Cissbury Ring, West Sussex

When I booked my late November National Trust working holiday which involved scrub bashing on the top of one of the most exposed parts of the south coast, I did feel a slight flicker of concern that it might prove to be a tough week.

As it was, I needn't have worried. Apart from one day of rain (the day off, when I made a rather foolish decision to leave the warmth of the hostel and go out for a six mile walk because it 'looked like it was clearing up') we were very lucky with the weather.

My fellow volunteers were interesting and good company; the food and drink was copious and good quality; my only complaint was the stuffy dorms which I abandoned after two sleepless nights for the relative comfort of the oversized sofas in the lounge.

We worked on Cissbury Ring, a hill fort overlooking Worthing, chopping scrub, small trees, and lots of gorse. Some of it we burned on huge fires, and on the days when we weren't burning the scrub, the warden still made a little fire for us to sit around and have our breaks.

The views were glorious and the trees magnificent. I took a lot of photos of trees. I love trees in winter, they are much more visually interesting without their leaves, although I also love standing under them in spring and summer, and peering through the leafy canopy to the sky.