Our teen volunteer session today was another really lovely one!
There were only a few volunteers today, so it was a really chilled, laid back kind of session. We tackled cutting back sycamore regrowth where the woodland meets Alderwasley park, helping to maintain the scalloped edges that birds prefer (apparently they aren’t so keen on straight woodland edges and are more likely to enter the woodland if it has gentle curved edges).
We then lit a fire - I’ve been chided by the group for ‘cheating’ by using Vaseline and cotton wool with a flint and steel, so now it’s natural materials only!
We made delicious damper bread using some of the sycamore we cut to wrap the dough around, and had a go at making whistles with Elder.
Thanks SO much to @ambervalleycvs for the funding to enable these teen sessions to run💚🤩
Just searching my videos for the one Kyla and I did to explain how the hostel compost toilets work...this one made me laugh as I completely forgot this happened in the practice run!
Top teen volunteer group work this morning in the Grith Fields and a huge thanks to our hostel group, a Nottingham Scout group who joined us 🤩
We watered half of the 1000 saplings - this is no mean feat, there’s no water so we fill containers up at the stream and walk about 300-400metres (uphill!) to get to the saplings!
We placed 100’s of cardboard collars around the saplings to help suppress competition with the grass and raked up the mown grass on the serpentine paths through the fields.
It was great to see the Tree Pipit on the Raptor perch and we spent a while looking at the trial pond chatting about why it hadn’t worked the first time.
Top effort, thanks so much!🤩🙏
Bonnie & I had a beautiful day this week checking out where we are running a @woodland_connections session at Chatsworth in October.
I was curious about how easy it is to cycle from the woods to Chatsworth…and nearly the whole route was along permissive cycle ways and the brilliant White Peak loop.
I had a joyful cycle of just over an hour along Cromford Canal from Ambergate to Cromford (there is a debate in our house as apparently there are 2 dinosaurs but I’ve only ever seen one!), then a road section through Matlock Bath (plenty of ice cream stops😋), then the White Peak Loop following the river Derwent and High Peak railway all the way to Rowsley.
Just the last few miles from Rowsley to Chatsworth was on a twisty, narrow road that isn’t great for family cycling, but the rest was perfect!
So if you are up for adventures, you can stay at the hostel and choose train, bus, foot or bike to access all these places - world heritage sites at Cromford, Matlock Bath with its history of thermal spas, the High Peak steam railway and the stunning Chatsworth 🤩
(There’s no cycling on the footpaths in the woods, but it’s not far to get to Beggarswell track in the woods which is a bridleway)
The viewpoint of someone running a hostel in the woods is a little skewed….cute squirrels are seen as a potential costly pain because of their skills in eating cables and lead flashing, bluebells are cursed because it means we can’t access areas for wellbeing sessions to ensure we don’t cause them harm, and now it’s the turn of those pesky deer…they became partial to our spring water source which means as a preventative measure we have to install fencing round the spring, these ‘cute’ deer are expensive!😂🤦♀️
Big thanks to Clear Springs Water Ltd for letting me the ‘helper’ this week to keep the installation cost down 🙏, I’m super proud that I put up a gate (it’s not straight because the ground isn’t straight 🤪)and didn’t need a gym session after using that post knocker!
A real treat to stay @shiningcliff independent hostel based in Shining Cliff Woods in Derbyshire, known as “Schymynde -Cliffe” in medieval times.
Nestled at the base of the dramatic Shining Cliff crags, the hostel is accessed only on foot via a beautiful half-mile woodland trail. Wheelbarrows are provided at the car park for belongings (we got a train to Ambergate & walked up)
Teaming with bird song, bluebells, crackles & voles darting around.
It was like staying in a tree house! 🤩
Being able to use the fire pit was one of my hi-lites, i loved that i went to bed stinking of smoke after a sing song around it🔥
A well-known legend has it that the nursery rhyme Rock-a-bye-baby relates to a local character in the late 18th century, Betty Kenny (Kate Kenyon), who lived in a huge yew tree (thought to be 2,000 years old) in Shining Cliff Woods – the remains are now known as the "Betty Kenny Tree"
Shining Cliff Hostel (part of @indiehostelsuk ) started as a YHA in 1947 but its history goes further back:
"Today part of the woods is still under the ownership of the Grith Fyrd Pioneers, meaning peace army in old English. This was a radical alternative educational movement in England in the 1930’s which took unemployed men and used them as a basis for creating a self-sufficient land-based community. They set out to combat the 3 evils of the day:
– Monstrous labour
– The state of passivity and absorption
– The loss of the incentive of self-expression and creativeness
Leisure activities included morris dancing, wood-carving and folk-singing. Today the movement is focussed on opportunities for self-realisation, social responsibility and a responsibility to protect the natural environment."
People applied to be part of it through @toynbeehall based in London.
There are some great photos of all this on the the wall at the hostel & Kate Tuck (who took over the lease in 2019) told us a lot more archive has recently been found.
Our Fettle,Kettle and Cake volunteer group raised the bar today….by producing Tunnocks Teacakes! 😋😋😋
We have the most delicious homemade cakes brought along to sessions, but these were so good - perfectly balanced with a Volunteer’s Dad making us fruit scones, perfection amongst bluebells, birdsong, Nettle Weevils and great company(we did some work too😂) 💚
What a cracking day...and week! The hostel has been steady with individual bookings, bespoke woodland sessions with Woodland Connections and our lovely returning sole use guests this weekend - we have a fabulous conservation group stay with us each year and they help out with a task in the woods each time. This year they helped to repair some of the stone walls in the Grith Fields and put up the Raptor Post in the fields (it is hoped that birds of prey will use it for hunting - the first bird to perch there was a Song Thrush!).
Our teen group today was a hive of activity, from cutting back Sycamore regrowth on the woodland edges that border Alderwasley Park to showing a fascination for trying out natural firelighting using pine resin and silver birch bark while we made hot chocolate with the Kelly Kettle and popcorn with the schoogler (2 sieves wired together and stuck onto a stick, the perfect campfire popcorn maker)!
This is what a midweek morning here looks like:
Coffee outside
Mist through the trees
Nowhere you need to be
It’s simple—but it changes how you feel.
A few August stays are still available 🌿
One of the nicest things about midweek at Shining Cliff?
You can shape your stay exactly how you want it.
10th–13th August is still available for:
🏡 Sole use (friends/family)
OR
🌿 Individual room bookings
It’s a rare bit of flexibility in the middle of summer.
Send me a message if you want to chat through options.
