Beautiful bluebells

You can have a mindful walk in any woodland, but a bluebell wood is one of the sights of spring that never fails to bring joy. About half the world’s population of bluebells (hyacinthoides) grow in the UK; they love our ancient woodland, where the ground has been undisturbed for many years. Never be tempted to pick wild bluebells down to the root – they take five years to grow from seed into bulb and native bluebells are a protected species in the UK.

If planting bluebells, make sure they are natives (var. non scripta), as they’re under threat from their interloper cousins. Bluebells flower from early April, before the trees come into full leaf and the sunlight from the woodland floor.

Find your nearest wood at woodlandtrust.org.uk. Join its Big Bluebell Watch by recording your sightings and help to monitor the status of UK bluebells.

Turn to page 76 for more on our walk in the woods feature.

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What it's really like to live in the woods

Jessica lives in the middle of a wood in Kent with her husband, Paul, an oak framer, and her daughter. Previously a graphic designer, Jessica now chronicles her outdoor life spent living slowly with her family, and in tune with nature and the seasons, on her blog, thewoodlandwife.co.uk. 

Turn to page 106 of the March issue for more about the joys and the hard work of life beneath the boughs.

What it’s really like to live in the woods

• You never get bored
  There’s always something to do, whether for pleasure or out of necessity.
• Woods are a daily inspiration
  Nothing inspires me more than the smallest things I see here; from morning birdsong to the gentle rustle of the trees.
• Daily routines have built-in health benefits
  Pushing wheelbarrows, shifting timber, running chainsaws and swinging the odd axe involves a lot of physical labour. While the monotony of the work can get testing, it has a great pace which does its part in keeping us all fit.
• We live simply
  We also live with a lot less than others – owning somewhere like this in the South East of England comes at a price. But we are more than happy, as this gives us more freedom.

Buying woodland is a dream held by many, with numbers of private owners growing year by year. According to the Forestry Commission, there are more than 40,000 small woods of less than ten hectares in England, and these make up 17% of England’s woodlands. 

Once you have decided on the area and what acreage you can afford, it is relatively easy to buy woodland as there is no chain and most are freehold. 

Run by small woodland ownership evangelist Angus Hanton, woodlands.co.uk is a good place to find one. 

Managing woodland is less simple, as Jessica points out. The Forestry Commission’s Land Information Search (forestry.gov.uk) produces a useful free booklet, ‘So You Own a Woodland’, which has advice. 

Small Woods Association (smallwoods.org.uk) offers courses on managing a woodland and is a generally useful resource.
 

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Listen: Soundtrack to October | songs of the woods

Time to run to the forest and watch the leaves tumble

Listen to our Songs of the Woods playlist on Spotify now

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Turning leaves: why they change colour and where to see them

Never mind all that mists and mellow fruitfulness malarkey, it’s autumn’s turning leaves that provide this season’s true high point, with the bonus of a science lesson on the side. Find out why they change and where to witness this magical scene.

The annual gold rush, when deciduous leaves change colour, is produced when the days get shorter, with cool, but not freezing, nights. This prompts trees to reduce green chlorophyll production, giving other pigments a chance to shine, albeit briefly.

Leaf shedding, called abscission, is all about preparing for winter; leaves are fragile things that could dessicate or freeze during the coldest months. To prevent damage they drop off, but not before withdrawing valuable pigments like chlorophyll and forming a thin band of dead cells at the base of the stem that separates leaf and stalk. When it dies and drops to the forest floor, any useful nutrients can be reabsorbed as the leaf decomposes.

Where to see the leaves turning

Go down to the woods today… and you’ll catch one of nature’s finest displays. No matter how many times we’ve seen it before, the vivid hues of red, gold, yellow and orange that cloak the trees and carpet the ground this month never lose impact. A walk in the woods, park or simply down a tree-lined road provides an instant mood-lift.

Here are our top five spots:
Westonbirt, the National Arboretum in Gloucestershire, famous for its riot of autumnal colour and the UK’s largest collection of Japanese maples (acer), which are at their best right now.

Salcey Forest near Northampton, for a bird’s eye view of the forest in all its glory, from the Tree Top Way.

Crinan Wood, Argyll and Bute, Scotland – the warm, moist climate in this magical wood means it’s often described as Scotland’s rainforest. It’s home to a wide variety of ferns and lichens, too.

Brede High Woods, Cripps Corner, East Sussex. This is a large wood where you can spot many varieties of tree, as well as some of the UK’s most important creatures, including the great crested newt, badgers, fallow deer and the brook lamprey dormouse.

Bedgebury Pinetum, Kent – the largest collection of conifers in the world. Lots to keep kids entertained, too, from the Gruffalo trail to the Go Ape adventure park.

Read more:

From the November issue

Pressed leaves - craft ideas

Five ways to use up your pumpkins

Turn to page 70 of November's The Simple Things for more on arboretums, kicking leaves and making the most of autumn.

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