A year ago, an EFL Textbook called OUP Headway used our stories and songs to help teach English.

Since then, schools in Argentina, Bulgaria, Russia etc. have sent us their classroom questions.

Yes, we’re proud.

Our latest list of enquiries arrived yesterday, from Katerina in the Czech Republic, teacher at the Kurzy Klement language school in Pisek (twinned with Caerphilly).

In Katerina’s classroom are mugs emblazoned with the Union Jack, and on her wall is pinned a large map of Britain. We can’t help thinking, it’s often people far from the UK who hold the dream of Albion most strongly.

We seek to encourage this dream, wherever it’s found. For is this not the hedged and wild-flowered land, of green hills and forests, ancient chapels and castles, twinkling rivers and mountain lakes?

Here are the questions given by: Jirka, Jindriska, Vasek, Ilona, Jana, Andrea, Petr, Zdenka – and their teacher Katerina. And also here are answers:

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So you want to go walking, without a mind for turning round and going home?

You seek a land of stream, forest, hilltop castle and storm-swept chapel?

You want to trust your life to the skill of your instincts, the luck of your blood and the kindness of strangers?

We know just how you feel.

On our very first long walks, our heads were filled by strange childish hopes and unreal expectations. It was beautiful. We made the mistakes of foolish infants, overfilled by naiive optimism. Our pride had no choice but to swallow the fact of our ignorance, because we had not an honest clue what we were doing.

This was of course necessary. Slow-learning is full learning.

But all the same, we would not have minded a little good advice to set us on track. Our guide-books were over 100 years old.

So now we will offer you some of our modern discoveries. You don’t need to make the same errors we did. Yours can be excitingly different, and entirely your own…

Reality is a firm teacher, the very best of its kind.

But advice is golden.

So please read on for the good stuff…

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This is NOT about the well-established digital artist who works for Saatchi, called Paul Cummings. Find him everywhere elsewhere. We don’t know him.

This post is all about another Paul Cummings, who we met in Avebury at midsummer last year.

HMP by Paul Cummings - Chalk Pastel 835x595 mm

“You reckon that’s pacified your Gods? Cos it ain’t pacified mine”.

Click to read more, and see all the pictures… (more…)

On boxing day, Felicity ‘Felix’ Ford had her thrilling radio show played on BBC Radio Oxford.

as heard on BBC Oxford, boxing-day 2010

It is a study in soundscape, social history, and the multi-layered reality of space. It looks at the many-parted understandings of the road, and land surrounding it, through the eyes and experiences of walkers, singers, motorcyclists, steam-waggoners, and many more.

You can listen to the whole thing on Felix’ website, the Domestic Soundscape.

And here is a clip of our contributions to the show:

Please enjoy. And our thanks to Felix, who is, we should say, one of the best sock-knitters we’ve ever met.

This post is an article, which can be freely distributed on any other website or publication as desired. For an introduction, photographs or recordings, please contact us.

The Songs We Sing

or, how we understand traditional music’s importance.

woodland winter songs

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A man from St. Austell once sent us a picture.

We were flattered, because it was of us, and it was very good.

To find out more, please read on…

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Barn the Spoon has a unique way of doing things. He finds his way by experimentation and observation, a process to which he is fully and joyfully committed.

So he’s done a lot of knife sharpening, trying many configurations and possibilities. Always, his trials are informed by a thorough grounded understanding of the tool itself, and the job it has to do.

Man at Spoon

And having found a good way to ensure a sharp blade, Barn on this video shares with us his findings in keeping a knife keen.

Many thanks to Barn the Spoon. Look out for him on a footpath somewhere, fresh green spoons lining his smock, small knives glinting in the wooded sunbeams.

This is a long post, with a video at the bottom.

Please press MORE, and read it up.

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The best way to make these yourself, is to right-click on them, ‘save the image-as’, then open them and print them yourself. Use medium-weight card, for best results.

Good luck. If you succeed, please send us a photo…

Press More for cut-outs

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When we first arrived in the woods every poo needed its own hole, which took a lot of time, and could be awkward in desperate moments.

A compost loo was the best quick idea we could see to solve this problem, a big hole in which the rich nightsoil (we like that word) could break itself down, and harmlessly enrich the local earth.

First was the hole, which as we’ve mentioned, provided clay for the window-cobbing. Next, we placed 4 straw bales around the trench, and pegged them down with hurdle rods, so there could be no dreadful tumbling accidents. The bales also heightened the action position, meaning our hole did not have to be so deep.

Then a specially designed hurdle was made, with a hole in it.

This meant our loo was a squatting only contraption, which everyone knows is the only way to poo wholesomely. For guests who couldn’t handle this, there was a traditionally seated compost loo ten minutes walk away, at the other end of the wood.

Lastly, a hazel dome frame was dug in and woven over the top of the bales and hurdle, which was itself covered in canvas, to keep the our heads, and the composting deposits, dry.

What we dropped therein, we covered with either wood-ash, a useful double use for our regular stove clean-out. If wood-ash was short, then leaves sufficed. This helped with the breakdown.

We often wonder how people justify dispatching their poo with drinkable water, when there is such a shortage in this land, and in others. For one thing, water is expensive! And it is heavy. Having to carry our water only a quarter of a mile made us appreicate the daily duty of water.

Toilet paper was something we initially did without, but the regular guests in our winter home meant that this odd luxury was brought in, and often lingered after guests left. Certainly, the most local moss supplies ran low, and we were often glad of our toilet roll stash.

We can recommend heartily the act of compost-loo building, as an alternative to wasting gallons of good water a day. Every other living creature lets their excrement fall to earth, and we believe humans can do this too.