Nature's gift

There was a crack like thunder, and then a huge thump that shook the ground, the house, the very trees in the forest. The  house screamed as ash-fingers scratched at it's bricks and tore off the gutter and demolished the front light. Well, that's how I imagined it would have felt had we been in the house when the tree came down!

When you live in a house that is mostly heated by one wood burner, then your primary fuel is... well, wood. And dry wood is expensive if you buy it, and to dry it yourself takes time. The ash opposite our house had Chalara, and was looking dead, but the Forestry Commission (who had marked it for removal) thought it was fine. Chalara (ash dieback) starts from the crown, so the roots are usually OK. Apart from us telling them the tree was dead and dangerous, they didn't see any reason to take it down in a hurry.

The track was blocked for over a week until the FC came

There are advantages of living in a forest, but you can't go cutting down trees that belong to the Forestry Commission. And if they fall on you, well, that's an 'Act of God' in insurance terms.

A few weeks ago (mid-Feb) we went away for the weekend back to my little terraced house in Hertfordshire, with it's central heating, and it's snug warmth. And when we came back late Sunday night, we had been delivered a gift. A 45 foot gift.

Fence destroyed, but house fine.

A bit of a destructive gift, for sure, but let's just say we won't be short of wood for a while. And the nice thing about ash is that it burns well, and as the tree was dead, it doesn't need drying out.

Yes the fence was damaged and so was the lawn, but it only brushed the house (like fingers tickling the brickwork), it only took out a little bit of gutter and a light. The poor tree, which was home to nightingales and jays, woodpeckers and squirrels, is gone. The forestry commission )(after more than a week, even though it blocked the lane) came and took it down and sliced it into manageablel chunks (if you are a 14 foot muscular giant, that is).

We have had to cut up the logs they've left. But here are still some huge bits that are going to take several goes with the chainsaw to reduce even into moveable pieces. And the lawn has huge gouts of turf lifted up (one of the branches literally ploughed the ground) and a huge dent where the main trunk hit. The fence had to be replaced, and we will eventualy get round to repairing the lawn - just as soon as I've moved 3 tonnes of timber.

It missed us, it barely damaged the house, and we have a lot of nice burnable wood. I think that's a gift from nature (even if I do end up with bulging biceps from all the chainsawing, heaving and splitting).

Photos (C) Carolyn Causton and Sheena Stebbing

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