From Field To Woodland

 It wasn't all work during the winter. Sometimes you just have to stop and enjoy the view. Stop and just enjoy being there. Stop and watch what is going on around you. These are some of my favourite times and I have to make myself make time for it.  Due to the altitude, we had a reasonable amount of snow. I had learned from the previous owner that it was a popular sledging field with the local youth. We found evidence that it still is popular on one visit, though it is going to get much harder in the future.  The frost did magical things to the snow on the walls of the lower boundary one morning.  As the thaw came, I spent a few minutes mesmerised by the melt water bouncing down a sunny wall. You have to be a little patient. 

 So , the blog has been quiet but the field hasn’t.  It has been a tough winter both from a personal point of view and a weather one. The cold hung around for a long time. The low temperatures and low mood were lifted by a lot of progress with tree planting though.  For all 25 trees being planted in a day doesn’t seem a lot , when you do this once or twice every weekend , suddenly the field starts to fill up and the whole feel of the place changes. Every now and again , you look up from your digging and realise just how much work had been done. So many people answered the calls for help and turned up in shockingly bad weather to push the plan forward. Working in icey winds, hail, snow and frozen ground, progress continued due to the kindness of volunteers.  The Woodland Trusts’ delivery of bundles of 25 trees turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Though the overall quantity was intimidating sometimes (having several hundred trees that need planting before spring w...