Snow show

Stephen, Vashti, Steve.

'Twas the day after Boxing day, and the snow lay round about. Mainly on the ungritted roads, so that hardly anyone could get to Marsden. Vashti, Steve and I had walked up, Stephen intrepidly drove. We managed to plant a further 31 Oaks, which wasn't bad going given the conditions. Leftover mince pies were shared.

Yule logging

Hap, Steve, Jess, Mandy, Harvey, Geoff, Dave and Dianne.

Today we had our now traditional pre-Christmas woodland management session. Weather was a bit grizzly and damp. But we soldiered on. We were: myself, Guy, Mandy, Dave, Geoff, Ben, Dianne and Lizzie the Dog, Duncan and Harvey the Dog, Jess, Steve, Hap, Philip and Stephen.

Guy and Mandy provided hearty chilli stew for break time. This was accompanied by Dave's Aldi knock off Bailey's, and Geoff's purportedly more sophisticated blackcurrant liqueur. And home made oat biscuits. Plus cheese and crackers. And a roaring camp fire.

Before and after we made pigs of ourselves Philip and Steven were doing their chainsaw work, and the rest of us were felling smaller trees and logging. We were thinning out some woodland that was planted by us 15 years ago. Removing some nurse species and shorter lived trees such as Larch, Birch and Alder, to allow more light to the Oaks.

Oh, and we also carried a further 150 deer stakes and 200 deer guards on site.

The Few plant the first of many

Trevor, Geoff and Duncan, amongst the frost and fog.

Here we were back at Butterley, a little depleted in numbers due to the proximity of Christmas. We were: Trevor, Peter W., Duncan and Harvey the dog, Dianne and Lizzie the dog, Geoff, Dave, Philip and myself. We planted 120 Oaks, courtesy of the Trust for Conservation Volunteers. Cake was big chunks of Bakewell tart.

As an aide memoire: we have 100 hare guards and stakes, 220 deer stakes, 100 deer guards, 40 cell grown Goat Willow, 50 bare root Goat Willow, 50 bare root Downy Birch, 50 bare root Hawthorn, and 130 bare root Oak. There are, I think 60 odd trees left at the nursery too for this site. Total still to plant 380. Two Saturday's work?

Deep Gate

Hap, Geoff, Jess and Dianne resplendent in CVTS branded casual wear.
Peter is still irked that the hats sold out before he got one.

This Saturday we were planting along a local bridleway called, Deep Gate. There is older CVTS planting at both the bottom and top ends. So we were attempting to link this woodland with a new "wildlife corridor". We planted 210 trees, in several small clumps along the edges of the bridleway, taking care not to impede the progress of folks on their giant pets (horses). We were: myself, Philip, Jess, Dianne and Lizzie the dog, Cath, Jolly, Trevor, Peter W., Brian, Peter T., Hap, Geoff, Ben and Steve. Dave went off solo to Butterley. Cake was Apple and Walnut. And the sun shone for at least some of the time.