I love this time of year when you realise that Spring is actually here. No holds barred, everything is bursting with life and vigour. It’s amazing how the woodland is transformed in a few weeks. I’ve been away for 10 days and was excited to see how things were progressing at my woods. All the trees are leafing up, the ash and oak dragging their heels as usual but they are starting to open now. Everything is a vibrant green, the birds are singing and rearing young, it’s a truly unique time of the year. If I was deaf and blind I would still know it’s May because my seasonal tree pollen hayfever is driving me nuts.

I put some new food out for the birds and they were down in seconds. I watched a Great Tit taking scraps off a tree stump and flying off in deliberation. Coming back again after a few seconds and taking the very same flight path each time. It disappeared into some brash where I have hidden a nest box. It’s an open fromted one intended for Robins but I guess Great Tits can’t read my mind that well. I have noticed at least five of my nest boxes being used this year.

The Wood Anemones are finished and dying right back, bluebells starting to go off too but the wild garlic is in full flower now. I have more of it that I realised, which I’m pleased about. Also Yellow Archangel (a member of the dead nettle family) is more abundant this year. I think the bramble clearing in those areas has helped. It’s a beautiful flower with an equally lovley name and is an ancient indicator species, all of which makes it a special to me.

I had two jobs in mind, split and stack some more logs and start building the wattle privacy fence around the composting toilet, a job I have been wanting to do for months. I spent a good hour chopping and stacking at my huge logpile. When I lifted one of the logs, there was a frantic flapping sound from underneath and a distressed hen blackbird flew out. I spotted the nest and quickly replaced the log and retired for a cuppa to let her settle down and return to her brood. The my second split logpile is growing nicely now.

The wattle fence was fun to make. I drove some hazel stakes into the ground but conveniently there are three saplings growing at the corners of where I want the fence, so was able to utilise those as posts. I had quite a large pile of thin, straight hazel rods from coppicing in winter which I’d put aside for the project. It’s amazing how much material you need to form a reasonable fence and I have only reached about halfway in height. One side I am leaving open as a doorway, it’s facing a dense part of the wood so privacy isn’t going to be affected and lets face it, 99% of the time there is no-one around anyway. The fence will help hide the toilet, give some priacy for it’s occasional use and add a bit of a rustic feature to the woods. I shall either cut more rods to finish it soon or wait until winter when I do more coppicing.

I had a couple of visits and chats to some neighbours. One of them had texted me and arranged to meet me in a certain spot at the end of the day. I walked down the ride to this place but there was no sign of him. I was about to text him to find out where he was when I heard a sort of bird call. It was like a cross between a tawny owl and a wood pigeon. It didn’t seem quite right and wondered if it was him trying to alert me. It took a minute or so to spot him, grinning like a Cheshire Cat, about 20 feet up in a tree. His dark green clothing was a perfect camouflage against the tree. It cracked me up and finished my day off nicely.