Yesterday was another early start. Weather fine and bright. I had a list of jobs to aim for. I always have more than I know I can achieve in a day but you have to aim high. I’d bought five blackthorn saplings for £6.00 at a local nursery. A bargain I couldn’t resist. More flowering trees to brighten the woods and eventually I hope to get some sloes from them to make sloe gin or vodka. So that was the first job, all of them planted down in the open cleared area along the border.

I’m trying to increase the plant diversity, particularly in the area where game birds were kept which is fairly sparse. I’d already transplanted a few clumps of Lords & Ladies but during a walkabout through a vacant, unsold plot, I noticed quite a few clumps of wild primrose. I haven’t seen any in my plot and was a little naughty and lifted a few pieces (all for the sake of the wider wood of course). So I planted these up in various places, marking them with a coloured stick so I can find them again and monitor their progress. I took the time to have a good look at what is starting to grow now. To add to my list since last time, I noticed some early wood anemone flowers, clumps of lesser celandine and ramsons (wild garlic). There were other fresh plants but as yet haven’t identified them.

After filling up the bird feeders, it was lunch time. I made a coffee on my little stove and sat watching for the birds. Not many around but I saw a small bird walking up a tree. It was either a nuthatch or more likely a tree creeper. It was very pale underneath and looked brown on it’s back. Somewhere in another plot I heard a tawny owl.

I have been trying to map the woods since I got it. It’s a low priority job and time consuming. I have a rough map but some of the reference locations don’t seem right and I wanted to record roughly where I have planted trees and other things. So I spent some time taking some measurements and making rough notes. I spent several hours back home trying to decipher my notes and make sense of them on my map. It’s surprising how easily you forget why you made certain marks on your notes so the lesson is to be methodical and clear. I’m slowly getting there.

By now it was mid afternoon and I wanted to do some more thinning where the hazel is being coppiced. There’s a huge holly tree on the corner which will block out a lot of light. When I say huge, it stood about ten metres high at least. It’s multi-branched so needed to be cut in several places. I’ve taken about 2/3 of it down now but time was getting short and so was my energy. I decided to pack up and head home again.