With the persistent wet weather, Christmas etc, I haven’t been to the woods for over a month and I am desperate to get some hazel coppicing done as they are starting to grow already. The weather forecast was good even though it was sleeting and raining hard before setting off. Half way on my journey and the clouds miraculously cleared and a weak sun peeped through. As I drove up the ride alongside my wood, a large bird took off from the ground and landed on a branch – pretty sure it was a buzzard. I saw one a while later circling above too. I stopped the car, wound down the window to watch for a while. The wood was positively alive with birds undisturbed by my presence – blackbirds and robins bobbing around the ground and a flock of long tailed tits flitting about in the tall trees. “Wow” went my thoughts “what a fantastic greeting. How I’ve missed this place and I’m here now to do some good honest toil and enjoy a day in my woods. How good is that?”

First job, fill up the bird feeders. Next I needed to heel in a large bare-rooted English Oak sapling that my daughters had bought me at Christmas. It was their tribute to my mum, their grandma who passed away in November. The area where I will plant it still needs some nearby felling done which could fall onto it if planted in it’s permanent position now. Next, cut down the remaining birch trunk that had snapped off in the gales a few months ago. I’m interested to see if it will sprout any new shoots from the base. I cut, chopped and stacked the logs in the shed to dry. It’s a very satisfying feeling. Next job, was most important. Last time I rough cut by hand, two overgrown hazel stools but needed the chainsaw to trim down the stumps of the larger pieces. Also two more stools nearby were on my list to cut this year in order to enlarge the small area I started last year.

Now they don’t look very big on the photo but it’s surprising how long some of the branches are, maybe 20 feet or more which is a lot of weight and when they come down, the weight tends to split the branch before you can cut right through. The branch inevitable gets hung up in a nearby tree still partly attached to the lower section. So it requires a lot of cutting here and there to release it and often the branch twists trapping the saw blade. At one point my chainsaw was well and truly gripped by a twisted cut and I had to leave it hanging by it’s chain like a Christmas tree decoration while I went for my silky saw to cut it free. These neglected hazel branches are the most labour intensive and difficult to deal with. Anyway I battled on and got the pair of them cut back but time ran out before I could tidy all the branches and brash away. A job for the next visit.

Socialising has become another enjoyable part of my woodland trips and it was good to meet up with neighbouring friends from three different plots and swap notes and ideas. I’m still trying to determine the best place for a permanent shelter and I think I might have found it. It lies on the edge of my camping area and there are two large straight sycamore trees that will form the corner posts for the ridge pole. I’ll need to do some more heavy bramble-bashing to clear the area first so that could be on my list of priority jobs. The short daylight hours soon wizz by when you’re busy and before long it was time to pack up and go.