Preparation

Why does chopping wood seem such a foundational activity? In a day of list-ticking - lots of cooking, tidying, house-organising, preparing for arrivals - it's the one thing that seems to reach outside the moment and echo something elemental

There is no logic to that feeling. What could be more fundamental, universal and timeless than the preparation of food? But for me that does not raise the same kind of contemplative mental state. Something to do with being outside, I think, defying the wind and cold. And the focussed physical exertion: splitting logs with a chopper requires quite a violent blow accompanied by concentration and attention - you can't do it absent-mindedly

There is also a frisson of danger and unpredictability at the moment of impact. Wood is far from uniform, even within the same log, and it's impossible to be certain what the response to each blow will be. Thinking through the possible consequences of each strike, mitigating the risk of harm, is part of the appeal of the activity

I still feel there is slightly more to it. The first settled farmers on this land had to clear the ground before they could plant. With primitive hand tools, it must have been gruelling physical activity, painfully slow, hard to win and hard to keep against the constant wildwood encroachment. Is a dim memory of those centuries still with us? Before you could feast, before you could prepare food, before you could harvest, before you could plant, you must win the space to survive, by chopping wood