Nancy Stedman

The woodland on Farnhill Moor is almost entirely composed of birch trees, which are a pioneer species, that is, the first trees to establish on open ground. This is only a transition; they will create the conditions for other species such as oak, holly and sycamore to establish and create a more familiar type of woodland.

The birches, with their thin branches and white bark, create a complex intertwining, with constantly changing views of dark twigs against the light, or white trunks and twigs against the dark. As Douglas Dunn says in ‘Woodnotes’:

Looking into a wood, the mind gets lost
In complicated sameness, on and on.