Monday 9 April 2012

Wooding, not blogging


First post for ages and ages. But we haven’t been idle in the woods. Over the winter we have been coppicing again; next to the area where we started the coppicing a few years ago. We didn’t get quite as large an area done this time as there was only me chainsawing (in previous years my dad and brother were more involved) but Tom did come along and do some felling with is axe so that was a help and julie has been doing a great job processing what we felled. Yesterday in the woods looked like spring; the honeysuckle and birch in leaf and the buds are starting to open on the chestnut too, the first bluebells are now flowering and there’s plenty of pretty little white anemones. The first few heads of bracken are also appearing in the clearing so managing those will again be a regular job in the months ahead; there’s also some birch saplings springing up which will need managing to maintain the glade for wildflowers and all they bring. As well as tidying up from the winter’s coppicing by burning most of the stuff that is too small for logs, we also put up the tent. This is our old one from about 10 years ago and if it survives the winds will be a shelter when needed during visits to the woods.