At Home, The Future

As a woodworker it obviously makes a lot of sense that I love wood – its texture, figuring, infinite variety of subtle changes within the same species let alone between different trees, the varied challenges thrown up by environmental factors during growth, etc…

However, does it make so much sense that I also love trees? Surely if I love trees I don’t want to see them chopped down? True, but they are not chopped down for me. In fact much of the wood I use comes from trees that will still be growing for a long time to come and I’ll blog about that in the future.

What I wanted to write about now, right at the beginning, is my long term plans for this little patch of land that I call home and have responsibility for now and in the forseeable future.

My home is in a windswept spot. Granted it has beautiful views. I can see the sea of Cardigan Bay in front of me and nearly 360 degree views looking out over Snowdonia in the distance and closer to home Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire. The only view hidden from me by the lie of the land is my beloved Pembrokeshire and especially the magical Preseli mountains (which I can see from the chimney as I did when I had to re-point the brickwork!).

There are two fields making up my little smallholding. I have decided to turn the small field into a woodland and wildlife haven. This is no mean feat considering the location. Felinwynt is the name of the hamlet. This means windmill in Welsh. It is a standing joke that the mill may have vanished but the wind is still here! I have a couple of old ash trees on the north and east sides and some scrub willows and other trees I managed to plant in the hedge years ago on the north side. The west has two laburnum trees, obviously remnants of an old hedge as described in my earlier blog about the Laburnum in this area. However, on the South side which is the side of the ‘weather’ there is not one single tree or even a shrub.

Before I can really create a wildlife haven I have to create a shelter belt. Last autumn I started planting trees next to the fence having put old pallets as a windbreak for the saplings. This meant that the sheep could no longer come into this field at all.

It has been wonderful watching these baby trees flourish this summer – growing their new pale green leaves, new shoots, some doubling in size, some shooting upwards, others spreading outwards.