Last night I went to a dinner held for a former colleague's retirement. There were quite a lot of pretty well-off folk there - we felt a bit scruffy and Wurzel Gummidge by comparison. There was a lot of interest in the woods and what we were doing, but quite a few misconceptions too.
First of all, there was the person who asked "who do you get to do all the work for you?" The idea, apparently, was that we own the wood, get in a gardener, some sort of servant or staff to do all the work, and then we swan along like the Lord of the Manor to enjoy it, and in the meantime get a return on our investment by improving land prices. It didn't seem to occur to anybody that we do it because we enjoy the physical work, the connection with the trees and with nature. That the whole pleasure of owning a wood is that you become part of the woodland, and that you can make a difference through your own efforts. No idea either that the investment that we are making is for the wildlife that lives there, the future of the trees that we have a privilege to care for, and the future enjoyment of generations of children.
Second misconception was regarding our recent efforts in planting 4500 trees. "Oh, well I suppose you can get a machine to help you do that?" "Yes" we replied, "it is called the Mark One Spade".
Anybody else got any similar stories to tell?