Tree Cheers

A pea shoot reaches for the sun

As you can tell from many of the photos on this blog, my plot of land has more than its fair share of big trees. In fact it's probably more woodland than open land. All along the high bank of the river there are oaks, birch, hazel, ash, small-leaved lime, hawthorn, rowan and crab apple, their roots keeping them precariously clinging to the rocky ground, their branches stretching out and upwards, the better to catch the sunlight.

Along by the roadside and the steep slope down below it are planted stands of large firs and spruce, several of them fallen over the years and leaning at crazy angles, caught by their neighbours. There are a lot of big larch trees at the western end, as well as semi-natural broadleaved woodland - beech, elder, blackthorn, hawthorn, oak, birch and so on. Big Christmas trees dot the level area, left over from a previous landowner's attempt to grow them for cash.

Serried rows of broad beans

I have a few less trees now though, ever since Storm Doris hurtled through in March. It has torn down four big trees, the worst devastation I've seen on my land in the years I've been here. Two of them unfortunately fell across the boundary stream I share with my neighbours. The huge ivy-covered ash was uprooted near where the stream reaches the river, and caused no damage other than ripping a couple of big branches off one of the trees on the other side. But the oak tree was further upstream and landed inches above my neighbour's water pump unit.

This was a bit concerning to both of us to say the least. It was a lucky thing that it hadn't smashed it to bits, rendering their house entirely without water. So we got a tree surgeon to have a look and within a few days he and a mate came and sorted it. They brought their jeep down the steep slope and used the winch at the back to drag the tree sideways out of harms way. The chap with the big chainsaw could then get down into the stream, saw it into pieces and haul them up to the side of the bank. They were done and dusted within two hours.

The ash tree he'll deal with another time - he had to rush off to deal with the lambing. And I am dealing with the branches, dragging them off back onto my land to burn them. All the firewood I'll be sharing with my neighbours, which is the silver lining of this particular stormcloud.