Gravenhurst has few landmarks. Two ancient churches, a charming methodist chapel, a Victorian school house, a village hall. Our river and its bridges are modest in scale, our hills unmountainous. But we do have something that is very much worthy of note, and that’s a tree. If I asked where you’d find ‘here be dragons’ […]
In June 2018 I published a post entitled “A tale of two ashes” in which I described the fate of two young ash trees I had coppiced the year before and which, after regrowing vigorously were succumbing, to different extents, to Chalara ash dieback – A tale of two ashes – Wassledine . I did […]
At this time of year we aim to be completely prepared for winter. All winter feed is in, water supplies are working and insulated against the coming frost, shed clean and tidy. For once I think we can tick all of those boxes. We put off the day when the herd comes indoors until the […]
For years I’ve been waging lowkey war on the sallow that grows in one hazel plantation we look after. (Sallow for simplicity, but I’m including ‘goat willow’, Salix caprea ‘grey willow’ S. cinerea, as well as hybrids of the two, under that umbrella). Knowing sallow is an important part of the woodland ecosystem, I’ve never […]
Suddenly it’s quiet in the woods. It happens sometime in July, and it happens almost overnight. Because for large parts of the year the wood is my office, I’m lucky enough to enjoy the seasonal tide of bird song as the sound track of my working day, so when these dramatic changes happen, even I, […]
I first came across the term ‘succession’ in a biological context during my ‘A’ levels, many years ago. Unlike most of the stuff included in those exam courses, it really caught my attention. It wasn’t until well into the first year of the biology degree course I later scraped on to, that I noticed it […]
Wilding, the return of nature to a British farm, Isabella Tree. 2018, pub. Picador If I was writing a review for the back of this book I think “thought provoking” would do nicely. Given freedom to add another word, I’d go for “extremely thought provoking”. Having read the book in the spring after my wife […]
I was chatting to Colin Carpenter recently. It was late in the day and the weather was mild. We were in a chatting mood. Colin runs the Community Tree Trust from a nursery in Maulden and it seems we share a fascination for the natural world as well as a lifelong obsession with trees. We […]
About eighteen months ago I cut two small ash trees down as part of an effort to make some space for our embryonic charcoal business. These had both been planted in our small wood, Bottoms’ Corner, in February 1999, and had reached a diameter of about fifteen centimetres or so. Their absence meant […]
There’s a lot of it about this year; cow parsley that is. I’ve noticed more of it than usual along roadsides and hedge banks all over the country. Quite often, in spring, it’s easy to be overcome by the profusion of everything after a long winter of grey and brown. It’s usually the very greenness of […]