Littlelarford's Blog

The new Woodland Walk and your Rabbit Hole Names

Posted on 12 Jan, 2008 8 comments

Hi everyone. No, we haven’t gone into hibernation – we’re still around. We’ve been busy developing the new extended woodland walk – it’s been a huge job.

The existing walk was very pleasant but not very long and the only way we could extend it was to go up! A long way up! The whole woodland is on a steep slope. So a week or two before Christmas we set to work making one curved path to the top and another straight one.

First came the tree-felling to make room for two new flights of steps. Then the ground was excavated out to form the steps (we recycled the trees which had been felled to make the actual treads.) Climbing to the top definitely won’t be for the faint hearted as the slope is tremendous but the view from the top is worth the effort. A hand rail then had to be constructed to make it safe for our NGS visitors to ascend “Mount Larford” and then the steps were finished off with a good thick layer of bark.

At the very top there’s a lovely level walk through the wood and we decided to form a couple of areas for picnic benches, which of course have also had to be made, in addition to the various benches en route for folks to take a much earned rest! Around the picnic areas and indeed throughout the wood we’ve planted approximately 40 Rhododendrons, inkeeping with their woodland surroundings. Of course these have had to be well netted to protect them from rabbits, squirrels etc.

Next, we’ve made countless bird boxes and bird feeding stations and Simon our local bird fanatic has even kindly offered to come and keep the food topped up on a regular basis, so we should attract a good variety of birdlife.

To add the finishing touch we have contacted a wood carver who is going to bring us some samples of his work with a view to adding carvings of various woodland creatures throughout. When we’ve made our choice, we will of course let you see photos of the finished articles.

OF COURSE, THE NEW WOODLAND WALK WON’T BE COMPLETE UNTIL YOUR RABBIT HOLE NAMES ARE IN SITU, SO MY NEXT JOB IS TO DESIGN AND PRINT THEM OFF ON THE COMPUTER – TO SEE WHOSE SUGGESTIONS HAVE BEEN USED THIS YEAR, YOU’LL HAVE TO COME AND VISIT US WON’T YOU!

It’s supposed to be a fine day tomorrow, so we’ll be out taking some snaps of the woodland as it looks now and you’ll see we definitely haven’t been in hibernation!

Happy New Year everyone!

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Tags: Birds Carvings Rhododendrons Squirrels Woodland rabbits