My "bible" of woodland crafts tells me that these posts and, the chestnut rails, were fenced without nails, and if you take the trouble to look at some, you may see that each rail is slotted into the post – both ways! That has been the craftsperson's way of doing it, which involves care in erecting the posts so that the rails would never fall apart in 40 years. Come to think of it, our old fence must have been built about that time.

But now, in these hurried days, we just fixed the rails to the posts with socking great nuts and bolts. It is a practical job, but I mourn the passing of an old craft technique.

Talking of mourning, a good number of Heathfield folk attended the funeral of David Sinden early in June. He was volunteer manager of Selwyn's Wood from the late 1980s until he moved to Hooe, Bexhill, in 1996. He was a quiet, gentle person, who preferred to work on his own whenever he could, having been involved in farming and the countryside most of his life. An expert woodsman, lover of all wildlife, and a super colleague, he gave his tools to Selwyn's Wood for the use of the volunteers some weeks before he died from cancer.

In a happier vein, we have made an interim check on the butterflies in the wood. Although there are not many of them we have seen brimstone, orange-tip, comma, peacock, green-veined white, large white, small white, painted lady and, most abundant - speckled wood. Generally in Sussex the Wildlife Trust says it has been an excellent year for butterflies.

But as usual on the reserve there are no really important species for anyone to get excited about. As far as I am concerned it means that our quiet wood will not be disturbed much. After all most people wouldn't want to bothered about our wood ants, green woodpeckers, the mosses and lichens, or a long wait for a night-time glimpse of a dormouse!

John Hall © 2009