For the last three years I have been running workshops for a joint funded NHS/Forestry Commission project called 'Branching Out'. The project is for people who suffer from mental health problems and are either hospital or community based. The aim is to bring people into an outdoor environment where they can carry out some practical conservation and woodland management work as well as try some art/craft activities.
I tend to meet the group in a willow coppice so we can do some coppicing and make things from the materials we have harvested. At this time of year most of the material from the last season is used up so I tend to take in willow from my own stock. It is quite a shock coming back to the coppice for the first time since the end of March. Tons of new growth and just a completely different scene, I never realised the diversity of species on this precious little site. In fact while waiting for the group to arrive I just sat and sketched, soaking up all the shades of green and varied vegetation around me.
Today we made cornucopias, quite fitting really.
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