Cracking the whips

RICHARD NEGUS IS A PROFESSIONAL HEDGE LAYER AND WRITER. HE IS A KEEN WILDFOWLER AND HAS A PASSION FOR GREY PARTRIDGES

I’m going to be a farmer,”Charlie informed me from his perch on the tailgate of the truck, his dangling legs swinging like a pendulum. Murk descended on a chilly January afternoon as I threw spades, gloves, stakes and tree guards into my cavernous vehicle, our day’s work now ended. We had been planting trees, 807 of them to be precise. The boy had worked hard all day, so hard that he was experiencing, probably for the first time, the bittersweet ache you get at the