Reflecting on the Year to DateReflecting on the Year to Date

As the nights draw in at some of their fastest rates 3 minutes and 53 seconds shorter today in London. We take a moment to pause and look back on what we have achieved so far this year.

Spring time saw the need for adaptability and change management as we found out that contractors were doing an unannounced woodland thin. This has left the woodland much healthier overall, allowing much more light onto the forest floor and created a late summer explosion of plants. Over 90 different plant species were recorded in a few hours survey in September! It is incredible what nature achieves on freshly churned soil. 

 

Despite this and some courses being postponed we ran a number of very successful Spring and Late Spring Foraging courses. With the help of friends family and hired machinery we transported all the kit into the woods, and the support of neighbouring land users were able to adapt the route into the woods, enabling the courses to go ahead as planned. Most importantly for us we were still able to share our knowledge and enthusiasm for all things wild and edible, creating a wonderful array of fine food from the gathered plants. 

Roll on summer and we ran a number of our ever popular weekend bushcraft courses, introduced a number of families to the delights of bushcraft, hosted a number of private events in the woods, both of our advertised courses and bespoke corporate events, including an escape room for a Casio Watch product launch. We helped hone a number of fire starters on our firelighting masterclass, and changed perceptions of what is possible to interpret on our track and sign course. Talking of changing perceptions we smashed one ladies perception of what she would achieve on our progressive basket weaving course, creating four wonderful baskets and platters over the six sessions. 

 

Lizzy gave a very well received talk on the main stage at the Bushcraft Show, and demonstrated a range of skills and crafts to people over the weekend. At the Wilderness Gathering her natural inks workshop was once again spilling out of the tent at the seams and again there were multiple opportunities to have a go and try a range of skills and crafts. In July Lizzy went to Albania for a recci developing a course to study the flora, of which a huge amount overlaps with our British flora and also the numerous heritage crafts which were kept very much alive during the communist era. More information on this later, if you want advanced notice please reply to this email.

September saw a very busy start to the month, foraging was the major theme, with both autumn days and two day preserving courses we also ran a private course in our Brecon Beacons Woodland for the Adventure Queens Group. Before taking a short break from running courses to do some CPD and explore some hidden gems across the UK.

 

Thank you to everyone who has joined us so far. Every course we run and every person we teach really feels like a privilege, sharing and developing this knowledge, widening the appreciation of our natural and wild spaces and enabling people to achieve what they felt was impossible is why I set up Pippin & Gile so you really our its life blood. Thank you again.