The forecast  for the weekend was looking good but I was surprised when it started snowing on Saturday night. The prospects of seeing my wood under snow had me excited like a little kid. We had a little bit last year but I was keen to see it freshly laid with the hope of finding some animal tracks. As I arrived I disturbed a buzzard on the ground again. Must be a favourite spot for it. The snow was already starting to melt and was continually falling in large flakes from the branches as if it was actually still snowing, which gave it a magical atmosphere. The various small birds seemed to be very excited, flitting about in the branches and chasing each other. I spent a good hour just looking and taking photos. I was disappointed with my tracking results. Just some squirrel prints and evidence that they had managed to prize open the lid on my peanut bird feeder.

I heard a chainsaw going so had a walk around to see who was about. It was a neighbour I have only briefly met once before. He kindly showed me around his plot which has an old small quarry which he is busy making into some sort of base for activities by adding a roof and sides to enclose it. He is also a falconer and owns numerous birds of prey which he sometimes brings to the woods. I am excited by the prospect of seeing some in the future. So after a leisurely morning just enjoying seeing the woods in it’s winter coat, I got stuck into some hard work. Continuing my hazel coppicing in the S.W. corner, I cut back three or four small stools then felled some small sycamore to increase light levels. The area is looking like a bomb site now with fallen branches all over it. Lack of time means I have to prioritise my work and the important element of cutting back and felling need to be done before spring growth starts. Tidying up can come later and much of the brash will be used in making another small dead hedge. Small birds like wrens and robins love them, so it provides food from small insects that live on the decaying matter, shelter from predators and possible nesting sites. Here’s the one I built last year.

One of the felled sycamore was quite large so I decided to cut the trunk into log sized lengths, wheelbarrow them back to the log-shed where I could split and stack them too. My book of Norwegian methods has taught me that cutting and splitting as soon as you can, is the best way for seasoning logs and it’s certainly easier when the wood is still fresh and green. So half the afternoon was a back-breaking session which resulted in a very satisfying new stack of logs. By the end of the day most of the snow had melted but I have some nice memories and photos of seeing it how it should look in winter. These opportunities are rare.