Into December

 

The last leaves......

             It has been a great Autumn for colour but the winter winds have blown most of the leaves off the trees now. A few Sweet Chestnut leaves remain on some of the lower branches inspite of the storms. Winter is traditionally the season for commencing work in woods as the trees hold less sap, they are easier to manage and less damage will be done to ground cover plants. Our wood, like many others in Kent, holds many hundred Sweet Chestnut trees, planted, we think, in the 1850s to supply poles for the hop industry. Traditionally these would have been cut down (coppiced) every 20 to 25 years to produce a crop of straight poles; a market long since died. In Crow Wood the trees are cut these days to produce firewood and to allow light onto the woodland floor, so benefitting wildlife and promoting biodiversity. The trees are also growing very tall now that they are not being coppiced regularly, they are suffering from wind damage too and a few get blown down every year. We have an abundance of timber to use !

            Crow wood produces a very good supply of logs for our own use and to be sold to friends and neighbours. We use Birch logs on our open fire and Sweet Chestnut in our wood burner as chestnut logs tend to spit. The logs need to be dry to burn well without producing smoke and tar deposits, and should be left for a least two years to air dry so that they contain less than 20% moisture. Birch is a less dense wood than the chestnut and can be used after one year if kept covered. Working in the wood at this time of the year has its own delights - a fire to warm the hands, the tapping of woodpeckers on dead branches, flocks of Wood Pigeons overhead and the whistles of Redwings zooming in to devour our Holly berries. The late arrival of cold weather this year delayed the arrival of these roaming thrushes and kept them in Scandinavia, but they are here at last and a welcome sight indeed. With luck they will leave us just a few berries to enjoy over Christmas.

Chestnut split and ready for stacking

The start of a timber stack,  dated so I remember when the  trees were cut

There's a good crop of Holly berries this year for the Redwings

Larch cones and needles

Great Spotted Woodpeckers are always first to the feeders

A male Chaffinch, sadly quite an uncommon bird these days

One of Crow Wood's resident Wood Pigeons