It was about two weeks since I last went due to a holiday in between. I am amazed at how much the wood has changed since then. In fact I almost felt like I was in someone else’s wood. I had a strange feeling of almost being a stranger to it. I tried to analyse why and figured that over winter I have become ultra familiar with the wood, feeling that I knew it very well. Of course it doesn’t change all that much for several months so when spring starts to kick in and everything comes back to life, it is totally transformed. It felt like it was having a party whilst I was away. I took an extra long and leisurely wander around to see just what was growing now. At least half the trees are leafing up, notably the beech, hawthorn, elder, hazel and sycamore. Oak and ash are always the last ones to break bud but there are signs of that happening too. Interestingly, the ash saplings are well ahead of the big mature ash trees. I guess that’s youth for you!

The sun was out again and I was happy just to do a few jobs and enjoy a more leisurely day than usual. I was surprised on my arrival to see a number of items strewn on the ground that were previously tucked away in my logshed, a plastic basket and the sealed tub I keep bird seed in. Had someone been trespassing? A closer look and it became clear. The “bovver boys” (aka grey squirrels) had been having the party. How did they know there was food in that tub and how did they manage to drag it out from it’s hiding place? A trail camera would have made very interesting viewing!

My main job was to make something called a cleaving or riving brake. It’s a wooden frame that allows you to wedge a hazel pole between two horizontal bars by applying pressure. The pole is gripped so that you can then work on it with a froe or billhook to split or “cleave” it. It’s a traditional method which the old woodlanders used to split larger hazel rods down to make wattle for fences and other useful crafts. I have some large poles that I am hoping to split into two pieces so I can make fencing posts to support deer netting and my brash hedges. I had a go with two of them and although I was successful (and it’s not easy) I was surprised and a bit disappointed to find that the split poles are now twisted and not straight. Then I remembered reading that the fibres in trees do actually spiral as the tree grows. In hazel it seems to be quite pronounced. So I’m not sure my plan to use them as posts is going to work. Anyway here’s a picture of the riving brake I made. It’s also useful for holding long longs while you saw them down. I used it to cut up some fallen ash for firewood and it was very effective.

I was pleased to find lots more of the tiny wood violas growing along the ride edges and the area I cleared of bramble is starting to green up with new grasses, willowherb, speedwell and of course new bramble and bracken because I haven’t removed the roots. The plan is to keep hacking the new growth down before it gets established and hope that eventually they die back. I sat on my homemade plank-bench with my coffee for while in this area with two beautiful beech trees close by, just enjoying the sun, the peace and quiet and the peacock butterflies that were flirting with each other. It doesn’t get much better that that does it?