Country diary: Return to bitey horse field' this time with a plan | Derek Niemann

"Our job over the next two hours is to take one such name, one such story, and overwrite it with something better. Planting the Frome Community Woodland. Over a level crossing, through a kissing gate and on to a public footpath running down sloping ground."

"Within the last week, the whole field has been spiked with a forest of bamboo sticks. Out of a forest will grow a wood, a project crowdfunded in memory of a young Japanese-British woman, Moko Sellars, whom the town took to its heart and will never let go."

"I can look all the way across the stick-sprouting field today and understand that all our hope and belief comes, not from what we see in the future, but what we won't; here will be a wooded place to hide, lose and find oneself."

A Somerset community undertakes a tree-planting project to establish the Frome Community Woodland on a 99-year leased field. The initiative honors Moko Sellars, a young Japanese-British woman who was cherished by the town. Volunteers plant native species suited to different soil conditions: pussy willow, black poplar, and alder in flood-prone riverside areas, while oak, hornbeam, and field maple occupy higher ground. Schoolchildren participate in planting around a clearing designed for future generations. The project transforms a former pasture, known locally as "bitey horse field," into a wooded sanctuary where people can hide, lose themselves, and find connection with nature.

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