The first thing that greeted me as we started our walk this mist heavy morning, was the wonderful smell of wood smoke. A pile of Sitka Spruce brashings were gently smouldering away, and a sweet-scented, white cloud wafted across the only recently flooded field ...
Earlier this year, the Sitka stand had been harvested after 45 years of growth, a long time for the farmer who planted it when aged just 22, to get paid for a slow growing cash crop. The machine that did it was an amazing sight, cutting and lifting the tall heavy trees as if they were mere matchsticks, before speedily stripping the branches in a few, fast minutes Then the on-board computer measured the width and according to that, automatically cut the trunks to the right lengths and just tossed them aside like some playful giant. Another machine then lifted the lengths onto a heavy duty flat-bed lorry and took them across the field to stack them up for the huge transporters to take them away for usage elsewhere. Not all the brashings will be burnt, but they will provide shelter for the new generation of Sitka saplings due to be planted next year after the ground has rested. and his son will be the one to see these trees harvested. One wonders what the newest machinery then will be like? They seem to be incredibly sophisticated already. Wow!
I carried on under the shroud of mist (again in necessary wellies) to see what else is new, the sheep watched me as they sauntered slowly up along the hawthorn hedgerow
Today turned out to be about wood in various ways, no surprises there then ....
except to see how very bare of leaves some of the breeze exposed beech trees are now
But there was another surprise in store for me, the beginnings of pleaching an old hedge.
Pleaching means to interweave and creates wonderful windbreaks in boundary fences. The prickliness of the hawthorn made it an excellent tree for farmland boundaries and also provides excellent habitats for small birds and insects in wide pasture areas. So it made a lovely sight this morning to see the first steps being made to revive another hedge.
As the song says, "The first cut is the deepest." and at first it may seem rather cruel ...
but then the wood is bent over lower and supported with stakes to create a thicker space.
What is amazing is, that come the spring, there will be masses of young healthy shoots bursting vigorously from the old, seemingly tired old wood and a new sturdy hedge will begin to form where once there was just a straggly line of emaciated looking trees. I look forward to seeing how it progresses and this time next year taking more photos of it here
The photo below, shows just a years growth on a hawthorn hedge higher up the pasture.
Something I love about freshly cut hawthorn is the deep.rich orange colour of the wood
the fresh scent of it, like any recently sawn timber, is just a delight on a dull misty morning
and on this piece the saw marks have created an almost celtic design across the grain.
In folk lore it is said that by looking after your hawthorn, the fairy folk will ensure that you will be granted extra good fortune, well I hope the celtic faery clans, do just that.
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