Yesterday’s visit showed the woods at it’s Autumn’s best. The beech trees in particular are beautiful with their multi-coloured leaves. The weather was still, the low sun just skimming through the trees and the woods felt calm and quiet. I felt grateful to have all this.

I planned to do some serious work. First clearing up the remaining brash from the trees I felled last week, then attacking the rampant bramble with the brushcutter. Some areas that I previously cut had regrown to a point where they were taking over the ground again.

The brash needed some hefty muscle work to pull it out of the elder tree it had fallen into. I dragged it over to the dead hedge behind the logshed and wove it into place. It’s nice and dense now and hopefully home to a robin or blackbird nest next year. I paused for a few seconds and was rewarded by the appearance of a tiny wren. It was clearly checking me out as it flew closer and closer, finally landing sideways on a tree a metre away. Unusual for them to get so close. I wondered if it was because it was purely a woodland inhabitant and had no inbuilt fear of humans because it had no reason to – no past experiences of being predated by us. Perhaps it saw me as just another woodland creature. That felt good, a huge compliment.

Brushcutting is very hard work on the back and feels quite brutal to the woods. I’ve done a lot of bramble pulling this year, which is preferable as you can usually get the roots out too but these areas are too big to do that way. Using the machine means I can reduce the heavy bulk quickly and hopefully weaken the plants, slowing down regrowth. I hadn’t used the machine for almost a year but it fired up straight away. I prioritised the areas to cut and started around the camp area, moving on down the strip where I have cleared before and planted saplings. By the end of the day I had made a significant inroad which I shall continue with next time.

I’ll end with a photo of a lovely, gnarly old hawthorn tree