woods and the attempt went rather well and I got more of it carved than I'd hoped. This cup is the most substantial thing I've yet carved. The only downside is the edge of my axe blade has quite a few nicks now, but it still cuts alright. It mustn't have been sharpened very well in the end, however I remember when I sharpened it the edge wasn't too bad. It must have lost the edge quickly upon use. Strange.

I'm still getting the hang of camp cooking, but bigger logs mean less trampling about for more fuel and a more sustainable fire, that I now know. It all went quite smoothly and we left no trace, of course. These videos are always tricky to make as I need to condense quite a lot of footage down to a few minutes, so I hope you enjoy watching it.

Thank you.

Summer Reading.

I've just purchased these books on natural history and physical geography. I'll be reading them over the Summer in preparation for my course and to personally further what I already understand about these subjects.

TH.

Sparsholt Level 3 Diploma (21st May)

I've visited Sparsholt yesterday for the presentation and interview day. Sparsholt seems like a nice college and the lecturers are very knowledgeable. My individual interview went very well and I was offered an unconditional place on the Level 3 Diploma for Conservation and Wildlife Management. In the coming months I may try to contact a few local countryside volunteer groups to add to my experience. Now that I've been accepted into the course, I feel somewhat validated because everything I now learn goes toward my success in the course and it's not just for personal satisfaction.

Thanks for reading.

Here's to the World of Warcraft.

I first started playing World of Warcraft in late 2006. When you experience something like the World of Warcraft for so long you develop a connection to it. Although I officially quit the game in the Mists of Pandaria expansion last year my connection to the world itself is such that I can't bring myself to throw away the game, as it were. I'm not done with it and I'm not sure I'll ever be. Indeed, I don't think of World of Warcraft as a game any more, more a sort of virtual experience that allows me to explore regions of a uniquely beautiful fantasy world. I no longer play the game, I experience the world, I say. And no matter how many times I venture into a zone I find it doesn't get stale. Everything about the World of Warcraft is timeless. From the musical to the aesthetic aspects, Azeroth and Outland's regions are endlessly fascinating and, for me, deeply nostalgic and emotive.

I can imagine it's quite hard to comprehend just how large this virtual world is if you've never experienced it. In February I made a video series titled “The Beauty of Azeroth and Outland”, which showcased most of the regions in the game world. However I feel I should talk more about these virtual places from a personal perspective.

Although I don't have the greatest amount of knowledge when it comes to Warcraft's lore, I find myself constantly enamoured and fascinated by the natural worlds of Azeroth and Outland, its flora and fauna. I have a stronger connection to the lore, the history behind a fantasy world such as Tolkien's Arda, but it's this interaction and advantage of being able to experience the World of Warcraft first-hand that's appealing. You can walk through the land, hearing the birds call and seeing its inhabitants thrive in their natural environment. For such an archaic game engine, World of Warcraft delivers an incredibly immersive virtual experience that really hasn't been rivaled by any other game of its kind. I think that's indicative of the amount of care and attention to detail that has been put into the world.

Each region is so unique and has its own atmosphere. The world itself is so well constructed that everything flows seamlessly together. A lot has changed over the years, indeed the lands themselves have been shaped and reshaped, but with each new iteration I find I'm always eager to see what Blizzard, the developers of the game, have to offer in terms of natural sights and sounds. Whenever they add a new land, or even a new continent, it feels like they're building upon the foundations of a world that I've been lucky enough to explore. I may have been very young when I first stepped into the World of Warcraft, but I don't regret spending as much time as I did exploring every facet of it. 

Although the World of Warcraft can never replace the real world's beauty and scale due to its limitations as a simple computer game, I find myself constantly drawn back to it as a source of inspiration and comfort. World of Warcraft is essentially a heightened version of the real world, and it's World of Warcraft that changed my outlook on life. I wanted to experience the World of Warcraft in real life, as it were. I wanted to walk through the forests of Teldrassil and climb the snowy peaks of Dun Morogh. The game world motivated me to go out and experience nature and for that I'm genuinely grateful.

It's World of Warcraft that has made me who I am today. Despite the fact that I've “outgrown” computer games, I'll always appreciate and value the creative elements that go into making the world feel alive. So here's to the creative team at Blizzard. Here's to every ambient footstep, bird call and NPC dialogue line. Here's to World of Warcraft. 

Beltain 2014

My brother and I had a great time at the festival of Beltain yesterday. We especially enjoyed the Living History training sessions and the ancient music demonstrations. Here are some photos of the event. Apologies for the poor quality of some of them. They're actually screenshots of videos. We seem to have taken more videos of the demonstrations than photos.

And here is our video of the burning of the Wickerman, with music added for greater effect.

Thanks for watching. 

Working for the Land

Due to demand for more blog activity, here's an article of my thoughts on past and future skills and possible career aspirations.

Even if I can't become a conservationist or park ranger, for whatever reason, I know that what I want to do, even if not in a professional setting, will in some way be related to the land. It's hard to describe how much I'm interested in geography, conservation, ecology and history now. “Natural history”, essentially. It's a shame I didn't take any related subjects in school. The only chance of my being accepted into college for a course in conservation is to utilise my previous and current voluntary work in Scotland and England. Even if I can't climb that ladder I know that I'll spend my life trying to better the land in some way, no matter how minute those changes might be.

I've heard so many times that a certain field is “so competitive,” or that I “need qualifications and lots of experience.” Well, yes, I know this. The same applies to the plethora of technological fields about which I spent most of my teenage years learning. 3D modelling, for example, which was essentially architecture mixed with artistry on a computer screen. From memory I can recall how to “bake normals and apply specular and diffuse texture maps to a 3D base mesh” and explain what “sub-surface and ambient occlusion rendering” is. I was also interested in game, level and web design, stop motion and 3D animation, video editing, and general computer tech support. I've thought about maybe applying that technical background to a more natural area of work and perhaps finding out about “geophys” or some sort of computer mapping, although I doubt I have the requisite technical knowledge or skill for this.

It's hard to describe how much one's mindset can change over time. I genuinely didn't think three years ago that I'd be working at an ancient farm in England and have a decent amount of countryside experience under my belt. For the vast majority of my life I was obsessed with technology. I think there was a time when I didn't know a single species of tree. Well, I probably did, but what reason would I have for knowing or caring about trees then? And even worse, there was a time I must admit that I was almost completely oblivious to the stunning scenery in my old back garden, in Scotland. You wake up every day and get on with living in a small town and have no interest or need to know about other parts of the world, even your own country. It's an alien mindset to me now, thankfully.

In many ways I find just the layout of the land, nature's aesthetic qualities and the history behind how it all came to be formed over millions of years far more interesting than human history. I've spoken a bit about this in one of my vlogs a while ago. From looking at nature from an aesthetic and artistic point of view to reading in an effort to build upon my small foundations with more and more scientific knowledge, everything I do now is in some way related to understanding and experiencing nature. So whatever happens, I'll probably end up doing something to help better the land itself. I'm fine with volunteering for the rest of my life, as long as it helps in some way.It's all experience I never thought I'd have. You have to be humble about these things.

New carving & Beltain Festival

A new carving based on the tower of Barad-dur, the dark tower from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. It's still to be neatened up and oiled and it will probably left as a tooled finish. I still have to get the hang of carving though as I had a fair few problems on this attempt. Some of the fundamentals aren't quite there yet I don't think. All good experience.

I'll be attending Beltain, the grandest festival of the year at Butser Ancient Farm. I figured since I've helped quite a bit in the preparation for the festival and the actual building of the Wicker Man, I'd go as a paying customer and just enjoy it. I'll post pictures of the day afterward.

Edit:

And here's the finished version. I hope you all like it.
(19th May 2014)

Thanks for reading.

Stein Wood Solo Spring Camping (England Trip 2 - 19th April)

Hello everyone. I've made another little video for my recent (19th April) camping trip. I'm not sure if I'll make videos like this for every trip as they take a bit of work. I'm getting very comfortable with camping and find no problem solo camping, but I have a few concerns regarding the fire. I find that, whilst this fire had no problem with the amount of flame and heat it produced, it chewed up the fuel too quickly. I find I always run out of fuel very fast despite the fact I collect a lot of it. Maybe I just need to have a little bit more faith in the fire and be a bit more conservative with my refueling. Aside from the fire, there were no problems with this little trip and it all went rather smoothly. If anyone is wondering about the drawings, to pass the time I imagined fictional flora and gave them strange fantastical properties. I also made a simple pot hanger which worked nicely. I'll try and make a height adjustable system next time. I need to think of other projects to do in the woods to pass the time though, and I have a few things in mind, carving being the main one. If you have any ideas, I'd be happy to hear them.

Thank you for watching.

Havant Thicket Spring Camping (England Trip 1 - 12th April)

Hello everyone. I'd like to share with you a video I made of my first camping trip in this strange, increasingly warm but lovely rural part of the country called England. We went to a nice secluded spot at Havant Thicket. Joining me for company was my brother. This was his first camping trip and he enjoyed it very much. As for observing nature on this trip, when we were walking to locate our camping spot we saw two young deer leaping through the trees. That was very a great albeit brief moment. But what was really quite special, even though it only happened for a few minutes as well, we were visited by (and I'm going to get this wrong) two pheasants that came waddling down the slope. I've included the best video I could capture of what appears to be their performance of a courtship display. If anyone can identify what these might be that'd be great. It was nice to see buds opening and the young leaves making the woods green again too. In regard to Bushcraft the lighting of fires is no longer a problem at all, but I'm still working on fire maintenance. Cooking in the embers with the mess tins and making more elaborate meals was a nice change and it worked quite well. And, of course, as you can see at the end of the video I took extra care to scatter the ashes and hide it all away. A few hiccups here and there on this one day trip, but it was really good overall.

Thanks for watching.

Finding First Tracks

I was taking the dog on a nice two hour walk in the woods spotting squirrels, birds and the gradual oncoming of Spring when near the end I looked down at the muddy path and found these:

I instantly recognised them as deer prints. I'd never seen tracks before, but I'd seen similar shapes on the internet. I was astonished at how clear and well preserved they are. Being not well versed in tracking at all I could've just walked by them, but I'm glad I didn't.

Through analysis some trackers have confirmed these shapes belong to a Roe deer, most probably, but I'm still waiting on some more interpretations of these tracks to be sure. I need to remind myself next time I spot tracks to make a size comparison and take more than one photo for easier identification.

I didn't expect to see my first animal tracks today and they've certainly inspired me to read more about the subject.

Vlog 3/4/14- Crafts, Camping & Butser Ancient Farm

Butser Ancient Farm Imgur Album

Just a reminder that I update my Butser album on Imgur every week. They are just quick snapshots of the type of work we're doing at the farm.

http://dorthonion.imgur.com/all/

Elder Whistle

Hello. I've just spent this very sunny afternoon making my first whistle made from Elder. I managed to find a piece of dead standing wood with a suitable pith, so no trees were harmed in the making of this doodad. 

Here's a collage of progress and final product photos. 

It looked pretty scruffy at first, but sanding really made it look quite neat. 

It's a fairly simple craft project, but very fun. You can see from the photos that I hollowed out the pith, cut a notch into the wood, inserted a stick with a flattened surface to create the air passage in the mouth end, and then plugged the other end with another bit of wood so that it's air tight. It probably doesn't need explaining, but when you blow through the mouth end the air is vented through the small passage and having no where to go but up comes out of the notch and thus a high pitched sound is produced.

It works surprisingly well for a first attempt:

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1Ki3sKQSGNO

The Beauty of Azeroth & Outland

I've played World of Warcraft since 2006 and what always brings me back is the world itself. In this series of videos I showcase the the beauty, diversity and scale of the worlds of Azeroth and Outland by cataloguing every major region of each continent.

Kalimdor

Eastern Kingdoms

Northrend

Pandaria

Outland

Observing Bronze Casting at Butser Ancient Farm (5th Feb)

Whilst volunteering and performing general maintenance at the farm as always, the resident bronze caster decided to show us some casting as the "tech shelter" was finally cleaned and had lights installed. I only helped sort the equipment out and prepare the mould. James runs casting courses at Butser, but volunteers got to observe the process for free on Wednesday. I think for volunteers there may be a chance to make something for free, but I won't personally be bronze casting as I have a strict structure and I find following my "don't run before you can walk" method to be effective learning. That is to say I'm just starting in crafts with woodwork, so I don't think I should be metal working yet and trying to make a bronze axe head as it's a very complex and masterful process it seems. It's not that I don't appreciate the opportunity, it's more to do with mentality, level of experience and the learning method I described. Despite that, it was very exciting to observe it.

If any Bushcrafters from Hampshire want to come down to Butser of a Wednesday, I'll be there. It's great fun and a valuable experience, even if volunteering mostly consists of wood stacking, path levelling, stock replenishment and other farm type jobs.

More photos can be seen at the Farm's Facebook page. I'm the one with the most hair.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2050...2043103798964/

Thanks for reading.