There is no better place to be than Finemere Wood on a warm sunny day in April. The approach to the reserve is increasingly off-putting as HS2 works escalate. The surrounding landscape is becoming ever bleaker as yet more greenery is removed. Hedges replaced with fencing. Fields of grass and flowers, now bare soil. Heavy machinery chugs around moving earth from one place to another.

Yellowhammers, with their bright yellow head and underparts, once resided along the track into the wood. It was always a joy to watch as they flitted across my path, just one of many species that must find another home.

But once you have made it through this barren landscape and into Finemere Wood, another world is waiting.

There is colour: shades of yellow, white, purple, pink and green. Lots of green. Primroses, wood anemones and violets are plentiful. Bugle and cuckooflower are following suit. The bluebells are beginning to bloom.

Brimstone, orange-tip and peacock butterflies are on the wing, enticing woodland visitors deeper into this magical place.

The volunteers soak up the colourful environment underneath the warm spring sun. There is grass to cut with brushcutters and scythes. There is raking to follow. And there are many Heras fencing panels to be lugged along the long woodland track.

I hear few complaints as the resolute souls trudge endlessly back and forth, delivering the goods to their destination. 

We rest from time to time, for tea and ginger cake, and listen to the wood which chatters around us. The “chiffchaffing” of the chiffchaff, the rich melodic song of the blackcap, the haunting warble of the willow warbler and the trilling of the wren, to name but a few.

Common lizards are spotted in the grass, basking in the sun as we do, buzzard circles high above us. Just yards from our resting place, a red kite sits upon its nest. The wood is brimming over with life.

Spring is here. It is beautiful, it is invigorating and it is restorative.

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