I work at a place called Blackland Farm, for an outdoor activities company called 4th Dimension Ltd. Come rain, shine, snow, day or night we are throwing people from trees and leading them on adventures through the canopies of West Sussex’s most enchanting woodland.

Before the onset of our busy summer season, there is much to do by way of repairing the damage wrought  by the long winter. It often feels like the weather conditions at the Farm are an intensified version of those in my coastal hometown. Hot and dry Summer days are dustier and more severe, the transformation in colour during Autumn almost overwhelming, Winter is full of perfect, frosty mornings, split by the cacophony of birdsong from the bare branches of the hawthorne where they hop about unusually exposed by the absence of foliage. Bluebells announce the arrival of Spring in magnificent fashion. Flooding the forest floor with blankets of electric indigo and paving the way for the explosion of life from every angle.

It’s a magical place and I feel very lucky to call it my place of work.