Yesterday I took my brother in law Richard to see the wood. He follows in his father’s footsteps, being very interested in rural pursuits and wildlife etc. He has a good knowledge of woodland life in general and expressed an interest in seeing mine. It wasn’t the best weather to see it – gloomy, cold and quite windy at times. We had a good look around, he pointed out a few interesting things I hadn’t noticed then we had a brew with my little twig-fired Honeystove and ate our lunch. As usual a tiny wren appeared amongst the pile of old brushwood a few feet away. I guess it was lunchtime for it too as it bobbed here and there, picking at the sticks for insects and grubs.

We spent most of the afternoon re-sighting the misplaced border posts which have been incorrectly positioned at the lower half. It will give me a few extra metres wide of land over a length of about 70 metres which is quite significant. I will need to get approval by the land sales agent before actually moving the posts. We also felled a small rotten sycamore that had fallen and got hung-up. It was close to a ride so needed to be made safe. Two good jobs done.

Richard took quite a bit of interest in the hazel coppice so we spent some time looking at those. They are really ready for re-coppicing, some stems are very large and woody and only fit for firewood but there a numerous small rods which will make good hurdle material, walking sticks etc. He told me of an old guy who used to twist two thin growing rods together then after a few years, cut them to make beautiful twisted walking sticks. I’m going to try that one next time. I shall also start pegging down some of the smaller and flexible rods to layer them which will create new plants in a year or two. They can then be moved into the area I intend to replant.