What a great year for Teazle Wood – so much has been achieved, and so many people came together to achieve it.Thank you to all the volunteers who have helped with the project so far – your contribution is so valuable. The goodwill and expertise we have aboard is amazing and, as always, greatly appreciated.

When I think back to all that has happened, one of the images that keeps popping up in my mind is the string of volunteers in September linking hands to collectively pull debris from one of the big ponds. The amount cleared in a few days, by hand, was remarkable. It reminded me of the ‘Giant Turnip’ story – everyone pulling together to achieve an outcome.

(For anyone who doesn’t know the story, “a grandfather plants a turnip, which grows so large that he cannot pull it up himself. He asks the grandmother for help, and they together still cannot pull it up. Successively more people are recruited to help, until they finally pull the turnip up together.

The specific ordering and set of people and sometimes animals varies. However in original Russian version the order is quite fixed, it is the grandfather (dedka), the grandmother (babka), the granddaughter (vnuchka), the female-dog (zhuchka), the female-cat (koshka) and finally the female-mouse (myshka). The moral of the story is that only with the help of the weakest and smallest creature (the mouse) can the giant turnip or radish (repka) be pulled up.” Thank you, Wikipedia!).

Have a wonderful Christmas, and a peaceful 2014. We will be doing more guided walks in Teazle Wood in late April, when the bluebells and wild garlic should be at their beautiful best (and the mosquitoes won’t yet be out in force!). Do e-mail me if you would like to be notified of dates and times.