Country mouse: Plant trees for the future
After a horrific soaking winter, there is something we can do for the future, says Mark


How do you make some good come out of this sodden winter? The misery shows no sign of abating as more trees have been blown down during the past week, piling power cuts on top of the floods. Even at home in Hampshire, which has been spared compared to Somerset and the Thames Valley, I can't drive north or west on the main roads due to flooding. But there is some good in it all. Communities have been thrown together, working as one with a common purpose. It's brought out the best in the British mentality.
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The crisis will mean that the countryside will have a stronger voice in the future. Even the Tories, who seem to be have spent the past few years sleepwalking their way out of the countryside, can no longer ignore their rural voters and take them for granted.
It seems impossible that, a year ago, we were in the midst of a drought and I expect that we'll soon be in one again, but now is the time to make the most of the high water table and plant trees. Plant them to replace the fallen, plant them to replace the threatened ash and plant them to make something good out of all this misery.
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Country Life is unlike any other magazine: the only glossy weekly on the newsstand and the only magazine that has been guest-edited by HRH The King not once, but twice. It is a celebration of modern rural life and all its diverse joys and pleasures — that was first published in Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee year. Our eclectic mixture of witty and informative content — from the most up-to-date property news and commentary and a coveted glimpse inside some of the UK's best houses and gardens, to gardening, the arts and interior design, written by experts in their field — still cannot be found in print or online, anywhere else.
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