An odd title? Well I have this thing about “The New Year”. People celebrate it as if it’s a new car or a new pair of shoes, bound to be better than the old ones but in reality, it’s just the next day in a long series of chance experiences. Optimism is a good thing but I’m sorry to say that life experience has shown me that it’s really a game of roulette. You win some, you lose some. The last two years have been pretty crap for most people due to covid19 (unless you are a manufacturer of face masks, hand sanitiser or lateral flow kits). Isn’t it ironic that the kits that we so much rely on are made in China? Enough of the cynicism, I really hope that things are going to improve but right now it’s not looking like a great start to 2022.
What is great though is spending time in nature and that helps us to focus on the here and now and forget the bigger and uglier aspects. Yesterday I headed off to my woods intending to start tree felling. It’s a long term plan to thin out the overcrowded sycamore plantation. One of my faults is to underestimate the time it takes me to do anything. I thought I might get ten small trees down – in reality it was three.
When I left home it was very windy, not good for felling but it was calm when I arrived at the woods. I figured the wind might follow me later that day, so set about with chainsaw straight away. At the start of the felling season I try to rebuild confidence by tackling the smaller trees. Actually they are more difficult because they tend to get hung up more easily but they look less daunting. Having said that, they are only smaller in diameter, still a good 15-20 metres tall. As predicted, every one got hung up and had to be wrestled out of the neighbouring trees.
Cutting a tree down never comes easy to my conscience. I am doing it for the right reasons – to remove the weak and sickly trees to give more light and nutrients to the bigger healthier ones. It’s standard forestry practice but the more sensitive of us still realise it’s a life being taken. Sometimes the stump will send up new shoots. Some will soon die off but others thrive and form a coppiced stump which can then grow on and be cut again in years to come. Some species coppice better than others and some don’t at all. Sycamore is a very vigorous tree and given enough light will do well. Hazel is a classic coppice species and this photo is a stump that was cut right back about 5 years ago and has now produced these lovely straight rods which can be cut again in a couple of years and will make lovely material for various craft products.
My neighbours came and started some felling in their cherry plantation. Inevitably one got hung up and wedged between a large forked tree. That’s probably the hardest to tackle by yourself and can’t simply be shaken free, so I lent a hand and after much head scratching, pulling and wrestling, we eventually got it down. It’s always a relief when the last piece hits the floor!
My daughter gave me a wood gasifier stove for Christmas. It works differently to the simple metal box types where you light a fire of twigs and have to continually drop more in to keep it going. This one you stack fairly tightly with twigs or in this case, kindling I prepared at home. You wedge pieces of thin bark between to light it (took some doing) but then the hollow casing draws air up and out of the holes at the top, and creates a more stable, efficient and useable flame, almost like a gas ring. It lasted about fifteen minutes, enough time to heat my tin of veggie curry and brew a coffee.
The forecast for the day was great, the wind did arrive and eventually by mid-afternoon so did rain. I’d done as many jobs as I could, so simply retired to the shelter listening to the raindrops on the metal roof and just enjoyed the peaceful woodland scene for half an hour before heading for home – tired but happy. Bye for now.
