When we bought our small woodland on the Welsh border in 2015 we had no idea where it would lead.

It had been a tough year or two and even though we live in a great village setting on the edge of the countryside the desire to get away from it all and just sit in the quiet listening to the Ash rattle overhead in the wind or lie back on the earth and stare through the canopy at the Buzzards overhead was so strong that when we got the chance to buy a small wood we jumped at it. Despite having a babe in arms (or back carrier as was more often the case)  we did nothing for a year and sat back and just watched the seasons come and go with Snowdrops, Orchids, Wood Anemone, King Cups, Bluebells, all sorts of amazing Fungi, Butter Burr and so many others there was always something new to wonder at.

As the years and the children have grown we have spent more time in the wood, evenings, weekends, Camping up trees, getting wet, Building a cabin to get dry in after getting wet , learning how to safely use equipment like winches and chainsaws…..in fact anything just to spend time there when not in work.

Through the pandemic the wood became a haunting draw across the border from our house with travel restrictions in place we observed the lock downs and stayed home, when others ran back to the pubs and restaurants in the short periods of normality when restrictions were lifted we rushed back to the wood to see how it was and to see how much nature had reclaimed the paths and routes we had made almost leaving no trace of our time spent there. The constancy of the seasons and the time spent under the canopy lifted the spirits of the family in times when we rarely saw my wife as she is an NHS GP and was vaccinating or seeing patients in the toughest conditions I cannot describe along with the many other for whom we clapped. Just a few hours of walking through the wood after a long day was enough to reset the clock and to slow the pace with time to get away from the pressure of failing elderly family health as well as an unrelenting workload. In the spring between lockdowns we planted 250 silver birch alongside Sweet chestnut and Oak saplings keeping a watchful eye on the 40 year old Ash looking out for tell-tale signs of die-back.

But through all of this the wood is always there, providing wind-blown wood for our log burners (its true wood does heat you at least 3 times when you have to drag it around 45 degree banks!), a safe playground for ours and many other friends and strangers kids and a home to more and more wildlife as the nest boxes we put up became home to Wren, Coal and Blue Tits, Woodpeckers (who snacked on the tits before we metal clad the boxes bending their beaks in the process I’m sure). And finally an Owl, who used to roost in one of the 2 boxes we put up that we found waterlogged and near death one wet night after storm Arwen and warmed back to health in a box by the fire before releasing it back into the wood, 3 times the size dry as wet and much bigger and feistier when warm I can confirm.

We bought the wood as it had been neglected, unmanaged after being planted in the 1980’s for shooting and abandoned shortly thereafter, thinking at first what we would do to it and how we could fix it. We have learned so much from the wood, both practical skills and the softer things like listening, watching and being present, playing hide and seek. Those practical skills will now be put to the test as our eldest son moves to start a new life on a Croft in Scotland adding sheep and chickens to the management and planting skills he has picked up and starting a great adventure on the Isle of Mull paving the way for us to join him once our jobs allow. A whole different set of problems with Deer and Eagles rather than the Badgers and Foxes that inhabit our wood but common problems of shelter and protection for saplings and livestock as well as the humans through what can be long winters again the woods on the croft will provide plenty to do to keep him warm but it will be fencing to keep deer out to allow the headland to naturally regenerate rather than cutting and moving logs for the early years.

So having started out to fix the wood through woodland management (I still have the plan we wrote in 2015 which we are only up to about 2017 on as we speak) what we have come to see is that in fact it’s totally the other way round, gently and softly over the last 7 years we realise that, the wood has been managing and fixing us, it just forgot to write a plan!