Right can I just say, for the record, I LOVE BASKET WEAVING!!!!! Yesterday I spent a blissful day with the lovely Carol Horsington, her partner David Taylor and their two adorable Jack Russells Sue and Poppy, learning the gentle art of basket weaving at their farm in Cornwall where they run their business Cornish Willow. I came away with sore, aching fingers and a faint whiff of damp willow about me but also with an amazing sense of satisfaction and two amazingly awesome willow plant supports that I somehow managed to produce. I also came away completely inspired to take the leap and plant some of my own willow with a thought to maybe, just maybe, starting my own business. I never imagined that there were so many varieties of willow, each with different qualities and each producing willow that can be used for a whole variety of things from wonderfully sturdy fencing hurdles and plant supports to colourful willow baskets and beautiful living willow sculptures. After lunch, Carol took me to see her willow plantation. I'm not sure if that's what it's called but it seems to fit the amazing array of willow that they grow. Some of the branches are several metres long and a couple of centimetres thick, which is apparently only two years worth of growth and is used for making the uprights for things like hurdles and plant supports and some, a couple of metres tall, which is this years growth, and is supple and bendy and used for weaving baskets.
I shall definitely be going back to learn how to make baskets and willow hurdles and Carol even supplies green willow for planting in February/March time so it's time to get fencing off a piece of my field so I can start planting next year. In the meantime, I'm off to plant out my wonderful plant supports.
