Woodland is not just a collection of trees any more than people are a collection of arms and legs with heads on top! Everyone is a personality, as is a wood.

A wood is not complete without shrubs, plants, birds and insects, all in a cycle of life, death and renewal. Blackberry and blackthorn grow wherever there is space alongside other pioneer plants. Fruit ripens and falls, encouraging voles and other small mammals, insects and birds to move in.

Squirrels bury acorns and other nuts, which grow into seedlings when forgotten. Holly berries need to be eaten by birds for their seeds to germinate; holly seedlings grow beneath where birds perch to do their business. In time, the bramble patch becomes a wood, complete with trees. Living next to woodland, our lawn years back had ten oak seedlings growing after we had been away for some weeks!

Dead trees and fallen leaves are fundamental for mature woodland to thrive. Every woodpecker wants the best for his mate, so makes a new hole in a suitable tree. Afterwards, that hole becomes home to other birds and bats until the tree finally collapses! A whole world exists under the canopy of fallen leaves in autumn, with insects and small mammals finding food and keeping warm. Humans tidying up create a disaster for creatures that live in the woodland cycle, where hedgehogs may be hibernating under garden rubbish!

Human intervention often messes up the natural world. A climbing rose outside our kitchen window attracted blue tits to feast on aphids in the absence of chemical sprays. Slugs and snails around flower beds became a gathering point for birds. Thrushes are now threatened due to slug pellets cutting off their food supply, just as the Russians try to block the export of Ukraine's grain through the Black Sea.

A robin in the wild follows large hoofed animals around to find worms and insects dislodged by its feet; urban robins enjoy gardeners digging and exposing insects. Other birds are more cautious of people. When a chattering walking group of nature lovers approaches, all wild life keeps quiet and hunkers down until they pass! Keep still for twenty minutes and watch bird life return to normal!. The bushes and vegetation on wild untended banks that EDDC leaves alone become a natural habitat for insects, birds and small mammals. Stand and stare; life will resume when the inhabitants feel safe!

The wild has amazing capabilities of recovery, just as children learn that a cut or grazed knee will heal soon enough if the scab is not picked! Rangers in the Yellowstone National Park in the USA found that areas they had left alone after huge wild fires recovered faster than the areas they cleared and replanted. The natural world adapts and recovers almost miraculously, only people cause irreversible damage; the wild will take it back if left alone. The deserted areas around the dreadful Chernobyl disaster now include some thriving wildlife havens.

For those who don’t believe in the Heavenly Host, The Spirit of the Planet is signalling warnings through earthquakes and volcanoes. For those who do have faith in God, we are being watched and should enjoy what we have and care for it. The Earth has been around for millions of years and will be here for ages to come, with or without dinosaurs or us!