I have discovered that the branches from my fallen tree are not quite as green as I had thought and the wood is hard and difficult to whittle. As a consequence of this, I have cracked the handle on my pen knife. I have ordered another one but I don’t know when it will arrive.
If you are planning on doing some whittling, please do not be tempted to cut branches from living trees at this time of year. The trees are just waking up from their winter sleep and the sap inside them is rising which means that if you cut them now the sap would keep pouring out of them and they could die. The safe time to cut branches from living trees is winter when they are dormant (sleeping).
However, I have managed to do a bit of whittling. I drew around my template and started to cut away the wood around my spoon. This is as far as I have got. 
