Interview with Alice, former resident of the Bin Forest

When I lived in the Bin Forest I would go for a walk regularly, it would be every day taking the kiddies for a walk. Now it would be taking the dog for a walk, so it tends to be not just for myself. I don´t think I want to walk in woods on my own particularly. The only time I went into the woods on my own was when I was really upset.

With the kids we did expeditions and imaginary games and we gave places names. We had the whale rock which was a huge stone and it was covered in lichen, heather and small trees. And we also had boletus corner, because we always found mushrooms there. We would also collect mushrooms and flowers. We made a camera and pretended that we had landed on a planet and had to take photographs to send them back to earth. We did a lot of drawing as well, we would take a pad and a pencil and find beetles and other insects. We usually strolled through the woods. We used to walk across clear fells which were actually quite hard to walk over with all the brush, but paths are a bit boring sometimes.
Walking with the dog relaxes and chills me, it makes me feel stress free and I also like his company.

What animals have you seen in the Battlehill?
There are deer, little rabbits, flies and insects. I haven´t seen squirrels but there are squirrels there. There are also definitely badgers that go into the Battlehill, they don´t live there, but you can see the hair on the fence where they come in. There are birds, but it´s actually quite quiet. It´s a peacefull spot and it´s small.

What were your favourite places in the Battlehill Woods when we did the workshop?

There is a very little clearance with a fallen log, it was quite early on then and not much had grown, but there was obviously bracken and gorse there. You could see that it was going to be quite lush. You had to look up to get any kind of view, it was just a one person sort of open space. And then there are the amazing beech trees. I found them while I was wandering with no plan in mind, because I don´t know the Battlehill very well. And the other thing I discovered is the spooky tree. It is kind of black, I think it was because of the way the light was, it was a really dark tree. Actually a lot of these trees, especially beech trees look quite silvery when the sun shines. That tree really looked like a gateway to another world.

Which fairy tale would you place in the Battlehill?
There are two fairy tales I have been thinking of lately. There´s the gingerbread man and Hänsel and Gretel. The sweety cake house would have to be in the strange bit, where the beech tree is. Or would I put it in the Sitka spruces, except there is not enough room for it.
The gingerbread man is „Run, run as fast as you can, you can´t catch me, I am the gingerbread man.“ I just love it. I just like it, because I love to be able to escape from things. Gingerbread man doesn´t really go into the woods, but he does escape, cause he doesn´t want to be eaten.

Is going to into the woods about escaping as well?
Yes, escaping from civilization. My automatic thing is to go up the hill first to get a bit of distance.

What was it like to live in the woods?
It was brilliant, it was just a playground, it was nearly perfect.
When we went mushrooming we would take a camping stove and a flask of water, brew it up and cook some mushrooms.
We tried to do different walks every time. No routine walks, routine walks are bad.

Do you have any prefered season?
A wood in snow is a magical wonderland. A wood in spring is great, cause you see things starting to grow, you see the wood sorrel grow before the bracken grows. And of course, atumn is mushroom season.

Did you ever get lost in the woods?
Yes, we definitely got lost one day. It was just me and the two kids. But we had a pony and ponies can find their way home. So we actually just let the horse lead us home. We were quite happy that he knew what he was doing. The worry was that you got too tired before you got home, the worry was not that you would not get home.
We had a lot of different walks that we did from different directions. I think it took us ten years to run out of walks.