So this is the 3rd and last of our Christmas tree events, it's the Sunday work party where we take a group out onto the Moss. We go far out to a part very few people make it to and they get to cut themselves a Christmas tree from the Scots pine seedlings and for this pleasure get to spend the rest of the day cutting a load more down. For this event people have to book to limit numbers. 15 hardy souls gathered at the track end at 1030, 5 less than hard souls obviously had second thoughts and didn't turn up. We packed everyone tightly into landrovers to go down the track and then made our way out onto the Moss. Some of the group were regulars and are familiar with the moss but some were new and it is always interesting seeing the moss through their first impressions. The Moss is a strange place on the best of days but in thick fog it becomes stranger still. Single twisted birch appear and disappear as we wobble and stumble our way out over hummocks and tussocks. Voices are softened and colours washed out. It takes a little while for newcomers to get the confidence that they aren't going to sink out of sight and develop a way of walking on a surface that is like a giant duvet. We picked a large misshaped pine as a base for lunch bags that people would be able to find their way back to and set them working. It is amazing how much a group of determined people can do and this lot were hard core. Laura who has come several times always counts the number of seedlings she cuts, last year she cut about 300 in the day, this year slightly less as we had further to walk but that means allowing for different capabilities the group cut at least 3000 pine seedlings. Lunch is taken quickly (its too cold to stop for long) and standing up (it is too wet to sit down) and then they are straight back to it. To allow time to get off the bog in daylight (in the broadest sense) we stopped cutting bat 3pm but some were so keen we nearly had to take their saws off them. The walk back through the eerie contorted forest is more mysterious. Legs and arms ache but luckily rucksacks are lighter with lunch consumed. We are finally back to the cars by 4pm in the twilight, individual trees are divided up and the over optimistic spend a frantic 15 mins trying to get a 8 ft tree into a Ford Fiesta. Everyone was cold, wet and tired but when I think of the 5 people who decided not to come out I don't think any of the work party would swap days.
