Country diary: Return to bitey horse field' this time with a plan | Derek Niemann

A Somerset community undertakes a tree-planting project to establish the Frome Community Woodland on a 99-year leased field. The initiative honors Moko Sellars, a young Japanese-British woman who was cherished by the town. Volunteers plant native species suited to different soil conditions: pussy willow, black poplar, and alder in flood-prone riverside areas, while oak, hornbeam, and field maple occupy higher ground. Schoolchildren participate in planting around a clearing designed for future generations. The project transforms a former pasture, known locally as "bitey horse field," into a wooded sanctuary where people can hide, lose themselves, and find connection with nature.

"Our job over the next two hours is to take one such name, one such story, and overwrite it with something better. Planting the Frome Community Woodland. Over a level crossing, through a kissing gate and on to a public footpath running down sloping ground."

"Within the last week, the whole field has been spiked with a forest of bamboo sticks. Out of a forest will grow a wood, a project crowdfunded in memory of a young Japanese-British woman, Moko Sellars, whom the town took to its heart and will never let go."

"I can look all the way across the stick-sprouting field today and understand that all our hope and belief comes, not from what we see in the future, but what we won't; here will be a wooded place to hide, lose and find oneself."

Read at www.theguardian.com