Three men in a field picking wild flowers

Me and my bouquet.

Philip, Geoff and myself went to Fieldhouse to strip out Ragwort, and a do bit of weeding. It was stupidly humid and I lost about half my bodyweight in sweat, but there are worse ways to spend a Thursday evening. Almost all the trees are growing despite vigorous competition from Ragwort and grass. Some encroachment by brambles and knotweed along the top edge of the field though. Need to keep an eye on this.

A hard days log

Jess's unorthodox method of securing wood while sawing.

So today was all about gathering and preparing wood fuel. Myself, Dave, Remy, Hap and Geoff went to Hemplow Wood and retrieved some Larch logs from where we did some thinning out a few weeks ago. Then we returned to the Nursery to join Philip, Jess, Ben, Jack and Neil who were cutting up and bagging some already dried timber. While it wasn't as sunny as recently, it was still flipping warm, and midgy. Cake was a very jammy bakewell tart. And we retired exhausted to the Sair where Bobby was playing 80's funk.

Remy and Dave chopping and bagging.

Bracken bashing at Helme

Ben, Geoff and Philip adrift in a sea of fern.

This Saturday the team, Ben, Geoff, Philip, Guy, Duncan and Harvey the dog, spent the morning at Helme, Meltham, knocking back bracken to allow young trees some light. It was obviously quite hot, and they had to manage without homemade cake, as I was away at the seaside. So well done chaps.

Ben looks hot, Guy looks like a panther about to pounce, and Geoff looks casual.

After all the work, you can see trees, and the trees can see the sun.