Dear fellow tree lovers, I'm sorry I've not written in so long; I hope you will understand. It's not that I've grown tired of arboreal adventures; it's just that a certain new little person in my life is making it tricky to find the time to write them down... She's napping now, in the …
Tag: woods
walking the line (and the woods)
I love the way that London’s green and wild corners are revealing themselves to me little by little. One day, as I was jogging around Finsbury Park, I noticed a steady stream of walkers and cyclists seeping in and out of a narrow passageway above a railway bridge. Curious, I crossed over the bridge …
conservation in the cemetery
So I spent Valentine’s Day in a graveyard cutting down trees... First I attacked a patch of ash and sycamore saplings with loppers. I looked on as a holm oak was toppled and then I helped cut up the branches and stash them out of sight behind a large gravestone. Later, I sawed down a …
a journey through coldfall wood
Last Saturday, I dressed in layers, rode the 144 bus to Muswell Hill in my adopted borough of Haringey and followed local woodsman Iain Loasby on a journey through the history of ancient Coldfall Wood. My arboreal adventure had begun… London may not be the first place you’d expect to find ancient woods or indeed …
back to my roots: a winter tree walk
I began this year the way I begin most years: with a winter tree walk. I was staying at my parents' house in Birmingham over the New Year, and during a brief dry spell (of rain, not alcohol), I took a stroll around the neighbourhood, assorted family members in tow. We walked a way I've …