We bought the woodland in 2004, and this area, on the south eastern edge was the only partial clearing so seemed the best place to site a small cabin and commence planting a forest garden.

The summerhouse was donated in 2006 by a friend after a tree in his garden had caused it some damage and the insurance company offered a replacement. 

About 2 months after assembling the 4mX3m on the edge of the wood in a spot invisible to anyone not in the wood, I received an order from the local council to remove it or apply for permission. There were various objections that it wasn't appropriate for a foresry use building but the council gave permission on condition that a management log was kept of work in the wood. 

A year after an "exclusive" ie expensive estate of MacMansion houses was built just behind the wood; the closest and largest of the behemoths is now about 400m away and is probably aboout 400x the size of my wee building. Such is the planning system.

We have had various plans for the wood over the years, the main drift being to try and create a life and work environment be it treehouse self catering a leisure learning centre, a forest croft etc etc. To date and having spent a great deal of money on a variety of prefessionals we are more or less where we were when we bought the site.

It is a fantastic place to spend time, the main downside thus far other than the 35 minute drive from where we live, is the lack of vehilce access. Carrying the summerhouse and a whole variety of other fixtures and fittings and tool etc in is good exercise but limiting. We were recently given permission finally to create a vehicle access, probably sometime in April this year. 

Permaculture progress has been slow, perhaps just as it ought to be. Other than a selection of small fruit and nut trees planted in 2006 I only began last year after my PDC course to work in earnest at permaculturing the wood. And it's a big job.