I’ve been suffering with an upset digestive system all week – and no it wasn’t Christmas over-indulgence! In fact I have eaten and drunk less then I normally do but as a result, I planned an easy day yesterday. First job as usual was to download the trail-cam vids. 122 captures but lots of them squirrels. There are some tasty bits though so check out the latest compilation here. The camera was starting to mist up inside so I brought it home to dry out so no more for a couple of weeks.

I spent lots of time just walking around with a critical eye towards what needs felling next and marking them up with a splodge of paint. I have one year left on my felling license before having to renew, so I want to make some progress. I decided to blitz the sycamore plantation, the area that needs most attention. So far I have spent felling time, opening up a small coupe to replant with other species but the rest of it badly needs thinning. There are lots of tall but very weak specimens which will never make good trees. They won’t be difficult to take down and deal with so I can probably get a fair bit done over winter. The hazel coppice can be left, as can the rest of the mixed area.

As I stood assessing them, I spotted something moving very fast down my path toward me. A hare, it had been spooked by a dog. It ran straight toward me then stopped about ten feet away. I moved slightly and it was off again. Hares are a rare sight nowadays so I was really excited to see one so close. Later in the morning whilst walking around the hazel, another one (or could have been the same) bolted out from some dense bramble. Two treats in one day!

I have been meaning to replant some small holly and box saplings into the sycamore area to add interest. There’s an area which is also overshadowed by a neighbour’s massive beech trees. Even if I fell some sycamore, it will still be dingy but these species can tolerate that.

Two Holly saplings, let’s see how they do?

Box sapling.

I decided to fell, by handsaw, one of the weak sycamore trees. It had a nice fork in it which I wanted to use to make a support frame for stacking long logs when I start with the real work. It was much harder than I expected, the wind kept blowing it around and trapping the saw. A small wedge hammered into the cut sorted it out and I found another forked log to make my stacking frame.

I met some of my neighbours, always a pleasure and we enjoyed a good catch-up. They spent Christmas Day at the woods with their little boy. Fantastic! All in all it was a nice relaxing day and a useful one, taking stock and planning the year ahead. I’ll finish with a few atmospheric photos of the winter woodland. Hope 2019 continues to be a good one here at the woods and for everyone who reads this blog. Happy New Year.