New Wood

The Blakeleys have a new project for 2014. Well not specifically our project but one we are keen to help with. My brother has bought a wood. Not a piece of wood for the fire but a 7 acre forest wood with trees! We all went en famille yesterday to visit it. As we were walking through it my brother got the phone call to verify that it was his wood. Wow, your very own wood to play in.

The children are very excited and want to go every weekend. It's in North Yorkshire so it is a bit of a journey but one we are keen to make every so often. There is much to do like making a camping area, clearing bracken and dead wood, planting new trees, building dens, making swings, creating an archery area, oh the list is endless. I think we are all excited and a little in awe of the task ahead but we will go with the flow and see what 2014 brings. Fear not, I'll keep you up-to-date with all things wooden.

Wildlife spotted: buzzard, owl

What was in that box?

I have taken down the Christmas tree this morning and the rest of the festive decorations. I almost enjoy packing them away as much as I do unleashing them in the middle of December. Have you noticed that even when you think you've taken down all the baubles and you are about to lift the tree out into the garden you always find one solitary hiding bauble, secreted away in the branches? But it's a new year and a new start so away they go.

Not many casualties this year. My son managed to annihilate one bauble, target shooting with his newly acquired Nerf gun. I even managed to break one of my old glass tree decorations, knocking it with the vacuum cleaner (that will teach me to be clean and tidy) which I felt sad about as I had inherited it from my Auntie.

It's funny but I get a huge amount of pleasure from unwrapping each little glass sphere each year and realising again how lovely they are. I even love the old cardboard box they are stored in. This morning I carefully wrapped each bauble and popped it back in the box. It has on my Auntie's old address, handwritten in ink, from more than 40 years ago. You can tell how old it is as it doesn't have a postcode. And each year I wonder what she received through the post in that box, in an era before Amazon and internet shopping when getting a parcel through the post, delivered to your front door, must have been thrilling.

Aah well it only remains for me to hoover up the trail of pine needles shed by the departing Christmas tree.