Halfway along the return journey there is a cool quiet wood , a place of rest for us to sit and gather our strength for the final walk back to the car parked way out along a track . It is a pleasant little spot under the cool shade of trees where we can drop down our over burdened bags and sit and chat or just remain in silence why we gather our thoughts after five hours relentless digging .
The wood is thick and dense , ancient knurled branches contorted with age and coated in sleeves of green soft moss drape down above us while we rest up against the old remains of a flint and brick out building now lost under the cover of thick ivy . There were things going on here once upon a time and no doubt the surrounding grounds were not as overgrown and as unmanaged as it is now but we are thankful for the well earnt rest and quietness that this little wild wood affords us both .
Arriving on the tip is always met with enthusiasm and hope , we take little notice of this wood at this moment as we have yet to tackle the painful part of the nettle journey but once free and upon relative open ground there is that quiet sigh of relief to know we have a good day ahead to enjoy that mornings dig and be ever hopeful of finding at least one item that we yearn for .
As always the first hour is the hardest , knowing that the pain barrier of shifting soil has to be overcome until we can prepare our pits for the exciting part of the dig , its a huge effort but we live in hope ad this is what drives us on .
My digging buddy has two trenches which he flits from one to the other depending upon his mood .I too have tow separate holes , one which I am sticking with through the dry summer months , it has a rich enough seam and does throw up some gems but come winter when the rans come then it has to abandoned until the following year due to the ever rising water table . At the moment I can reach about 8 feet down before I hit the water but when it has rained within a few weeks I will be lucky to get half that depth before it fills up with water and and the chances of the very good stuff is missed in the watery depths .
Today was a good day where the vast majority of finds were right down in the bowels of the pit and with the help of my bottle probe I could locate some of the many finds that made it a good dig on such a sparse tip . Same hole as last time but pushing forward another four feet where the clay capping deep down dictates the direction I need to follow , the rich seam is important sometimes its rammed and other times its is totally barren , today it was rammed .
It was a good dig for me , I had a wealth of finds with a couple of firsts , the small porcelain boots Chemist lid which fell out of the side wall and one I would have missed had it not been the eagle eye of my buddy sitting resting up on the edge of my pit , his vantage pint allowing him to spot this little gem tumble down amongst the ash and soil and broken shards . He was more than happy today to take his time , prepare his trench and resist temptation to cave the side walls only to have to re dig back out such is the procedure , me , I wanted to cave in the walls as I always do , its may favourite well earned part of the dig . Our next visit will see him have an easy start whilst I will be faced with the more laborious task but we dig the way we dig to suit our temperaments .
My haul for the morning , the Marmalade jar is a first and quite a are find , it did have crack down the side but such is its rarity I have repaired the jar and now allowing 24 hours for the filler to cure and then I can paint in the shade and blend the damaged line .
