Bel's Wood

Between 18th & 21st February 2022 the UK was hit by three storms. A high level of media coverage was given to Eunice & Dudley while Franklin had a greater impact locally.  This photo was taken just as Eunice was whipping up some real energy - not at my wood but a neighbouring valley (Longsleddale).  There is a useful blog from the Met Office (link below) which shows that Franklin gave a more sustained level of very high speed gusts than the other two storms, although the data was collected off the South Coast of the UK. Eunice showed faster gusts setting a new record for the UK of 122mph at The Needles but for a less sustained period than Franklin. https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/binaries/content/assets/metofficegovuk/pdf/weather/learn-about/uk-past-events/interesting/2022/2022_02_storms_dudley_eunice_franklin.pdf Storm damage was experienced at Bel’s Wood during Storm Arwen. That was highly unusual with the wind coming from the north. Some well established trees fell a...

Sometimes, things don’t go to plan. I was showing a friend, Lucy, around the wood this week. She is an ecologist and was pointing out interesting things about my wood - the broken branches in Cecelia and CecilB (my two grand sessile oaks) would offer good places for bats to nest. They like to go from one tree to another on different nights apparently. I was thinking I need to come up to the wood with my new night time binoculars to see if there is any activity. Well very soon after having that happy thought my heel sunk into a hole and I fell sideways into the gorse and heard ‘snap’. I knew I had broken my ankle bone on the outside (fibula). My first thought, lying in the gorse, was to get my wellington boot off before my foot swelled up! I didn't want it to be cut off! I asked Lucy if she would help me and she did a great job. Not comfortable but a good decision I think. I worked out that I really could not weight bear and I was too far from the gate/ road to make my way down ev...