Bridgewood in August

Posted by Tanos on Wed 12 Aug 09, 9:13 PM

After glorious weekend weather in May and June, July and now August are being a bit mixed. Despite that I've still been down about one day a week, and managed to dodge the recent rain using the weather forecasts. Most of these trips have been to enjoy the wood (including its BDSM possibilities with a new volunteer), but I've also almost finished the new toilet.

To clear space for the toilet shed, I had to fell some hazel, which produced these poles. Since the hazel has grown naturally, rather than in the traditional managed coppicing, none of them are entirely straight. However, they are very usable for rough applications rather than making dead straight broom-handles or chair legs.

One use that immediately suggests itself is a tripod whipping frame, with the poles just lashed together with rope. In the picture, you can see some leather cuffs hanging from the apex. This works very well, and is suitably stable with the poles pushed into the ground, but "springy" when my new volunteer twists around during a scene. The first time we used it, it was a particularly primal way of doing BDSM, as the poles had still been growing the day before.

Elsewhere I have a resprayed oil drum, reused from an old pheasant feeding station, which works well as something to be bent over, bottom up for a flogging or feet up for bastinado.

Further into the wood, I also found three four-inch hazel trunks growing from one set of roots about two foot apart in an equally spaced triangle. I removed a few smaller trunks and branches, and cleared the surrounding ground to make another place to restrain subs during scenes, using rope lashed around one or more of the remaining trunks.

Going to the wood for the day shares a lot of aspects with camping, and the Glade is gradually turning into an encampment. We've been bringing food and drinks with us, but the I've been working out the other practicalities, starting with non-drinking water. Since Bridgewood is surrounded by ditches, including a good stream, fetching water isn't a problem - and in a D/s environment, it's positively a bonus! There's now a winding path to a secluded point on the bank of the stream, where a submissive can be sent down the steep bank into the water with a bucket to fill ... without alarming the neighbours even when they're being kept without clothes for the day. We're still deciding whether carrying two buckets by hand, or one on the head, is easier! (Head wins in the attractiveness stakes, in my view )

I've written before about the way shackles and chains are natural equipment for controlling slaves and submissives moving around and working outdoors. But using them for extended periods in extended spaces has explained why some aspects you see in films etc are important: like a chain to hold in the hand and support the chain between ankle shackles, which helps stop chafing at the Achilles tendons.

Back in the Glade, I've been stacking and drying firewood since last autumn, and there's now a brick-edged camp fire hearth that's burnt of a few of these logs. We've not tried cooking yet, but it's the next step.

As I mentioned, I've also been assembling the toilet shed, with proper seat and wash-hand basin supplied by a tank of water brought onto the site. Behind the scenes, this is an eco-friendly composting toilet, and the shed is intended to be a temporary structure than can be reassembled at new locations in the wood whenever the composting chambers reach their capacity. In practice, most of this material will just be shredded paper used to "flush" the toilet, and it has separate chambers (and seats) for the "liquid only" and "mostly solid" sides of things, so people don't even have to lift the "mostly solid" seat if they're squeamish about that ...

One of the pleasures of the wood is noticing more and more special trees and places over the months. Last month I found the Five Fingered Hand tree, which is shaped like a cupped hand with the palm upturned and horizontal, and five fingers and one thumb slightly splayed. The palm forms a platform about five feet off the ground, and the fingers make it a good climbing tree as they lean over the stream.

As far as wildlife goes, I finally got a good look at the "big bird" which has been spotted several times on the wide Middle Ride. With a hawk-like head and beak, grey-white flecked plumage and a wingspan of several feet, it appears to be a common buzzard. They are known to prefer woodlands, either on the edges, or on rides which have been widened to encourage wildlife. Buzzards want the open space to hunt, as they look for sapling-eating rabbits (yay!) or other birds ( ) including pheasants ( ) They don't take slaves though - unless they're trained to track runaways I suppose

Edited Wed 2 Sep 09, 10:25 PM by Tanos