Be kind to nature and nature will be kind to you

HELLO Boys and Girls, I see some of you are out getting your school gardens ready. Try and plant a tree or two if you can because the world needs trees. Fruit trees are needed even more. We try and be as self sufficient as possible at Rose Cottage. The chickens provide all our eggs and we grow lots and lots of vegetables and fruits. We have bees for honey and a cow for milk, yogurt and cheese. We grow our own potatoes and we used to have fish in the pond until naughty Tiddles took up fishing. Molly harvests as many berries as she can and makes her own jam as well as the most delicious tarts you can imagine. We have a small section of the wood which we coppice. Coppice means we donâ€â„¢t cut down all the trees but we harvest some sections each year to meet our needs. We get logs for the fire from branches that need trimming. I make posts and planks for duck enclosures which I sell to people. I also make blackthorn walking sticks and have holly to sell every Christmas. Itâ€â„¢s just amazing what you can do with a small piece of woodland. Our friend Sara is a basket weaver. She comes every year to cut willow branches for her lovely baskets. In return she is teaching us to weave baskets ourselves. Iâ€â„¢m afraid Iâ€â„¢m not very good at it but itâ€â„¢s nice to sit by the fire in the evening and be working away with my hands while Molly is busy making tarts and treats for the Saturday Market. Saraâ€â„¢s husband Mark is an artist and he wants to build a kiln in which he can make his own charcoal to do his drawings with. He has picked the timber he needs, he says beech is best, and weâ€â„¢re collecting bricks to build the kiln some day. â€Å“You have to have a project, Jasper,â€Â he always says. All the barns at Rose Cottage are made of timber I have coppiced from the woods. Our friend Jerome is a furniture maker. He comes to stay with us every now and then and he never leaves without presenting us with a new chair or table or cupboard. He says if we provide him with food and shelter during his holiday itâ€â„¢s only fair that he gives us something in return. Itâ€â„¢s wonderful to see him walk through the woods and check the trees. Two years ago he spotted a great oak and told me he thought the old boy was nearing its end. However, he said we neednâ€â„¢t be sad because the timber it would provide would live on as beautiful pieces of furniture in peopleâ€â„¢s homes. And by cutting down the old tree loads more light got down to the forest floor and gave new saplings a chance to grow to be great oaks one day. After he cut the oak he set up his mobile sawmill and made use of every bit of it. â€Å“Waste is a sin against nature. As long as we respect the earth and make use of its gifts then we can live in harmony with nature,â€Â he told me. To see him working with his strong, gifted hands, turning those planks of oak into tabletops and bookcases and beds is a real joy. I missed that old oak as I had played in its branches when I was a boy. To my delight Jerome presented me with an oak rocking chair when he left last time. â€Å“Donâ€â„¢t mourn the old oak Jasper,â€Â he said. â€Å“It lived the life nature intended and now when you sit in your rocking chair by the fire you can think of all the wonderful things that oak saw. It was born when there were no cars or planes or phones. It provided shade for ploughmen and deer, nesting places for countless birds. Badgers lived deep under its roots and children like yourself played games in its branches. No one harmed it and it harmed no living thing. That is a great life for a tree. Its children still live in the woods and thatâ€â„¢s how life rolls along. Be happy for it and appreciate the gifts it gave so generously.â€Â Well when I heard that I was happy. I went straight out and planted some new trees in the woods just to make sure that when you children have grandchildren of your own they will have woods to visit and play in. Isnâ€â„¢t life and nature just great! Bye for now, Uncle Jasper