I arranged to meet my pal Phil to start work on his shavehorse now that we had a nice larch plank. The weather forecast wasn’t great but we had the shelter to keep dry. As well as it being a place to get out of the rain, I want it to be a workshop for woodworking and maybe some blacksmithing, so it was nice to have a guest who could make use of it. As we stepped out of the cars, I could see Phil looking intently at something on the ground. It was a mole hill with a pile of poo on it. I would have assumed a walker’s dog had kindly left it but Phil identified it as fox poo. Apparently they will defacate onto a mound or high point as a way of marking their territory. Close inspection shows hair and small bone and what appears to be a tooth. A quick Google of small animal teeth likely to be it’s prey suggest it could be a mole. It might not be a pleasant subject but the implication of it for a nature lover is rewarding. We know I have a fox visitor from my trailcam shots but the territory marking suggests it is a regular haunt for it. If you find photos of poo offensive, look away now!

We had a walkabout noticing how much the ground cover is starting to emerge and a few leaves starting to open on some of the trees before setting up our workshop at the shelter and starting the job of drilling the plank with three holes for the legs. It had to be a hand drill of some sort and we opted for Phil’s large scotch eyed auger. It was very hard work and reminded us of how life was for wood workers before power tools.

Another nature loving woodland neighbour turned up and we headed off to see the bees in the owl box. No sign of them but I’m hoping they had simply hunkered down for the bad weather which was brewing. The bonus was spotting three roe deer running through the woods below us, they were heading for shelter under some large yew trees. We watched for a while then tried to get nearer. They must have seen us and ran off again.

The skies were darkening, the wind blowing and rain and hail came. We headed back to the shelter and three like-minded people chatted about woodlands, wildlife, bushcraft and camping for a long time as the weather threw a bit of everything at us, finally subsiding and letting the sun come through. A break for lunch in the warming sun was very welcome.

With the holes drilled, Phil set to work using my shavehorse to shape the ash logs that would make the legs while I started work on making a heavy mallet out of a piece of the hawthorn that had fallen a few weeks ago. We worked quietly, enjoying the sunny woodland setting and sounds of the birds – robins, nuthatches and the melancholy mewing call of a buzzard overhead. We were both in our elements. Phil demonstrates here how the shavehorse leg can double up as a false leg should he be unfortunate to lose one of his own.

As usual, time simply flies at the woods and before long it was time to start packing up. The new shavehorse now has legs. I was hoping we could have done a bit more work but for now it can keep mine company in the shelter.

The forecast looked a bit dodgy for Saturday, storm Freya brewing out in the Atlantic and threatening some possible rain and winds but I wanted to go and drop a few more skinny sycamore to leave on the ground for deadwood. The Bluebells and now the Wood Anemones are pushing through and they cover the woodland floor. So this was going to be my last session for the winter because I hate trampling on them. As it turned out the weather was beautiful for most of the day and as you can see from this photo of some very tall lime trees on my ride edge, the morning was clear and sunny.

First job as usual, check the trail cam. Not much – mainly grey squirrels but a nice shot of the fox and a couple of the hare, but hey what is this? Some guy in an orange jacket with a dog walking down my woods! I immediately recognised him as one of the other woodland owners, a guy I had met for the first time a couple of weeks ago. The next camera shot showed him coming back up. My shelter is at the bottom of the area so I figured he was simply being curious and came to have a look at it. No harm done so no worries but personally I wouldn’t enter another neighbour’s plot on my own without specific invitation and even then would be reluctant. Funnily, he was out later on in the morning with same jacket and dog walking along the ride and he stopped for a chat. I didn’t let on I’d caught him on camera. No point embarrassing him and causing friction.

I set-to with chainsaw and felled four more small sycamore, making a total of forty this winter. Most have been used as material for the toilet walls or cut into firewood sizes but a good number have been left on the ground. The area is now strewn with logs and trunks which will slowly decay and provide homes and food for all sorts of creatures and fungi. It also softens the rather manicured look of the plantation, adding some character and points of interest and a more natural look. It will soon fill out again. First the anemones, and bluebells, then the brambles and ferns and whatever else is waiting for the spring.

What about the bees in the owl box then? Well, when the guy from the woodland Trust visited a couple of weeks ago, he saw the box and commented that it contained a wasps’ nest. Although the box is quite high up, he could see the insects flying in and out. I was a little puzzled because as far as I am aware, during winter the colony dies off, apart from the Queen, who hibernates until spring then starts a new small nest, lays some eggs and it builds from there. Could it be bees? In the UK our wild bees are mainly bumble bees, the big round fluffy ones and mason bees which burrow into the ground. But it’s possible that a colony of domesticated honey bees had swarmed last summer and found a new home in my Little Owl box. With binoculars at hand I zoomed in on the hole which was a busy gateway of honey bees coming and going. Wow what a thrill – honey bees. I have no idea how long they are likely to thrive there as it’s much smaller than a conventional beehive which can be added to as the colony expands. There’s no way I am getting the ladder out to investigate but I’d love to see what it looks like inside the box. One day when they abandon it, I will get the opportunity but for now I am happy to leave them to it.

Another small bonus was finding a small bunch of wild daffodils nearby. That’s one of the joys of owning the woods and getting to know it well, there is always something new to find if you take the time to explore.

The recent warm weather has brought a few things to the surface. The first Ramson leaves (wild garlic) are poking through, as are Wood Anemones and nettles. Honeysuckle and Elder leaves are opening too. I had another urgent job to do, moving a couple of saplings. A small oak and a hazel that were growing in my camp area. I moved them into the clearing where the sycamore is being thinned. Another bonus find – as I dug holes to plant them, I found two acorns and a plump Sweet Chestnut which must have been cached by a squirrel. Well Mr Grey I have reclaimed my nuts which I shall pot up to see if they grow on. Thanks for looking after them for me!

Finally I have a very good friend who is desperate to make a shavehorse like mine for green woodworking. One of my neighbours has milled some larch trunks form his wood and kindly donated a beautiful thick plank for the project. I am hatching a plan to invite my pal over and we can start to make the shavehorse together very soon. Here it is resting quietly until then.

A great day at the office yesterday. Sunny, warm, more like summer than the middle of February. I arrived at 7.30 and the sun was just climbing over the horizon, sending warm golden light flooding into the woods. I filled the bird feeders and in seconds they were swooping down. Grabbed this nice shot of a nuthatch. The songs and twitterings of the birds told me that spring is just around the corner as they vie for a partner and mark their territory. I heard a tawny owl and a great spotted woodpecker in the distance, a thrush sang it’s ever-changing song and all felt good in this little part of the world. I checked the trail camera which was mainly squirrels, just an odd shot of a fox, hare and Muntjac deer. Still great to see them around though.

The bluebells are really pushing through, dog’s mercury here and there and a few nettles are emerging from their winter hibernation. My plan was to fell as many small sycamore in the plantation area as I could. I don’t like crushing the plants more than necessary and I will be finishing felling operations soon. My last visit and chats with the Woodland Trust officer highlighted the need for much more deadwood in that area. So I intended to fell some weak sickly trees and leave most of then as they fell and allow then to slowly rot down. Deadwood is incredibly important for the ecology of woodlands. As they decay, fungi, mosses, lichens and insects etc move in which also provides food for other wildlife. I managed to drop fourteen trees and am pleased to say my felling skills must be improving. All but three came straight down where I planned and the ones that didn’t were only slightly snagged and took little effort to release.

The ground looks quite manicured right now because I brushcut the brambles down last autumn in order to be able to work without tripping over them. This will be transformed very soon, the wood anemones will carpet the floor with green and white joined by the bluebells. Later when summer arrives the ferns and bramble will sprout and much of the dead trees will be hidden.

I recently bought a new (old) camping stove. It’s a Soviet era copy of a well known Swedish model – the Optimus 8R. I found that butane gas powered stoves don’t work well in the cold weather. These run on white gas (American term) which is basically refined petrol and don’t suffer from cold weather. I think it’s such a cool looking bit of kit and it all packs away into it’s little tin. It needed some work on it to get it working properly, so wanted to try it out by having a brew and cooking some lunch with it. Here’s my stove kit. The little bottle, I bought at a car boot sale and holds methylated spirit (now called denatured alcohol) which is used to heat the burner to vapourise the white gas in the tank. The small conatainer next to it is an old “vesta” match case and the little leather pouch I made myself.

Here it is in action for my mid-morning coffee. It boiled the water in minutes.

The meal planned was my own concoction. Some dried gnocchi balls which first needed boiling for a few minutes. I mixed a thick sauce using dried, packeted mushroom soup, added some black olives to the gnocchi and poured the sauce over it. It doesn’t look the most aesthetically pleasing meal but it tasted fine.

The trees I felled needed a bit of organising, some had fallen on my paths so I had to cut them into movable sizes. I cut out some easy to split logs for firewood and made deadwood piles with some of the knobly pieces. Something will find homes among them before long.

Yesterdays visit was specifically to meet the new woodland Trust Outreach officer who had heard about our woods and my work there and wanted to meet me and any other owners to see what we had been up to. He was due to arrive mid morning bu I was bright and early at 7.30 to get a few jobs done too. First job to try to get the robin to feed off my hand again. No problem, it filled it’s belly then sat on a nearby twig and sang it’s little heart out. The weather was great and there was a definite feel of Spring to it, the birds being very vocal. The hazel catkins are looking beautiful, hanging like yellow lamb’s tails. These are the male flowers, the female ones are tiny red things you hardly notice. pollination is mainly by the wind carrying clouds of pollen from the males on the off-chance that they will land on a female flower somewhere. Isn’t nature amazing.

Next job was to re-secure the bent hawthorn branch that I had created an arch with by my table. It had been flattened by the fallen tree last week. I’ve propped it up with a Y-shaped pole and lashed it to another tree for stability. At the end of it, I re-fitted a stake to tie it to. Looking good again.

I finished the compost toilet wall which looks like a small fortress now. I shall enhance it with some brash at some point. I retrieved my trailcam but there was very little on it other than squirrels. I headed off to the gate to meet my visitor Jonathan.

A young and very enthusiastic guy who comes from an ecological background. We had a good long walkabout in my plot and he offered snippets of advice and approving comments as we went along. He was very knowledgeable about plant and bird species pointing out and identifying things I didn’t know. He enthused about my brash hedges and hazel coppicing and suggested installing a few dormice nest boxes to test if there are any present in the woods. They like to dig a small burrow below hazel trees to hibernate in. That would be fantastic if there are any. During the afternoon we wwlaked some of the rides and I took him to meet two other woodland owners for a chat them with too. It was a very pleasant and educational day. I’m buzzing with ideas now.

The weather forecast for yesterday looked unpromising – wet morning and pretty windy. I’d arranged for my two mates to help with some felling and it was looking like it wouldn’t be suitable for it but we decided to go anyway and see what we could do. Sadly one of my pals wasn’t well enough and was truly missed. Get well soon Si. I was awake way too early so arrived around 7.30am. As is often the case there, the weather wasn’t half as bad as predicted. Just a small shower and some gusty winds but it didn’t hinder us.

One of my neighbours had warned me that my leaner Hawthorn had blown down even further, so that was going to need dropping fully to make it safe. First though, we tried to get a robin to take food from my friend’s hand. It seemed very wary, maybe it was due to a stranger’s presence or the fact that there were two of us in the vicinity. It approached several times and almost landed. I had wanted to give Phil the gift of a wild bird feeding from his hand but unfortunately not this time.

The Hawthorn was hanging on by a thread, it’s roots torn up. It was lying on a small bent branch from another tree that I had anchored to make a decorative arch and I was hoping it wouldn’t break. A fireplace and my table were also in danger. Some top branches were also helping to hold it up. Eventually we decided to get a rope around it and pull sideways. It dropped easily and fortunately didn’t break anything. The tree was dead and the roots had rotted.

We cut it up roughly and stacked most of it. It’s a very hard timber so it will make some good mallets. Next up was to recover the trailcam and see what was on it. Here’s the link to the edited compilation. An interesting few seconds right at the end.

The rain started and we headed to the shelter for a brew. I have fixed the old paraffin camping stove and it worked a treat, boiling the kettle in about seven minutes. We sat in our cosy man-cave, drinking coffee, reflecting on life and enjoying the view and being in the moment. These are the times that are worth savouring and provide happy memories for the future.

Onto some more serious graft, felling more small sycamore. The bluebell leaves are really pushing through now and the sap is oozing out of the stumps we cut a few weeks ago. So I have been wanting to do some more thinning out before spring gets into gear. I got off to a good start with three down in succession, falling just where I wanted and without hang-ups. Next one was the smallest, only about five inches diameter at the base and looked like a dead cinch to drop. These are the deceptively difficult ones to deal with. It was already in contact with another tree at the crown which was just enough to keep it sitting bolt upright, even though I had almost completely severed it with the felling cut. A rope around it and sideways pull eventually dislodged it. Another two were felled making a total of six. I cut them into long poles for the compost toilet walls and some shorter ones for processing into firewood later. Phil worked like a mule, lugging them away from the area. It’s looking much better now in that quarter of the plantation. There will be much more thinning needed in the next few years but for now I am pretty satisfied. I might be able to drop a few more before spring too.

Phil picked out a couple of knobbly logs to take home. They reminded us of scary aliens or trolls and we fantasized about how we would feel if we saw these creatures running around the woods while we were camping. He topped one off with some wood shavings for a hairpiece. Reminded me of Beaker in the Muppets. Actually, laid on it’s side it also resembled a small alligator and we considered putting glass marbles in the sockets for eyes.

Lastly we continued building the front wall of the composting toilet using the long logs we had cut. It’s just short of a couple more pieces to bring it up to the desired height.

The afternoon had turned brighter and as we packed up to go, we stopped to admire the woods, as the setting sun glanced sideways with it’s golden hue lighting up the trees. Tired and satisfied with our hard work and loving being in the woods, we both felt reluctant to leave. We imagined setting up tents, lighting a campfire, cooking something and sitting around relaxing with some laughter and banter. Not to be this time but maybe it won’t be long. An early spring camp-over is one of my hoped for plans this year.

The forecast for yesterday was dry but windy. I had hoped to do a bit more felling but when it’s windy, it’s too dangerous to attempt. Earlier in the week, two neighbours had reported that intruders had been into their woods and stolen their trail cameras and a few other things and thrown things around. So it was with some trepidation when I arrived that they might had been into mine too. The trail camera was in a new position that was quite visible to anyone walking around that area.  I could see there had been intruders, they had tampered with a few things in and around my log/tool shed. Nothing was taken and I don’t leave anything of real value. I headed down to the camera and was relieved to see it was still there. Next thing to check was my shelter. It seems that the thieves are attracted to structures in the hope that there might be something worth stealing and at the same time, get some small minded, sadistic pleasure from trashing other people’s property. Thankfully it was in tact. I suspect they had simply walked down the short car track to my logshed, found nothing worth taking, then moved on rather than exploring the centre of the woods. The shelter is visible from there, but unless you know the pathway to it, it looks difficult to get to through brambles and undergrowth. So no harm done but trespass, theft and vandalism really winds me up. I find it hard to understand why this type of person can be so different to most other decent folks. Some of us are builders – people who are driven to improve the environment, providing support and positive actions for the benefit of ourselves and others around us. Then there are the destroyers who have little or nothing to contribute. Selfish and lacking moral fibre, they spread their poison, causing damage and stress.

Onto more positive subjects. First the Robin I am befriending. Here he/she is.

It’s learning fast. This time I hadn’t even got the food out, when it landed close by, then flew toward me, ready to land. It stopped short, realising I wasn’t holding any food. I set my camera on a tripod aimed at the area I stand when feeding it. It has a wifi facility that connects to my smartphone which shows me what the camera is seeing and allows me to trigger the shutter remotely. Sure enough the little bird landed on my hand and I fired a few shots off with my other hand. I’m pleased to be able to share this image and one day hope to let other visitors have this experience too.

I checked the trailcam but this time was disappointing. Just squirrels and some redwings. No larger animals. I set it back up in a previous spot where I have had the fox, deer and hare. It will be about two weeks before I go again but hopefully there will be some good video.

I continued with the rebuilding of the composting toilet enclosure. Another side and part of the front built. I ran out of suitably long and straight poles so will have to fell some more small sycamore to complete it. It’s looking much more private though.

Last week I took my fixed point photographs and helped a neighbour fell some trees. It occurred to me that it would be a good area to include in my regular portfolio and asked his permission which he granted. So I headed down to take some shots. On the way I met some other neighbours who I haven’t seen for ages. We had a good long chat and it’s this element of joint woodland ownership that I enjoy. Never any danger of boring anyone with woodland talk! This is the photo where my friend has started working on. It should change quite significantly as he progresses and the woodland responds to the extra light. That’s all for now folks.

I have probably mentioned it in the past, that I participate in a Woodland Trust volunteering role. It’s called fixed point photography and the purpose is to monitor and record how certain areas of the woodland are evolving where active management is being employed. Photos are taken from the same spots every three months and uploaded to the W.T.s website to be used as they wish. I take a series of six photos giving 360 degree views from each of six different locations. Three of them are in my woods and the other three from the rides looking at neighbouring woods. So that was my man purpose for going on Saturday. It was dull and cold but the cloudy conditions actually help by giving more even lighting. At this time of year, any sunshine is low down and creates overly contrasty photos and often glare on the lens.

First job though, was to attempt hand-feeding the robin again. This time there was little hesitation as I stood still with food on my outstretched hand, it landed close by then onto my fingers to eat some food. This will be a regular event now when I visit. It is truly fantastic to have a little bird trust you and stand on your fingers. Next time I will try to set up a remote camera to photograph it.  I have also fixed the fault on the trail camera which was caused by damp on the switch. I have placed it in a new position so next post should have some more video footage.

This was the sight that greeted me when I arrived. An old hawthorn tree has been partly blown over and is lodged in another tree. The roots have been partly ripped up and as it’s an area I use a lot, is now unsafe. It’s going to be a challenge to bring it down with it still being anchored, but hung up at the same time. I shall have to give it some thought as to the method of dropping it.

One of the other plot holders has just bought a chainsaw and is starting to learn to use it to fell some of his trees. I had arranged to meet him as he wanted to ask me some questions. We decided to take a couple down together and I’m pleased to say they came down perfectly as planned. It’s quite exciting when they start to go and then hit the ground just where you wanted. I left him for a while to take another down on his own. He did a great job and I wish mine would all go as well as those three. I hope to do some more felling in mine next time.

I am rebuilding some of the walls around my composting toilet. The original ones were made from thin hazel rods from coppicing and they have shrunk and sunk giving very little privacy. I already re-built two walls with long logs last year but ran out of them. Last week’s felling has provided more material so I started to move them from this stack and started to work on it.

I took the opportunity to assess our felling operations from last week and take a few photos showing how thinning the weedy ones out is opening up the structure of the plantation. Still lots to do but it’s a good start. It looks more severe than it actually is as I have strimmed the bramble down and there is no ground cover at the moment. Come spring and this will look amazing as the bluebells and wood anemones take advantage of the extra food and light.

Yesterday was planned for felling a load of small sycamore with the aid of two good mates, Simon and Phil. They have been offering their help for a while so the intention was to drop as many as we could, clear the brash, cut the stems into logs and wheelbarrow them away from site to a place where I can eventually split and stack them for seasoning. That’s exactly what we achieved in a day that would have taken me several weeks on my own. Approximately fourteen trees came down. This part of my woods is a plantation from the mid 1960s and appears to have never had any thinning done. For the health of the bigger ones and as part of my long term plan to allow more light in and encourage more under-story and ground cover, I need to thin the plantation by approximately one third. Taking out the smaller and sickly ones is the first step. I said they were small specimens and they are compared to their bigger and healthier cousins but their size and ease of felling is deceptive. This photo was taken last week and I include it to show how this part of the wood is almost entirely mono-culture sycamore with virtually no smaller under-story present. There are a few self-sown hazel plants here and there which I hope will develop into bigger specimens.

Deciding which way they would naturally fall is not easy and it was a gusty day. Being tall and relatively thin, they whip around in the wind, sometimes causing them to jam on the chainsaw when cutting and sometimes getting hung up in nearby trees. About half of them got hung up and this is where a couple of willing mates comes in really handy. If they get caught in a fork, they can be very difficult to release. With much pulling and levering and lifting and swinging, we got them all down safely.  Working as a well oiled machine and teamwork, I processed the trees with the chainsaw while my mates cleared the brash, stacked long poles for later projects. Simon made many trips wheel-barrowing the logs away. We worked on one specific area (still much more to do in other areas) and by the end of the day it was looking a lot healthier.

Breaking for lunch and a cowboy coffee provided some fun. I attempted to use my vintage paraffin stove to boil the pot but for some reason it wouldn’t behave and simply provided a plume of yellow, stinky flames. I may have overfilled it, preventing it from vapourising. Will have to experiment. Settling the coffee grounds was achieved by Phil banging a stick on the side of the pot, inspiring an impromptu First Nation American chant and war dance. I retrieved my trail camera and took it home to see if it hard been working. Last week the display was malfunctioning but seems to be ok now. Here’s a compilation of the latest animal activity.

Happy New Year to everyone and I hope it will be a good one for you. 2018 was a good year for me at the woods. I had four fantastic camping experiences there, three with my pals and one alone. I rebuilt my shelter, got some good results on the trailcam and am now seeing some significant (though subtle) positive changes to the woods as a result of my coppicing and thinning work. Very encouraging. This year I hope to take down numerous small and sickly sycamore in the plantation which will give the others a little more light and food. I shall then re-assess the remaining large ones and plan to thin those in the coming years. I need to remove at least a third of the whole plantation eventually. A small pond might be constructed and more camping days.

I arrived early yesterday and it was still quite dark. As soon as I stepped out, a robin landed at my feet. It hopped around me, anticipating some food. It followed me as I walked down my path to the feeders. I have wanted to see if I could get one to take food from my hand and this seemed an ideal opportunity to try before putting the food out. I propped myself against the log store and held out my palm with some food. Robin landed on a small branch two feet away cocking it’s head this way and that, bobbed around me a few times before eventually plucking up courage to land and take a piece. It flew down to eat it. In a few minutes it returned, hovered inches away, then landed again on my fingers. It paused for a while, still assessing me, then proceeded to eat several pieces. It flew off and returned a third time. I was overwhelmed with pleasure. The thrill of a wild bird, trusting you enough to perch on your hand is incredible. That was treat one!

It was time to get on with the main job – bramble cutting. Next week, my pals are coming to help me fell and clear several of those weak sycamore, so I needed to clear the areas around them of bramble which are trip hazards and obstruct easy access. The petrol Husqvarna brushcutter does a great job of cutting and shredding them though it is time consuming and hard on the back. The bluebells (already poking through in places) and anemones will appreciate the extra light and food this spring.

Time for a brew. At home I am going through a sorting out phase and came across a lovely old paraffin (kerosene in the U.S.) camping stove. I bought it for a few pounds on a car boot sale a few years ago and although I once fired it up, have never used it to make a brew. Butane stoves do not work well in very cold weather, so could this be an alternative for boiling my kettle when I can’t be bothered making a fire? The stove dismantles and packs away in a tin. It only takes a minute or two to set it up. It has a brass ring cup around the nozzle which you fill with meths (de-natured alcohol) and light. It heats the nozzle tube, vapourising the paraffin. After a minute it’s hot enough and you pump it to pressurize the paraffin which blows ignited vapour out of the nozzle and provides a powerful, hot blue flame which boiled the kettle in no time. It’s fantastic and I love the retro vintage look and technology. Probably dates from the 1920/30s .

My neighbours, L&R arrived and presented me with treat number two, saying it was a bit of a joke, a bit of fun. The parcel felt like an item of clothing. Hoping it wasn’t a kilt or something more embarrassing, I opened it to reveal a fleece jacket with the name of my woods embroidered on it. What a lovely gesture and one I shall treasure. I now have my own corporate clothing! Thankyou.

I set my trailcam up in a new position after having dried it out at home but the display seemed reluctant to work. I think the recording aspect is working but we shall have to wait a week to find out. Disappointing. Whilst eating lunch I spotted a honey bee, unusual at this time of year. Another near neighbour has a beehive so maybe it was one of his. It was a mild and sunny day so the bees must have ventured out. The rest of the day was spent clearing more bramble then I returned home with an aching back but a happy heart.

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.