Our first trees arrive!

Good day sirs/madames,

Today, the handiest man in HFL (Matt), Phil and I took receipt of the first trees for Snail Wood, amongst a pallette full of stakes and deer guards delivered in preparation for next months planting. Of course we didn't just take receipt of the trees and protective gear. The hardware was put into a temporary storage location at the end of the HFL road disrupting the net of HFL's extreme volleyballers. Whatever the weather they are out there every lunchtime, digging, spiking and setting. The forty odd small trees and shrubs consisting of downy birch, blackthorn, dogweed, buckthorn and spindle amongst others, needed to be temporarily stored in the ground until being planted out into the woodland. On this fine, sunny, but bitterly cold January morning Phil and I took our spade to the still partially frozen mud of the tree nursery, dug a hole and heeled in the shrubs which had handily come in one big clump. When first seeing the tree nursery we could clearly see that some wascally wabbits had been digging for treasure in it so naturally we were concerned for our little ones...err trees. An inpromptu rabbit proof fence was erected out of some wire meshing, a stake and some cable ties, dug into the ground slightly. A grand effort that should stop the rabbits having a buffet lunch.

This arrival brings home just how close we are to planting the first half of Snail Wood and just how far we have come in less than 18 months of this merry band of do-gooders initially getting together.

So... look out for the little ones as you enter HFL over the next month and say ahhhhhhh, aren't they cute.

Sunny Sunday 21 January 07

Encouraged by Ric's optimism (even though we'd cleared the wrong half a couple of weeks earlier) and good advice not to do more than 3 or 4 hours, we were able to clear most of the right half in bright sunshine.

This included some felling of small trees, clearing away logs, twigs and brambles and a modest bonfire (which we permit on the basis that the CO2 will be reabsorbed by the wood). We also found the skull and jaw of a small deer near the "burial mound" in the north corner.

Everyone is looking forward to actually planting something!

PS Note to all, in future double Ric's time / effort estimates!

Busy, busy, busy

Wow, we've had an amazing couple of months in the wood with loads of exciting things going on.

During the last couple of weeks of November we had SP Landscapes in to fell about 80 poplars on the site, this has been done to allow us to replant with native trees suitable for a wet woodland. The plan is to get the first stage of replanting done in the next 2 or 3 weeks.

The felling has had a huge impact on the area and I'll try to get some pictures of the new landscape posted this weekend. In order for the planting to go ahead we've started clearing all the debris and woodchip away, this has proven to be a much bigger task than I expected but with enough volunteers and positive attitude I think we'll be OK.

We've also been moving ahead with some fundraising things, we had a big push at work in December with a Christmas fair and a raffle, the Friends of Snail Wood scheme has also been launched and we've had some fantastic offers of support, which we're all really grateful for.

The next few weekends should involve more clearing and then the brilliant part of marking out the planting plan and doing some actual planting - hurrah.