Duncan & Celia's Shared interests.

Duncan and Celia live in the tiny village of Henllan, a couple of miles from Denbigh, in rural North Wales.  The property, which was originally two stone-built cottages,  was first purchased as a 'base' from which to carry out forestry operations in a 60 acre woodland 'Hafod Wood' that they purchased in late 1985.  They moved from Lancashire to Wales in 1991 and almost totally gutted the property.  Their shared interests could be said to be 'The Home' and 'Forestry'.

'The Home' is easy to describe, simply by showing some photographs

Forestry needs more explanation.  During the 1940s, Hafod Wood was a broadleaf woodland of great diversity.  Around 1948, it was clear-felled and sold to the Forestry Commission who replanted it with Conifers and apparently never went back to tend it.  The stumps of the old broadleaf trees 'coppiced' and ,because of their established root systems, they managed to compete with the conifers for the available light.  When Duncan & Celia came on the scene, the situation was critical.  The canopy was completely closed and many of the broadleaves had already been starved to death of light. Apart from a bit of ivy and dog's mercury, nothing grew on the ground.  Ever since, it has been a continuous process of  removing as many conifers as possible, without exposing the broadleaves to excessive wind (because they have been 'forced', they are delicate).

Already, massive changes can be seen.  The wood is alive with ground growth and wild life including deer, pine marten, and numerous wild flowers, especially bluebells, have appeared.  There are substantial stands of oak, ash, cherry, birch, sycamore, beech and substantial numbers of elm - a rarity nowadays.  The battle is being won.  Again, photographs bring it to life.

Astronomy has also been a shared hobby.  Around 2001, they bought a large telescope and soon found it was too heavy to carry outside in the dark.  So they built an observatory around it.  Fortunately, rural North Wales suffers only slightly from light pollution, so they were able to see most of the important 'Messier Objects' - nebulae, galaxies, etc.  However, a point was reached where light pollution prevented further  exploration, so the telescope was sold, the observatory demolished and a patio substituted.  It was an exciting couple of years.  Here are some photographs.