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.

Merrydale, clearing for the Dartmouth Shoot.

Remy wearing fetching midge-net hat. And Harvey, who looks a bit like half a dog in this picture..

So today we went to Merrydale, a sight planted by us over a number of years. Our task today was to clear brambles, at the request of the Dartmouth Shoot. We were: myself, Philip, Geoff, Remy, Duncan, and Harvey the dog. It was a bit humid, a bit thorny, and a bit midgy, but we spent a productive morning cutting brambles out and formatively pruning some of the trees. Cake was chocolate. And a good time was had by all. Even Harvey the dog, who nicked Geoff's bit of cake while Geoff was talking.

Philip rehydrating, cleared understorey in background

Geoff and Philip hard at it.