This is a typical British bluebell wood. You can see that it has been coppiced. Coppicing is a practice which dates back centuries. It thins out the trees and opens up the floor of the wood, allowing sunlight to reach it and encouraging wild flowers to grow. It involves cutting down selected saplings to their base in such a way that, eventually, new growth emerges in the form of several new "trunks" from the stump - which in their turn are cut down when they reach a certain size. The wood was used for a variety of purposes: charcoal, basket making, fencing and other such things. Britain is the epicentre of bluebell growth and at this time of year (give or take a few weeks according to the weather) our ancient woodlands are literally a majestic carpet of bluebells which even the best camera (certainly not my compact digital) can really quite capture. This is the first of several such photos, taken in a wood about 7 miles from where I live.