High up in the Chilterns stands Mistletoe Wood, a semi natural ancient woodland.  It is comprised of beech and oak with a smattering of other native species. My brother and I have been custodians of these four acres for nearly three years. 

Today, it has a large open glade we use for social forestry.  It has a hard fought for bothy, which put the planners in a spin (they were eventually won over by our woodland management plan), a fire pit and benching.  The latter planked from the first tree we had to take down and various tree huggers, which hold tarp or shade sails depending on the English weather. We use this area to entertain, educate and encourage and it has been home to :

• forestry first aid, 
• a murder mystery and 
• our annual Wood Moot when local woodlanders come round, share lunch and talk all things woody, whilst trying to avoid the harvest mites. 

The other three and half acres are largely left alone, we beat the bounds at least twice a week looking out for danger and excitement, a 200-year-old beech came down in Storm Henk which was a surprise. We have removed 20 trees from a massive old beech, that was toppling near the dell [where the children play], to some medium-size ash which had die back. We process and extract them using only hand tools and our trusty trolley “Dolly”. 

The woodland is blessed with the most wonderful fungi including delicious trompe de mort and we do entertain foragers and learn from them. This summer we have had the first honey from our beehives.

In Mistletoe, it is more about what we don’t do than what we do!