The Wood by John Lewis-Stempel (Omnibus) - Radio 4 Extra
This caught me completely unawares, my carer had left and I was waiting until Tilly got here. The programme started on the radio and within minutes I was completely drawn in. The Wood by John Lewis-Stempel (Omnibus)
I was enthralled, enchanted and focused on nothing but listening. It was the story over the year of Cockshutt Wood in Herefordshire. He spoke about working with the land,including painful mistakes. He spoke of the mighty trees, and their history, how the dying art of really knowing the land and looking after it is going, he spoke of close meetings with the wildlife and I remembered my own multiple meetings with foxes, owls including the owlet who almost landed on my head, watching the badgers and have the badger and fox cubs almost stumble over my feet. Walking the land at all hours. His words, my life. The description says "It's representative of all the small woods in our landscape and the sanctuary they provide." They meant a sanctuary for the wildlife, but it was mine too. For Seventeen Years. Tilly arrived, I whispered, 15 minutes til this ends, be quiet.
It starts to get to the end and although I didn't see it coming, I knew the second he said it on the radio. He was leaving the woods. Leaving it behind. And he realised that he was part of the woods himself and always would be.
And I just burst into tears.
When I say that I miss the cottage, I mean all of it. The woods were the cottage and the cottage was the woods. They sustained me, protected me, were my bulwark against the world. And I have lost them forever. I lost people, my mother, the most Fantastic mother in the world but its the loss of the cottage that's destroyed me 😔
I was enthralled, enchanted and focused on nothing but listening. It was the story over the year of Cockshutt Wood in Herefordshire. He spoke about working with the land,including painful mistakes. He spoke of the mighty trees, and their history, how the dying art of really knowing the land and looking after it is going, he spoke of close meetings with the wildlife and I remembered my own multiple meetings with foxes, owls including the owlet who almost landed on my head, watching the badgers and have the badger and fox cubs almost stumble over my feet. Walking the land at all hours. His words, my life. The description says "It's representative of all the small woods in our landscape and the sanctuary they provide." They meant a sanctuary for the wildlife, but it was mine too. For Seventeen Years. Tilly arrived, I whispered, 15 minutes til this ends, be quiet.
It starts to get to the end and although I didn't see it coming, I knew the second he said it on the radio. He was leaving the woods. Leaving it behind. And he realised that he was part of the woods himself and always would be.
And I just burst into tears.
When I say that I miss the cottage, I mean all of it. The woods were the cottage and the cottage was the woods. They sustained me, protected me, were my bulwark against the world. And I have lost them forever. I lost people, my mother, the most Fantastic mother in the world but its the loss of the cottage that's destroyed me 😔