Branching out

MORE OF US ARE FINDING EMOTIONAL SOLACE, TECH-FREE FAMILY TIME AND CONNECTION WITH NATURE BY BUYING A PATCH OF FOREST. WE TALK TO THE MODERN WOODLANDERS...

- SOPHIE GALE

'The woods are lovely, dark and deep,' wrote the poet Robert Frost, summing up simply and beautifully the longing of the human soul to be in nature. It's there when you smell fresh earth after rain - a phenomenon known as 'petrichor', which results from ozone in the air, and when you stand among trees, soaking up the essential oils they emit, known as phytoncides. In our lifetime, this natural connection has been drowned out by the trappings and technologies of modern life. But for some, the past few years have reawakened a call to the wild, as seen in a hike in sales of affordable woodlands - jumping 25% in 2020 in the southeast alone.

FINDING THE RIGHT WOOD

One such newbie woodlander is photographer and lifeguard Katie de Silva who, with husband Malin, a chef, and their two children, nine-year-old Maya and seven-year-old Kai, bought two acres of ancient woodland in Pembrokeshire in August 2020. Theirs is a conveniently flat site, something of a jackpot find - many two- or three-acre plots are sloping. A stream runs along the boundary, there are a couple of oak trees, about 100 years old a piece, lots of larch and Douglas fir, and moss and ferns galore, which delight Katie. 'I am a fern rescuer,' she laughs. 'Wherever I find one languishing, I dig it out and move it to a prime spot!' Less well-loved are the brambles, which spring back to block out the light almost as soon as they're hacked away.