Had my work cut out

I've been very busy this weekend. It's hedge-laying time and also time to cut down these self-seeded ash trees that are getting too big to have growing willy-nilly around the garden. I have other trees that are shading out other things so now it's winter it's the best time to do some chopping.

I started with climbing up the privet tree and cutting down some of the upper branches that shade out the sun. Then I set to cutting some ash out of the hedge because it's getting too tall and casting too much shade on the patio and flowering shrubs.

Big branches and young trees were lopped and sorted into three piles: trunks, branches suitable for kindling and thin whippy bits too small for the fire. This will be my kindling and firewood for winter 2015/16 I think, as I have plenty in store just now.

Time for lunch: goose & salad sandwich, cheese & salad sandwich, Christmas cake and tea. Yes, that is a bottle of Merlot hiding at the back. That was to be for after the sun went down, but I had forgotten how cold it gets when the sun goes behind the hill in December so I didn't have the wine in the end.

Kindling pieces cut. I'll leave the big tree trunks for another day. The thick ends especially are very difficult. I've propped them up in another tree so any rain should just run down them. What did I do with the thin whippy bits?

Made a 'dead hedge' which I saw done on Monastery Farm on the telly. We used to have a door here in this wall, made out of planks, but it has started to disintegrate.To close it off I pushed some ash twigs into the ground to form uprights then stacked the ash and privet twigs between the uprights and the door. Makes a sort of vertical green leafy wall.
I have three or four times as much wood still to cut down, so this cutting will be a project for this winter, and possibly into next.