If you go down to the woods today...

In December 1994, DH and I helped to plant a wood, down by the old railway. On a freezing day in horizontal sleet we stuck 12" bare sticks with a few roots into the mud. They looked unpromising, to say the least.

The following summer was very dry, and we feared the worse. But in retrospect it was a blessing in disguise - the little trees didn't put on much growth that summer, but their roots went deep in search of water, and that's made them strong.

Now most of the trees are twice or even three times my height - even the slow-growing oaks are half my height above me already. The place is alive with warblers and other birds. Muntjac deer live there.

It's a place of beauty, and walking through it fills me with a feeling of having done something good :-)