Spring in the woods and making charcoal

The woodland is looking amazing now, with the Spring flowers finally showing themselves. We had several friends come and visit us in the woods on the bank holiday, so a charcoal top up was needed for BBQ cooking - this time we made a short video showing how this simple method of making charcoal in a kiln works, using an oil drum and a smaller barrel:

We had plenty of time to see the displays of flowers. In the darker parts of the wood there are still mostly Wood Anemones, though with some Bluebells mixed in:

There's the first signs of shade as well, now that the leaves are appearing on the trees:

The sunnier parts of the wood are looking good with Bluebells, especially over in Sweep Wood:

The coppice is growing quickly again there as well:

Over in Smock Wood, the ride I cut a couple of years ago is looking great:

What's particularly interesting there is that there are a lot of Violets, which weren't in evidence there a few years ago, so I guess that's a positive result from cutting the ride:

The bit of the wayleave that I cut last winter is coming on well too:

As usual the wayleave is full of wildlife again...

And finally... this year we are hoping that we'll actually get some fruit, as the bees should be out at the same time as the blossom, unlike last year...

Mike