Things will always be changing

Its funny how people don’t like change. In fact, I am quite change averse myself.

However, if things (and we) didn’t change, we (and things) would be standing still and that never a good thing.

A number of years ago, on one of my favourite stretches of an old drovers road, they ripped a row of old gnarly trees out and replaced it with a double fence and new hedge. I was gutted and grumpy for months! I loved those bendy old trees, brave enough to have stood the test of time for so long…..

However, now the new hedge has taken hold I realise that it was for the best, as soon there wouldn’t have been much of it left as autumn after autumn more and more was naturally reclaimed by nature. Now birds can hide among the thick young branches again. And in 50 years time someone else may love a row of gnarly trees along that stretch.

The Callow is an iconic hill in South West Shropshire. It has a patch of pine trees on the top and we have always referred to it as the ‘eyebrow hill’ as, from a distance in some light the canopies appear to be floating above the hill. Below the trees, the hill has a ring of dense gorse. Or so it had ….until recently! A large area of the gorse has been removed. And it has changed the look of the hill dramatically.

Several areas of softwood have in recent years been harvested around my corner of the Shropshire Hills.  I am thinking of the wood on the Asterton side of the Long Mynd, the trees on the far side of Nipstone, the wood on Corndon, and very recently a large patch at Shelve, a stretch just below the Stiperstones near the Bog and now a patch just below the Callow at Ganderbeach.

We forget that (softwood) trees like that are actually a crop, albeit one which takes about 30-40 years to get ready for harvest.  We don’t think twice about a crop of barley being brought in in late autumn, or the oil seed rape with its changing colour throughout the season. Both give a landscape a defined look. We are funny creatures in the way we accept some changes in the landscape more readily than others but I guess its to do with time and being used to seeing it there.

I went to have a look at the patch of recently cleared trees below the Callow today. Whilst my initial reaction was one of shock when I noticed the wood had gone, actually looking at the site had a different effect on me. Already you can see its a huge opportunity. Whilst the trees were still up, there was very little light, the forest floor was almost totally covered in old needles, decaying wood and moss as it was all that would grow. I had walked in the Shelve wood before they took it down. There was an eerie silence, darkness and quite a sad and dead feel among the trees. From afar it may have looked good, the dense dark green canopies, but being in it gave a very different feel.

Now it has opened up the site. Yes, it looks a bit scarred but it also gives new vistas and new angles to look at the other landmarks, new views. It’s fair to say that I got a view today which hasn’t been seen for at about 30 years.

As the landscape around us changes, I consider myself blessed, as although I love taking pictures of the views around Shropshire, I also love being IN the landscape and exploring it in finer detail.

And its the only way to be around here as change IS happening and there is more to come. At Nipstone for in stance, where Shropshire Wildlife Trust has recently bought more woodland, more conifer and firs are going to come down as part of the ‘back to purple’ scheme. (see  Shropshire Wildlife Trusts at Nipstone.)

Embrace change for what it brings us. Different views and heather and whinberry in that case.