28 December 2009 – Good luck, good luck to the Woodlanders

In this Epiphany season with families travelling to nurture the bonds that tie us, we went off to find Will and Ed, our friends of <www.awalkaroundbritain.com> fame. The woodlanders were doing exceedingly well. When last seen in their dank Welsh wood with a couple of benders and heaped up hope they were just embarking on the building of an ambitious winter quarter. The nights were closing in and the season getting cold and wet; see Blog of 21 November. But that is why they were wintering in a dripping wood. Learning to reconnect with the land, with fundamental values, building an understanding of community, rediscovering the rhythm of a society that sang songs, told stories, noticed the ice in the pale. Needless to say, they were thriving. And their winter shelter was magnificent.

The woven nut hurdles formed a raised floor; no more rising damp and rodent refugees. Nut and ash poles bowed to form a strong roof over which a skin of re-used plastic and fabric was stretched. Onto this was packed straw all covered over with canvas. Here was a winter-proof and excellently well insulated shelter. But the piece de resistance was a huge perspex window scrounged from a dump to let in the seductive winter sun. And of course there was the little stove with its chimney for steaming socks and frozen gloves. This cabin of mud and straw was a Noah's ark of song and warmth suspended above the long winter of consumerism. The rustic fashioned book case was well stocked with herbals, field guides, Oliver Rackham's Woodlands (I coveted that one!), and volumes of eclectic spirituality (Please mice, you can eat those). Various and numerous musical instruments hung from the wall and roof out of reach of nibbling friends. Strip away as much of life as you can, and what are you left with? Where are the fundamentals in a consumer economy?As Rowan Williams suggested, get out and dig the good earth, get wet, reconnect with the land. The sun and the land are our midwives; that was how we evolved and where society developed.

Will and Ed with Rose and Ayla are re-connecting with a landed past, literally by getting muddy and cold in a wood, but spiritually by gathering in and working over our past landscape in folk song. See their website if you want to buy their album. Its beautiful. So here's good luck, good luck, good luck to the Woodlanders!