I had the pleasure of looking around a small woodland up on the South Downs today under the guise of giving some advice. I haven’t got out much recently and it’s always nice to visit other woodlands. A bonus when it turned out to be a traditional Hazel coppice with Oak Standards and the most amazing Bluebell woods. So I can’t resist posting some photos.
An intense riot of colour and smell on the woodland floor, the flowers damp with last nights rain and warming in the dappled sunlight coming through the thin canopy with the oaks just starting to come into leaf.
The wood has been neglected for years so the new owner has plenty of work to be getting on with. Oak standards have fallen over during the wet winter and the coppice is overstood and neglected. But the display of bluebells shows that gentle neglect is not always the worst of management techniques, all it needs now is a little TLC and some hard graft.
Woodlandantics Blog 