Branching out
‘The woods are lovely, dark and deep,’ wrote the poet Robert Frost, summing up simply and beautifully the longing of the human soul to be in nature. It’s there when you smell fresh earth after rain – a phenomenon known as ‘petrichor’, which results from ozone in the air, and when you stand among trees, soaking up the essential oils they emit, known as phytoncides. In our lifetime, this natural connection has been drowned out by the trappings and technologies of modern life. But for some, the past few years have reawakened a call to the wild, as seen in a hike in sales of affordable woodlands –
