Every year at this time Rory's family gathers to remember his birthday and to do some management in the wood. I am always amazed at the diversity we have created there in quite a short time. It used to be a Turkey-oak monoculture with almost no understory, but a lot of other native trees have been planted and the Turkey-oaks have all gone.
We met a convoy of cars and prepared to do battle, only to find that they contained a team of volunteers on a Sunday work party that was organised by the Friends. Red faces all round! Frankly, I was relieved, as my posse was more concerned with finding a nice public lavatory. Us old guys have to consider our prostates before we go into a full-on rumble. All the same, we are up for it. Just bring it on! Grrrr.

The real reason for our work party was that I applied for a grant from the Forestry Commission (now ominously termed "Forest Enterprise" (It sounds like the sort of wooden ship that turns over and sinks off the Dutch coast). I succeeded in the application and was all set up to plant 1000 hazel trees when I was told that the money had run out. This is actually a relief because 1000 trees is an awful lot to plant on a small site. We settled for 100.
No doubt the squirrels and jays will be pleased, but, if we had a decent density of hazels, maybe dormice could move in?