"....the rain was beating down while we were sheltered by the tree. A strong breeze was blowing, and although cold it felt welcoming and inviting after the hard digging. The forest was huge and we feel small. It's like we were the only people in the world. The wilderness does that. It makes you feel unstoppable, sure, but it also puts you in your place, like there is more to discover just round the next corner. It's a fantastic feeling."

Ethan, Tuesday 24/11/09.
The Ridding Wood Trail
Grizedale Forest.

A mixed bag.

It has been a damp week in the great outdoors and the activities of the candidates for the JM awards had to be put on hold due to the rain and the flooding. Tuesday 17November 2009 was the exception. The Conserver candidate, and the two Explorer candidates successfully helped to remove and replace a damaged wooden boardwalk on the Bogle Crag Trail in Grizedale Forest with the help and advice of Mark.

The task was part of a forest maintenance, and conservation project, to provide a safe means of negotiating a boggy patch of land on the trail for people who are exploring the wild places of Grizedale Forest. It was a good task for them for a number of reasons,
1) They worked well as a team, each doing their own thing but contributing to the whole job,
2) The group had a look of knowing what they where doing,
3) They were able to work under a time constraint and not get bothered by having a 'foreman' badgering them.

Bendrigg Turst was cancelled: working in the forest where the ground is expected to be wet, muddy, and boggy, and any footprints that may be left behind will add to the ambiance of the woodland environment is one thing, but working on a neat lawn where there is more of a need to take a bit more pride in the look of the grass is not best suited to the stormy conditions that prevailed on Wednesday.

Waking up to the continuing storm on Thursday morning filled me full of excitement. Being out in the raw elements of nature is a fantastic experience. To feel the wind blowing you about, and to be wrapped up in waterproofs as the rain tries its best to find a way into your coat, is a great way to start the day. Unfortunately the weather denied us the opportunity to enjoy what it had to offer as it seemed to have become bored of playing a game and had suddenly turned serious.

However Friday proved to be a good day. The rain held off, the Conserver candidates were on good form and were all set to give a talk about their experiences Discovering, Exploring and working towards conserving the wilderness to a willing audience at the Abbeyfield residential home in Kirkby Lonsdale. They told of their experiences on the Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Expedition in the Yorkshire Dales. The residents were entertained with one of them asking it she could join them on their next adventure!

Nature stirs under her duvet.

When my lift came this morning to take me to work I didn't realise that I would be in for such a treat. I knew that the night had been stormy, prompting me to stop my Ipod that was playing 'Thunderstorms' and listen to the real thing, but I hadn't realised that nature had really had a restless night and had put many a ripple in her duvet.

The river at the bottom of the road was just awesomely scarily high and fast! It was replying to the rippled duvet by letting everybody know that it did not like to be disturbed. Irritated, angry, tetchy, and perhaps just a little bit excited at the power that had been awakened.

The roads themselves were complaining of being disturbed and let all know about it by allowing huge great puddles, some of them like small lakes, gather in the dips and hollows that normally stay hidden. They were waiting for us to see what we would do, if you listened closely enough to what was going on above the wind and rain outside, you could hear them laugh behind their hands, the ripples on their surface like their shoulders shaking with silent stolen laughter.

Natures duvet is big and when she stirs beneath it the ripples stretch a long long way.

Life working on Conservation projects can be physically, as well as mentally, draining. It takes a particular type of person to become a John Muir candidate to work through the different levels of award in all types of weather.

"I know this looks like it should be easy, but I didn't sleep well last night and the rain seems to be running down my back!"

Shane, Tuesday 10/11/09