Paul, Jim, Theo and I with some unexpected help from Marion, her daughter in law, Caroline and her two wonderful children, began the coppice work on the shortest day.
The 3rd arm of the old coppice hornbeam pollarded. Two arms of leaning Ash. A further old coppice of over stretched hornbeam was begun, one arm coppiced. I will be 69 when the stool is all coppiced! Paul invited me to look again at Hornbeam, see how it grows, not in straight lines but twists and turns sometimes back on itself. I’d not noticed. In an old log pile of Hornbeam, he cut into a cord, and found a perfect circle of black. Two fungi battling it out for territory, he said.
It was the year of fungi for me. The Mother Tree, Suzanne Simmard, The Heart of trees, and of course, Entangled Lives. , Marlin Sheldrake.
A pleasure to have Theo with us, working hard and well with Paul in this short day, right until dusk.
Kaliwood 