One day these two Ash trees will touch along their trunks.

They have been planted within 30cm of each other and there will come a time when in order to continue growing, they will have to join ‘as one’.

Having space to grow is important, but if space is limited, it needs to be shared.

One Ash tree may grow with greater vigour and become larger. Both will try to survive. As they touch and as they are wind-blown, there will be friction and wear. This wear will expose live tissue which they both will try to re-cover. As they recover, they will fuse. When, and only when they fuse, the winds will no longer blow them apart but they will moved joined in unity.

Here in the Garden of HoBB, each layer of loess that accumulates over time builds a fixture. We are partial to fixtures that flex and enjoy working on link-ups. If you have any arboricultural ideas that you want to work on, contact me, I have been a member of the Greenwood Foresters Association since the age of nine and have access to woodland here and in West Sussex.

Waves from the Woods ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ <+))))))))>< ~~~ Grant

Treat yourself to a secret present making session. Forget the known and predictable, and take the time to create an individual gift in secret – we do at the HoBB!

Have you noticed an increase in the ‘habit’ of publishing ‘Want Lists’? These lists might be fine when reserved for Weddings and letters to Santa Claus but now they get published online and whole families exchange lists year round.

I love creating and giving surprises at all times but especially on non-birthdays. Sadly, the commercial world has latched onto every calendar event and now creates great gift-expectations. The pressure to have what is produced and for the reason it is produced is as manufactured as the products themselves.

I saw some programme suggesting that this pressure was causing a serious problem termed ‘Lifestyle Anxiety’ . So serious is it becoming that it may lead to voluntary advertising controls that forbid hitting susceptible markets like children with endless toy adverts.

Advertisers are great at pulling the strings but we should not be creating puppets of our young or ourselves. If we can get away from ‘expecting’ presents through giving presents at unexpected times and in unexpected ways we’ll all be far more flexible and at ease.

The two presents (pictured above) were way off the scale of ‘usual’. Both were created here at the HoBB on secret present making missions. One is a piece of Garden Sculpt made from stones collected in the recipients garden and the other was innocently placed on a birthday girls breakfast table – the contents of the jar were hand made and tasted wonderful but also the ‘own brand’ one-off home produce label held many a personalised birthday wish!

To make a secret present you need a secret location tucked away in the hills – contact us, we just might know of one.

~~~~~~~~~~ <+))))))))>< ~~~ waves from Grant