January | 2023 | Diary of a man and his woodland

One of the first new shoots, this is honeysuckle. There are some tips of bluebells just pushing through too and elder leaf buds are starting to open. I can’t believe we are half way through January already but I’m happy with that. The daylight is just starting to stretch out a bit.

Yesterday was a break in the wet and windy weather we have had last week. It was sunny and barely a breeze but the strong winds had broken the branch that the bird feeders were hanging on, so first job was to reposition them and fill them up.

I took my chainsaw to cut up the three small sycamore I had previously felled, then chop and stack for seasoning while still fresh and easy to split. Because it was so calm, it was ideal for felling a few more, there are still dozens of weak or misshaped trees that need thinning out. So I decided to take advantage of taking three more down. The first was tricky, it was in the path of the other two, so I needed to remove that first but it looked like it’s natural lean would make it fall the wrong way. I used a technique of first cutting the bird’s beak at the front, then plunge cutting the middle out, sticking some wedges in to stop it falling back before taking the last piece of the back cut. It worked but it got hung up badly in another tree. It took several undercuts and pulling with a rope to free it. Hard work indeed. I’ve left them to deal with next visit.

I filled my trugs with dry logs to take home and soon it was lunchtime. I took a tin of soup to heat up in the camper but first I needed to wash out the new nesting pans I had bought specifically for the camper. They are just anodised aluminium and didn’t cost much but will do the job.

Next job was to cut up those long logs from the previous felling, split and stack them in my new logstore. Back aching work by the time I had finished but hugely satisfying. These will be in storage for seasoning for two years.

Lovely satisfying day and to think I nearly didn’t go! Here’s a few photos from my walkabout. Below is a huge beech tree, the sun catching the top.

Lovely sunlit hazel stool

Squirrel drey high in a beech tree

It’s 2023 and traditionally I should be wishing you all a Happy New Year. I don’t normally engage with all that stuff because it’s just meaningless. The world doesn’t reset on the 1st of every calendar year and suddenly become a better and happier place. If there is such a thing as a new year then it should start around the 21st Dec and the winter solstice. Yet the belief that it’s going to be a new beginning and maybe better, still persists with many people. For me it’s just the next day after yesterday and the year will bring more of the same old crap plus some new crap! If I wind the clock back to New Year 2022 the greetings I should have been getting weren’t a “Happy New Year” but “Welcome to the Worst Year of Your Life.” So logically this is a year that should be a better year for me and I’m glad to see the back of 2022. It was the first year not to be with my wife at Christmas and New Year for 53 years, I can’t describe how that felt and a year when I also lost my sister. So now onto a more positive tone.

Yesterday was a beautiful clear sunny day. The low level sun brings out some fabulous lighting. I mainly went to get some logs for home and just have a lovely woodland themed day. I filled the bird feeders and am pleased to report there were many birds swooping in to feed. A few weeks ago I had previously reported how quiet and absent the bird population had become, wondering if they had been decimated by Avian Flu. There were plenty of blue tits, coal tits, great tits robins and an odd nuthatch. Not feeding but spotted, was a Jay; a blackbird and long tailed tits. Below is the Jay, not a great photo but you can make out what it is with it’s distinctive blue wing feathers. I am lucky to have a couple in my collection and they are one of the most beautiful feathers I have seen.

I was rather annoyed to find someone had felled and removed a dead oak from my wood. It might have been a neighbour as it was next to the ride and perceived as a danger.but it’s wrong on two counts – they should have asked permission and should have left the resulting logs for me. It amounts to theft otherwise. I shall make enquiries. I had intended felling it for safety reasons but at least I would have had some great firewood.

My new friendly robin was with me again, following me around and coming very close to me. At one point I thought it was going to land on my shoulder or hat. You can see it about to lift off as I snapped the camera. I heard a loud fluttering right next to my ear.

Here it is directly below me. It shows no fear and I spent several minutes on a few occasions where were were simply just looking at each other less than a metre apart.

I decided I needed to do a little bit of something useful, so felled a small weak sycamore by hand with my bow saw. It was earmarked to come down at some point. I need to stock up on logs for seasoning for the future, my resources are dwindling but should see me through this and the next winter but I like to keep the conveyor belt moving so I will always have some that are at least two years old.

Some neighbours arrived and we had a nice catch up and I showed them my camper van. I’m really looking forward to spring when hopefully I can start sleeping over in it. Theoretically I could do it now but the long dark nights would make it quite boring. I’ll leave you with a few more photos and say I hope you all have an OK year – that will do for me.