Summer Bushcraft Courses

The day long family Bushcraft courses that we will be runing from next week through the summer holidays have been really popular, with only a few spaces left on the 25th August. We shall be running one in the autumn too , dates to be confirmed.

We have added a Cornish Lobster Pot making course with Dave Drew to our autumn programme (17th Oct). Even if you don' live near the sea , have no boat and no possible chance of using the lobster pot they are beautiful objects that capture the spirit of a not so distant past where we were more capable at living with just the natural resources at our fingertips.The skills learnt on this course can be adapted to make other items, but the pot in itself is a wonderful piece of real craft.

The Berry Picking Basket making course on the 5th September coincides with the backberry, sloe and other wild fruits season. It is a day long course and is a very good introduction to basket making.

Both courses cost £35.

welcome

She is by no means unique in the UK and though she has been here for over three years now it is still a strange sight to open your yurt door in the morning and see a wallaby looking back at you.

Last year she was joined by a male who stayed around until christmas until disappearing ... the joey was born early this year and has only just outgrown its mothers pouch. The male is back on the scene after all the hard work has been done and no doubt has plans to extend his family further.

A previous "wild" wallaby was shot several years ago with a tranquiliser and was unintentionally killed. The wallaby that is here now was almost captured two years ago in front of local news cameras, before the attempt was aborted. For the time being they remain largely unbothered by people, but as their population grows and their collective appetite increases, I wonder what future they will have.

It will be interesting to follow the story of the Loch Lomond wallabies, introduced onto the island of Inschconachan in the 1940's and now numbering over 60 and threatening native species by eating all the vegetation.There is serious talk of a cull which will rival the Hebridean hedgehog cull for controversy.

But we are some years from that dilemma here at the moment with only two and a bit wallabies; we can just watch with wonder as a joey half the size of its mother tries to clamber back into her pouch .