I'm glowing How an app is helping us measure the joy of trees

A new research project aims to discover how the age, size and shape of woodlands can benefit people's wellbeing

- Patrick Barkham

How happy do you feel right now? The question is asked by an app on my phone, and I drag the slider to the space between "not much" and "somewhat".

I'm about to start a walk in the woods that is part of a nationwide research project to investigate how better to design the forests of the future.

Volunteers are being sought to record their feelings before and after eight walks on a free app, Go Jauntly, which could reveal what kind of treescapes most benefit our wellbeing and mental health.

I'm feeling frazzled after a week of delayed trains that led me to drive three-and-a-half hours to the Staffordshire village of Barton-under-Needwood, where the walk begins. Surely my mood will be lifted by a leafy walk through the National Forest, a vast woodland emerging across the Midlands.