jonnybaker

a place of discovery

it was very exciting to find goshawks nesting in our wood (at least we are pretty sure that's what the nest is). certainly there are a lot of goshawk calls which are very distinctive and large birds of prey that fit the description.

we also prayed that the tipi would be a wonderful and blessed space using the words of john o donahue in for a nw home from his book benedictus. i hope he wouldn't mind me posting the blessing here 

May this house shelter your life.
When you come home here,
May all the weight of the world
Fall from your shoulders.

May your heart be tranquil here,
Blessed by peace the world cannot give.

May this home be a lucky place,
Where the graces your life desires
Always find the pathway to your door.

May nothing destructive
Ever cross your threshold.

May this be a safe place
Full of understanding and acceptance,
Where you can be as you are,
Without the need of any mask
Of pretense or image.

May this home be a place of discovery,
Where the possibilities that sleep
In the clay of your soul can emerge
To deepen and refine your vision
For all that is yet to come to birth.

May it be a house of courage,
Where healing and growth are loved,
Where dignity and forgiveness prevail;
A home where patience of spirit is prized,
And the sight of the destination is never lost
Though the journey be difficult and slow.
May there be great delight around this hearth.
May it be a house of welcome
For the broken and diminished.

May you have the eyes to see
That no visitor arrives without a gift
And no guest leaves without a blessing.

there are so many beautiful ideas and phrases. and indeed it became a place of discovery this weekend as we saw the goshawk fly through the woods around the nest almost directly in view from the tipi entrance. 

hope

first fire

made a fire place in the tipi today which made it feel really magical - this is the first fire. the smoke seemed to rise and go out of the smoke flaps too which was a result! i originally made the poles too long so cut them down to 25 feet. this meant i had some nioce pieces of wood that i have used to create an edge and hold the floor on the liner - it also looks cool...

tipi build

had a lot of fun yesterday building a tipi for prospect wood. over 18 months we have gradually cut and peeled 17 25 ft poles for it. i watched a few youtube videos and with instructions in hand we managed to get it done. it looks quite magical. it was a perfect day for it. this photo album shows stages of the process though i haven't yet taken any of the inside and we have yet to build a fire and make it cosy.

teepee poles done!

excited to say that i now have 17 poles that we have cut, peeled with a draw knife and painted with a bit of danish oil to protect them a bit. they are 9m long which is pretty big! next step is getting a canvas ordered... the company i thought i was getting it from stopped trading but apparently may be sold so we shall see. watch this space... 

woodland ecosystem + church mixed ecology

the church of england vision has mixed ecology at its heart which i really like - it's a rich evocative metaphor. i was invited to write a blog post for the church of england on that idea. i have learned a lot about ecosystems over the last three years through managing a piece of woodland. so perhaps inevitably that's where my thinking went. have a read - what i learned about church as an ecosystem by looking after a woodland

i first had this idea and develop it in imaging mission with john taylor. i think that chapter might be my favourite thing i have ever written.

aerial a1 tent

about a year ago i backed a kickstarter. it took a while due to various lockdown challenges but finally the aerial a1 tent from opeongo.camp arrived. it suspends between two trees and whilst it looks hammock like it has two straps which mean it is very stable by comparison. it happened to be the coldest night for a long time so was glad i had got the underquilt with it! it's perfect for prospect wood as we have so many straight conifers and not a lot of flat floor space that is bramble free.

2021 starts with a swing!

yes literally! the first day of the year was spent at the wood and the latest addition to go with the pirate ship is a swing for the grandkids (though as you can see it is adult friendly too!). it seems to have worked quite well - i decided to use hammock straps to suspend it. so far so good...

our friends have got an owl nesting box so we hope that owls like ot and come to nest there this year which would be exciting.

and latest wooodland toy is a char cloth tin which was fun to try out - it makes char cloth from cotton to use as firestarters in case you wondered.

perfect way to start the year - just hoping that we can share it with more people later this year...

the flag is raised

so the pirate ship in the wood has now got a flag so it's definitely a pirate ship! apparently there are lots of different pirate flags and this is the flag for jack rackham also known as calico jack. jen chose it i suspect because he was famous for having women pirates as part of his crew.

pirate ship

well today i have a granddaughter who is 5! don't know how that happened. over the summer i made a play area in the woods for the granddaughters and nephew which they have decided is a pirate ship... happy birthday flo!

fire log

Fire log from jonny baker on Vimeo.

this weekend we celebrated two years of prospect wood. it's been a crazy adventure and we have learned a whole load of new skills in the process. it's been a beautiful space to be especially during coronavirus because it is so socially distanced. 

anyway for the celebration i wanted to try out my first ever swedish fire log. i first saw one at the big chill festival years ago and thought it was amazing. i won't try and explain it - just watch the video. i filmed it on the phone vertically which was probably a stupid idea but too late (though it looks alright on a phone if you enlarge it a bit)! but it worked an absolute treat and was so much fun. there'll be a lot more fire logs to come. it's dead easy - you should try it. the wood i used was norwegian spruce which is sparky and burns quickly and is what we have plenty of. i imagine it might be a bit slower getting it going with a hard wood but have no idea.

 

wye and wood

holiday this year was a bit of a challenge to work out what to do safely but also in a way that meant we could have a break other than sitting at home. so we opted to wild camp in the wood week one and then found a tucked out of the way place near hay on wye week two. it worked out really well and was all pretty socially distanced walking, wild swimming, canoeing and so on. i have added some photos here to an album wye and wood though they are not that much of a holiday set given half of them are me messing around with abstracts or reflections! i loved this reflection - it looks almost other wordly. i think a challenge for me would be to see if i could actually take what might be considered a holiday snap. 

solitude

compost loo for the woodland

i am happy to report the lockdown project of building a compost loo for the woodland is complete and turned out pretty well. i have never done anything quite like this so it was good fun, a relief it came together, and hugely satisfying! i am now just waiting for a bucket to arrive and then job done (did you see what i did there?!). 

blue carpet

light in the woods

good night

bluebell impression

so many people on instagram are loving bluebells and what is there not to love about the gorgeous blue carpet that appears in woodlands at this time of year. what is particularly special for me about it this year is that in september we bought a woodland and wondered whether bluebells were in the wood or not so it has been exciting to see the blue carpet emerge. having said that how do you take a great photo of bluebells especially that has some originality to it. my previous favourite attempt of mine is this one - bluebell vortex but i found myself messing around again to try and create something more abstract and painterly that shows off the colours. there's a couple of others on flickr too. woodland photos is going to be a thing as i am sure you have worked out!

prospect wood - the journey begins

it was a pretty exciting day today as for the first time jen and i visited prospect wood as joint owners with friends pete and julie. i hinted at this a while back which was when we had contacted the owners to say we'd like to buy it but it has finally gone through and we unlocked the gate for the first time today. for me this slightly leftfield venture began on a silent retreat when i can only say the idea of a woodland emerged out of the silence fully formed in my head. when i got back jen was very open to it, and subsequently we found out friends were also on a similar quest so teamed up together and way quicker than expected we find ourselves with 6 acres of woodland. it's in sussex and is peaceful, magical and beautiful. everyone i tell about it asks 'what are you going to do with it?' - we don't exactly know yet - it's an adventure to be explored but it will be woodland and we'll look after it. we hope it will become a special place for family and friends to hang out, share stories, light fires, camp, put hammocks in trees. we will have plenty of wood for woodburners! our friends run mindfulness courses and will take visitors to the wood but beyond that we'll see. you can see the kinds of things people do with small woods if you scout around this site. i am now a member of the small woods association!

i have started a category on the blog for woodland. i realise my bloggging is a bit sparse these days but i hope to record a few of our adventures and discoveries. and there will be photos galore no doubt in the prospect wood album on flickr. 

we wanted to mark today as a special day. whilst it poured with rain all morning by the time we got to the wood it was glorious sunshine. we felt we wanted to ask the wood to welcome us and had some words and reflections at the gate as we unlocked it, on the track up to the wood and at the edge of the wood itself. then we had the first fire, ribolita, bubbly, more reflections from basil the great, lord of the rings, and a poem (which i hope i'll get and add here). jen whittled a spoon and we all planted an acorn in soil as a sign of the future that might come from this seed of an idea which has already become a wonderful thing.

jen and i are going on a managing woodland course in october to get a bit more knowledge and experience and skills as we step into this new sideproject - fun times!

here are the words/reflections which were my contribution to today (along with sourdough). i have no idea what other people do to mark such occasions but this seemed fitting to us and it was magical afternoon and evening. i think magical is going to be a much used word when it comes to the wood.

 

At the gate…

The journey begins
We stand at the threshold of prospect wood
Ready to begin an adventure together

The journey begins
What began as a childhood dream
What emerged as an idea in the Presence of Silence

The journey begins
Pete, Jenny, Julie, Jonny - what a team
We can’t wait to see what unfolds

The journey begins
Our hearts are full of hope, joy and thanks
Our spirits are full of wonder and offering

The journey begins
We offer it to the one whose wood it is
We offer it with open hands to all family and friends who will journey here too

The journey begins
It’s hard to believe this day has arrived
The key to the gate is in our hands
The key to a new future is in our hands
Let us enter it now!

 

On the path…

Walk slowly
Breathe out
Let go
Relax
Look
Be thankful
Be
At Home
In the world
Breathe in
Peace
Fresh air!
All
Is
Gift

 

At the entrance to Prospect Wood…

To be spoken to the woodland, its trees and creatures
We come as friends
We have been given the keys to your wood
We have been entrusted with caring for you
We come as lovers of God and lovers of the world
We find you to be a magical and peaceful woodland
We come in peace
Will you welcome us?

We will do our best to help you flourish
To maintain your peace and beauty
To learn the skills we need
And to manage the woodland motivated by love and respect
For the One whose wood it is
And all of you creatures whose home it is.
Will you welcome us?

Stand in silence, go and place a hand on a tree at the edge of the woodland and listen for the woodland’s answer. If the answer is no we sell the woodland! If the answer is yes we respond together by bowing and saying…

Thank you!
We have arrived

I am pleased to say on the last point as far as we can tell the answer was yes!

prospect wood

a side project begins...