Saturday 23rd August and a lovely day in my woods. There are signs of late summer showing. A kind of mellowness and plants looking tired and starting to wind down a little. I’d spoken to the Forestry Commission about applying for a thinning licence. The application requires all sorts of specific information about what you intend to fell – numbers of stems, area, age, species, volume of timber etc. So I started in earnestness to calculate what I am labelling as “compartment 1” which is a sycamore stand of approximately 500 stems of about 50 years old.

I decided I needed to measure the area fairly accurately, as much for my own interest as well as the FC. I have had an old cloth tape measure that winds up into a leather case. I had it given about 50 years ago and not found a use for it. In fact I have been trying to sell it on car boot sales. Well it finally found it’s purpose. I tied one end to a hazel post and hammered it in to the ground then walked it out as far as it would go along my borders, leapfrogging it each time I reached the end and eventually getting a total length for three perimeters which was then easily transferred to my drawing of my woods.

I also marked a small area, counted the number of stems then multiplied it by the relevant amount to get an approximate total of stems. A leisurely walk around with my machete then to mark trees which are obviously on my hit list to fell. In between jobs I managed to saw up a couple of trugs full of logs to take home for the fire too.

A buzzard kept calling out and at one point landed in the top of one of my tall sycamores. The first paths I cut are holding out for now but the bramble is trying it’s best to regain it’s territory. Someone referred to bramble as “thugs” – an apt name I think.

Some of my woodland neighbours called on me too. A nice chat and a peek at their woods to see how they are doing finished the day off nicely.