A good morning, planting and ground cover.

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1. On a morning when the sun is raising steam from the ground; wet leaves shine too bright to see; and a crust of frost crunches underfoot, Diane remarks: 'It's good to be alive.'

2. Pushing a spade into the soil and pushing it back and forth to make a slit trench in which to plant a tree.

3. An area which was this morning a mess of trampled bracken and scrawny briars is now planted with stakes and tree guards, each containing a sapling.

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