Beautiful morning at Merrydale

A young Birch, a young Rowan, and a pile of old guards.

Lots of people are on holiday, it being August, so it was just Geoff and myself this morning. But it was a lovely morning, and we went up to Merrydale and removed more stakes and guards. We brought back about 100 stakes at the end, which saves us around £25.  I also collected a similar number of used cable ties, I am not quite sure what I am going to do with those, but at least they aren't just left on site. We had tons of cake, cherry muffins. But we only ate two each, and I brought the rest home. After a pint of Elland brewery Bargee at the Sair.

The Green Man Trail, and formative pruning

Philip, Geoff and Guy relax before the rain.

Philip and Guy have been trying to establish this weekend as an annual event and walk. The Green man trail is a proposed walk route that takes you up to the top of Pasture Wood above Marsden. It gives a brilliant view of the head of the Colne Valley. At least, it does on a day which isn't beset by low cloud and rain, in August! The weather was shockingly bad. It should have been a lovely celebratory moment, when we could look around the valley and see thousands of trees which the society has planted over the years. But we did our best in adverse circumstances, we had cake, and shared a bottle of wine. Later on, Philip, Guy and I walked down to Netherwood, and did a bit of light formative pruning there, before ending the evening in more relaxed and social manner. Beer, obviously.

Philip formatively prunes a tree.