The Sky is Falling!

Plop, ouch! plop, plop.

I feel like Henny Penny with the sky falling on my head. Acorns are falling in the woods thick and fast, more than I remember last year. Unlike the hen in the story, I’m not becoming hysterical and running off to tell the king, and hopefully I won’t be eaten by a lurking fox. Instead, I contemplate the 100 or so oak trees that make up the majority of tree cover in the Wyld Thyngz site.

If left to mature, an oak tree is considered an adult by the time it reaches 100 years old. It will be in old age after 700 years and then in 1000 years it will start to decline and die. During this time, it might have produced 10 million acorns.

The oaks in the Wyld Thyngz woods were planted deliberately by hand about 75 years ago. Each one close by the next with the end goal of long straight timber for building. In the past oak would have been used in the construction of many things. Its fine, strong timber was prized for boat building. It is said that it took 600 oaks to build The Mary Rose for King Henry VIII.

The trees at Wyld Thyngz, whilst they are in my care, are no longer destined for timber. I hope they will mature and continue to provide the setting for the outdoor adventures and learning that goes on around and under them today. We take many people, young and old, throughout the seasons in all types of weather, out into the woods and use its ever changing mysteries as a wonderful teaching aid. Back when our trees were planted, there would have been far more people out and about in the countryside, eeking a living in one form or another from the land. Today in the Wyld Woodz there is just about a living for 2 of us. We take a variety of groups out to reconnect them to a way of living in nature that would have been familiar to our ancestors, but many of our clients have not experienced before. I hope in our work we generate enthusiasm in our learners for nature, that will last a lifetime, and they too will be wise enough to know that if you are standing under an oak tree and something falls on your head, it’s likely to be an acorn, not the sky!