Bitten, stung and spiked in the Westcombe Woods

My mom always used to carry anthisan with her on walks, God bless her. And in fact the anthisan I dug out of our bathroom cupboard looks about 15 years old...not sure how effective it is but the little likely placebo effect is worth the effort to squeeze the remnants out of the tube. I'm plastering the stuff on after the session at the woodlands. I think I have very tasty blood and was the repellent for Arthur that morning. We arrived and scouted out the fallen tree by which we busied ourselves de-brambling and eating raisins before Julian and Marta joined us fresh from another task at the station. An hour or so later the patch was looking much clearer and we all had a few thorns in our hands, evident from cries of "OOOUCH" from some of the other disembodied voices from around the woods. Always lovely to be back in this space and worth the itchiness for some time of peace and quiet here.

Nice one team.