Every day Irene goes from a walk in the countryside
surrounding the hospital. Much of the land is heavily planted with trees
interspersed with small cottages.
Recently she went on her usual walk and discovered that
overnight a new road had been cut through part of the forest.
The result was a new road, with a large number of trees that
had been felled.
Many trees are used here as firewood. To be more efficient
for cooking the wood is converted into charcoal. The process involves stacking
the wood into a pile, covering this with earth and setting fire to the pile.
This is then left for several days until the fire goes out. Because the fire is
starved of oxygen, rather than burning the wood to ashes it is converted to
charcoal which can then be used for cooking.
Returning to Irene, the explorer she also discovers other
things on her walks. Like children....
...and animals.....
.... and birds.
This week's bug is a giant grass-hopper that came to visit.
