MARK Allery, who works as a woodsman on the Lynchmere Commons and that part of Marley Common owed by The Lynchmere Society, will be giving a talk tomorrow on Saturday, February 13, at Haslemere Museum.

When not making charcoal, besoms or hay rakes, Mark teaches and demonstrates woodland and rural crafts.

Mark (above) has also mastered the skill of handling the traditional English scythe which he uses to manage the bracken on the commons. He will be talking about woodland crafts practised locally and the trees which provide the craft materials.

He will also describe the heathland restoration work carried out on the commons over the last 15 years.

The event is being organised by Haslemere Natural History Society, jointly with the museum and non-members are invited to donate £3. It starts at 2.15pm.

It is one of a number of indoor meetings organised by the society at the museum over the winter.

The following lecture will be ‘In Search of the Jaguar in the Pantanal, Brazil’, on Saturday, March 12.

John Richardson visited the Pantanal primarily to see the jaguar, but the world’s largest freshwater wetland area serves as a lush reservoir with thousands of exotic plants which support a huge number of birds and animals.

He was able to photograph at close quarters not only the jaguar, but giant ant-eaters, tapirs, armadillos, crocodiles, the capybara and some of the 475 species of birds.