Coming down from the Brecon Beacons and into the shelter of the woods, escaping from a vicious wind on the ridge. A fine day’s walking though, marvellous to be up high, first snow on the ground.

In an open landscape, young trees grow slowly in nurserys of gorse and brambles, protected from predators, allowing them to grow a sturdy trunk that is resistant to the wind and building a stong foundation for later strength.

Every five years each sexually mature beech tree produces over 30,000 beechnuts, which are welcomed by hungry boar and deer for their high fat and starch content.  Beech start producing nuts from the age of 80 to 150 years old and, if we assume that they live to 400 years this gives it 60 seasons, so by the time they die they will have produced around 1.8 million beechnuts, from which 1 will become a mature tree.

Birch are early colonisers of new ground, growing from wind blown seeds away from the high, dense canopy of beech forests which would crowd them out of light.

Conifers protect their branches from heavy snowfall by sloping outwards from the trunk, allowing them to keep their leaves throughout the winter.