MARCH 2008

Work has begun in earnest this month with a variety of sites for the new WT woodland book. A lot of research and discussion to get as wide a variety of sites and situations as possible. The next nine months will involve visits to a host of new locations, as well as revisiting a few familiar ones for a different take. This new book will be topic lead rather than by geographic regions, although at the same time I have to try and ensure that most corners of Britain have some representation. This can be tricky when some parts of the country have a greater wealth or diversity of woodland than others.

I was planning to cover daffodil woods this month, and had brave plans to travel to either Northumberland or the Kentish corner of SE London, but finally succumbed to the irresistible lure of the Dymock and Kempley woods in nearby Gloucestershire. The truth is that they are unrivalled for their dense carpets of wild daffs. Even though I have covered these woods before, I was still able to discover some new areas, which were perhaps the most impressive that I’ve ever seen.

Several stock sales this month, including 4 images in WT’s spring issue of Broadleaf. Picture request from National Geographic Mag. In U.S., but we’ll see… the world is a big place to cull images for one story. A couple of very handsome print sales this month too from visitors to the website.

More bookings for talks coming in. Arboricultural Association in September at Kent University and another one to Lincolnshire Tree Awareness Group at Lincoln University in October.

‘Hidden Trees’ still going well & lots of reviews still filtering back – all very good I’m glad to say. With a May airing of the second series of ‘The Trees that made Britain’ I’m also hoping for a renewed sales push with that book from the BBC.

A few more good archive images added to the collection this month too. Let’s hope for a blooming spring, but not one that burns itself out before we get to May, as happened last year.