This was a landmark day of the year: my first bike ride without wearing gloves. I woke to a softer, earlier, warmer sunrise and cycled out to a grid square that began on an overgrown heath of bracken, gorse and heather. It needed an auroch or two to control it. I continued into a wood whose highest branches swayed in the stiff breeze. I lay on my back and watched the twigs rattling against each other like squabbling fingers, snapping and cracking. There was a slight gap between each tree crown, like a mosaic. This ‘crown shyness’ is caused by the recip- rocal pruning I was watching and it helps trees to remain healthy and share resources. The spacing improves each tree’s access to light and can deter the spread of diseases, parasitic vines and leaf-eating insects. 

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