Tree Identification - Beech

I’d like to dedicate this post to Xalior since I know how much he is enjoying this series.

I got this one wrong The photos have been replaced with ones of an actual Beech, whilst you can find the original photos correctly identified as a Black Poplar.

As the (mighty) Scots Pine fades into the annals of the interweb, our attention is turned to the Beech – (Fagus sylvatica – meaning “Beech of forests”, imaginative lot these latin speakers…). I have a large number of these in my garden, with the majority former a border between my garden and the rest of my land.

The Beech is a deciduous tree, and a native of the British Isles. It can grow up to 40 metres (that’s over 130 feet) tall, although the large examples are in decline due to a combination of lowering water tables causing die back in some and high winds felling others.

Its twigs have alternating shoots, with long slender buds growing out from the twig. It’s leaves are glossy green on the top, and have plain edges.

Beech trees often keep their leaves long after others have fallen.

I’ll update with a photo of the leaves later in the year.

Beech bark is typically gray and smooth, and retains this appearance throughout the life of the tree.

Beech wood burns well when seasoned. Green Beech wood will burn, but not as well. As well as being a good firewood and for producing charcoal, the timber is used for furniture – although usually used for smaller components – and flooring.

Apparently the leaves make a “fine salad vegetable”, but they are better eaten in Spring than later in the year.

Beech nuts, best gathered in Autumn, are edible although tedious to peel. The kernels can roasted and ground to make a coffee substitute, or pressed to extract oil which can be used for salad dressings or cooking. Sawdust can be boiled, baked, mixed with flour and made into bread.

Tree Identification - Scots Pine

Last time it was the turn of the Silver Birch, this time it is the mighty Scots Pine – (Pinus sylvestris which means “pine of the woods”). I have a few of these in my garden.

A coniferous tree also common throughout the UK and native to northern Europe – in fact it is the only native British Pine. Its needles grow in pairs up to 8cm long and are slightly twisted.

It has a scaly bark.

Pine wood burns well, although it has a tendency to spit. Due to its high levels of resin it makes excellent kindling. Its wood is also commonly used for all manner of wood products.

The needles of a Pine tree make an excellent tea, which contains plenty of vitamin C. Pine trees can also be consumed in various other ways as described by Euell Gibbons in an excerpt from his book Stalking The Healthful Herbs.

No one said it would be easy

Elliot bemoans the fact that hosting a Ruby on Rails application on shared or virtual hosting is too hard, and I can attest to this.

I’ve mentioned the issues I’ve had with Typo many times, and although Mephisto is better the box is still working much harder than it should be. Rails may be a great framework for development, but hosting the results is different story all together.

Like Elliot I also have a couple of internal applications that run quite happily, but they are running on dedicated (albeit low-end) boxes – just like the big boys do. I suspect that both of these would fail if I tried to move them to shared or virtual hosting.

Sound advice

There are many who would do well to remember this.

Also Appropriate

From To a Mouse by Robert Burns.

Appropriate

‘Nuff said.

Taken from Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost.

Tree Identification - Silver Birch

It’s always best to tackle things in small pieces. It makes hard jobs simpler, and learning difficult subjects easier. As part of my efforts to improve my outdoor skills I decided to work on my tree identification skills which are currently, to be fair, pretty rubbish. Instead of spending hours swotting up I going to take a different approach.

Fortunately my garden has a quite a number of trees, with a fair number of different species. I’m going to take one tree at a time, identify it, research it and publish what I here along with some pictures. Following this process should help lock what I’ve learnt in my head and in time build up to a decent collection. I don’t intend to write either the authoritative or even a complete work on tree recognition, but if what I write helps others then that is an added bonus. I’m starting this effort now as I want to be able to identify the trees in both winter and summer. Once I’m done with my garden then I’ll move further afield.

First of all is the Silver Birch (Betula Pendula) – a stalwart of bushcraft and an easy identification. I thought I had a few of these in the garden but on closer inspection I have only one.

A deciduous tree common throughout the UK. Easily distinguished by its triangular (or more accurately rounded kite) shaped, serrated edged leaves and distinctive white/grey bark.

I’ll post a photo of the leaves when they come out. I know I could source an image from somewhere else, but that defeats the object somewhat.

In winter the hairless twigs have alternating buds and may have catkins – especially towards spring. On my example below the catkins are quite obvious, possibly as a result of the ridiculously mild minter we are having.

Birch wood burns quickly but gives out good heat and pleasant smell.

A diuretic can be concocted from the leaves, and in the spring the tree can tapped and sap extracted from the tree (although care must be taken not to ‘bleed’ the tree dry) which can be fermented into wine, drank neat, or – as recommended by Ray Mears – frozen into ice cubes and served with a good single malt.

See the bottom of this page for recipes for both the tea and wine.

The bark of a Silver Birch tree is extremely useful. It can be peeled off the tree like paper (do not take bark in a full circle around the tree though – this will ‘girdle’ the tree and eventually kill it) and is waterproof. Due to its flexibility it can be used to make a variety of objects from small containers right up to Canoes! The bark is also a wonderful aid to fire lighting and is amongst the best of the natural tinders.

A rose by any other name…

Bushcraft is a loaded term these days. Mention bushcraft to a non-practitioner and their most likely reaction will be “You mean like that bloke Ray Mears?” and while Ray has done a huge amount to raise public awareness of bushcraft, he is by no means the first or the only person to practice it. Mention it to a practitoner, their reaction will most likely either be one of hero worship for Mr Mears or a dismissal of the term in favour of one that sounds different but means the same,

Bushcraft. Woodcraft. Woodmans skills. Indigenous skills. Primitive living. There are lots of names for the same things, but they all boil down to the same thing – getting closer to nature – but bushcraft currently has the most recognition.

And so I introduce the new section on my site – Bushcraft – in which I will file anything related to the outdoors..

Section feeds are back

As promised section feeds have returned. If you select a section from the list on the right, then click the RSS icon in your browser it will give you specific feed for that section.

Too make life easier though, here are the feeds most people will be interested in:

For all your, er, photoboxing needs!

Christmas is a time of giving, and in one particular case of my family it was a time of someone giving a mousemat printed with a photo of the recipient to someone else. It was also a time of me being roped in to arrange said gift.

After looking into a few options, I recalled a post by my friend Elliot about Photobox and how he recommended them.

Long story short, I’m adding my recommendation to Elliot’s, and I’ll be using them again in the future.