Bel's Wood

Blue - done Pink - to do With help from friends and with lengthening days I remain on target to get all the mats laid by the end of April. I’ll then go round again and add the extra spigots where we have only added one for now and finish by mid June just in time for the bracken to start growing. I am really enjoying it. I started with a sense of rush and press to get the mats down. Now I know I can do 50 when feeling tired/ in the wet and the cold; 100 on a normal day and 150 when I ‘go for it’ I have a sense of confidence that they will get down before the grass starts to grow in earnest. I passed the half way mark of 2,125 this week & I now know what it will take to do the other half. I am going to the wood often for a couple of hours at a time and friends give me an hour or two most weeks and that has kept the plan on track. Here is the story of the first half. The first half arrived in early February on a cold wet day They were stowed to protect them from the rain and then...

Over the three years I have got to know and experience Bel's Wood I have named special places & special trees. I have adopted the language of 'zones' to develop the planting plan to apply for a woodland creation grant and communicate clearly what work I wanted the various contractors who have helped prepare and then plant the land to complete. Now that the trees are in the ground I want to change back to calling places by their 'found' names. I have drawn out the areas below and will describe the areas of the wood and the trees that have been planted there. I've highlighted named trees and a few special locations. Yellow - areas Green - named trees Blue - functions Home (lower part of Zone 1) 80 trees planted This is where the access gate is from the road that runs along the bottom of the wood on the east side and runs parallel with the River Gilpin. There is an apron of rising grassy land which was previously engulfed in bracken but there is little evidence...