SWOG meeting near Ashford

As Tracy mentioned, we went to a Small Woodland Owners Group (SWOG) meeting at a wood near Ashford last Saturday. Tracy had of course done all the organising, though fortunately she had a team of helpers on the day. The wood itself was 176 acres, and very diverse.
The morning was a little damp, but that wasn't too bad as we were indoors (yes, this wood has an "indoors"!) having a talk from Peter Buckley on different woodland soil types and the species of tree that grow well in them.
After this we split up into groups and dispersed into the wood, each group with one or two forestry experts to answer questions.
By lunchtime the weather had brightened up considerably, and the afternoon was actually quite sunny.
There were various things to see during lunch, include the boar's skull we'd brought, and a display of different dormouse and other nests.
This is a dormouse nesting box - if you see one, DON'T look in it, as that's illegal unless you're a registered dormouse handler.
WoodlandsTV were there filming too, and David Rossney (who Tracy and I trained with) deliberately hung up a tree and demonstrated how to bring it down safely. (Here's my own post with similar info, which I learned from David)
All in all it was a good day, and everyone seemed to have fun and learn a lot. The next SWOG event is a butterfly ID day in May, being held in our own wood. Keep an eye on the SWOG Forum for news on it.

Mike