Of birds and bees

And still it rains. It has been a pretty wet month - or is it two? - and the wood is pretty saturated. When the water table is high we have a seasonal stream that runs through the wood draining an area of hollows and ditches that fill with rainwater. One of these ditches is distinctly curved with earth banks and a visiting field archaeologist thought that it might be a practice WW1 trench. In the summer it dries out completely but today it is full of water. There are several other areas that hold water in winter even though Crow Wood is at the top of an incline.

the flooded woodland

A few years ago I bought and planted a small number of Christmas tree saplings. Many of them simply died but a few grew ok. The wet ground meant that we could almost pull our 2019 Christmas tree out as the soil gave very little resistance. It is a tree we dug up last year and then re-planted after Christmas and it has survived, surprisingly given the long hot summer.  As a specimen,  it would certainly not win any prizes being a bit malformed, as rabbits got at it when just a seedling but it suits the purpose and will once again grace our front room. 

Redwings have been feasting on our Holly berries but its a good year for them and there are more than enough. Add to that a few logs and once again Crow Wood has given us all the makings of a happy Christmas......it just needs a bit of snow !

our odd but likeable tree ready to come home for Christmas

late afternoon sun lighting up Big Red

our big Holly tree

Merry Christmas to all my blog readers