the wood

This is my favourite tree in the wood for Isabella who is fed up looking at my bees.  This is a veteran oak which has been in my wood for a long time - long before the conifers were planted and we will be clearing all the conifers from around this tree.  This is called "halo" pruning which is how you rescue such individual trees and give them space and light and protect them from competition.
it is pretty astonishing that anybody was so stupid to plant conifers right next to such beautiful old specimens.