After a very wet start to the week yesterday was a great day. Sunny outbreaks with a light wind, mild temperature and dry! Great to be out and working in the wood even though it is a bit heavy going underfoot with certain parts quite muddy.
I have been steadily working through the knotty lumps of the turkey oak that I originally put on the “too difficult” pile but now need to tackle. The easiest way is to use the chain saw and simply cut the gnarly, twisted grain bits into fairly regular lumps that can be stacked for seasoning. When you consider that an axe splits wood along the grain in a split second it is quite a laborious and time consuming process to cut through every inch of the way. But rather that than leave the wood to rot. I am keen to get this part of the wood processing completed before the warm weather comes. That way the logs will have maximum time to dry out and be ready for potential sale in the autumn.
Looking forward and planning over seasons and lifetimes for planting is a feature of working in a woodland, and one that is both satisfying but also challenging. It seems to be that whatever task you plan to undertake should ideally have been started yesterday, or last month. An example of this is the planned pollarding of the sycamores at the top of the wood. I thought that this would be an ideal job to move onto after the turkey oak, only to read that the sap starts to rise very early in sycamore trees and that any work on them should be done in December. This way the tree is in its least active/most dormant phase and has the best chance of recovery and resuming a healthy growth pattern after the pruning. I know that often there is scope for ignoring these “rules” but it strikes me that if you are working on an established tree that has invested thirty years in growth to date then it is worth respecting the best advice and not risking that investment by being cavalier in your approach. So one to add to the calendar for the winter.
It is all very well planning ahead and doing things at the right time but it is also very important to enjoy the woodland in the here and now. There are signs of stuff growing again in the woodland. The wild garlic is beginning to show through the leaf litter, this bodes well for later in the spring and more homemade pesto using the fresh green leaves. The bluebells are also starting to show, this show of blue wild flowers for me represent all that is great about a woodland in spring – can’t wait. The catkins on the hazel are now absolutely full of pollen and ready to spread their seed and to set fruit (nuts) for the autumn.
It has been a very windy winter and the woodland is looking as stark as I have seen it with virtually no leaves left on any of the trees. As the sun is climbing gradually higher in the sky the sunlight is falling again directly on the bottom part of the wood after and absence of 3 months or so. With no leave canopy the light gets right to the ground and encourages all the seeds to get going again and have their time in the sun. Huge relief to think that I am not responsible for any of the scheduling or processes involved. I don’t have to mark anything down on the calendar, look up when to, or how to……all I have to do is to sit back and enjoy the show.
More next time………
Tim Burr 