NEW ORDER EMERGES

Despite the adverse trend in the weather I am loving it out there. You barely notice the rain down at Gwyleside Coppice. I may see it differently when the ground is so wet that I can't drive all the way. Anyway, we are only three days into this and already a huge area of holly has been cleared, some of the old boundary fence removed and fallen oaks have been cut and stacked. The key problem in this wood is the enormous oak canopy and the dense mid-level of holly - between them they have almost shaded out any ground flora. In time that will change but for now we have, for the first time in decades, daylight reaching the woodland floor.