“A frosty
start with some brightness” was how the Met Office described this
morning.
With regard
to the first part of the day, that was something of an understatement?
The
sky was crisp and clear at dawn – with a temperature of -3 Celsius to
match.
The
combination of frost, autumnal foliage, and golden sunlight made almost any old
field look magical:
The frost
made everything beautiful, even common weeds:
By the time
we got to our working spot on the far side of Wittenham Clumps, however, the
frost had gone, and the sky had clouded over.
So we looked to see what work was in store for us:
It was coppicing
of these trees. Not as big as some we
had tackled in the past, but plenty of them:
We spread
out far apart, but with instructions to avoid demolishing these protected
youngsters:
Plenty of
exercise sawing trees down, and then cutting them up! So tea, coffee, and cake were much appreciated:
Meanwhile, some
had it easy:
The end
result: piles of logs …
piles of
stakes …
piles of
brash …
and
satisfied workers:
Only left
for the site warden to carry off some of the stakes and fencing ties:
The third photo is literally Christmas-card material.
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