Whatever happened to Christmas

Edouard and PA.

Well despite it being Christmas Eve, a demented/devoted few of us turned up at the nursery and spent a lovely morning cutting up logs. We earned our home made mince pies.

We were: myself, Philip, Geoff, PA, Maxime, Claudine, Edouard, Dave and Tanya.

Happy holidays everybody!

https://youtu.be/XNJXWfXyqgA

A forest

Philip, fettling.

Here we were today at Royd House Wood. We were thinning out some trees planted around 20 years ago. Kirklees land, and Kirklees forestry officers had marked up the trees for removal by us.

We were: Ben (solo, without Solo), Philip and chainsaw, Stephen K. and chainsaw, Stephen O., Steve, Hap, Tanya, Jess, Dianne and Johnathan, John, Guy, Peter, Dave , Adrian, and myself.

We filled over 3 bays of our drying sheds with the fruits of our labour.

Cake was pineapple upside down cake, followed later by Guy and Mandy's winter feast at the Sair (curry, sausages, many side-dishes). Geoff (poorly) joined us at the Sair.

https://youtu.be/dzFmlRCyVUs

Lonely boy

Back up to Huck Hill this morning to plant the last dozen trees on my own. We did seem to have dug slightly too many holes when we were preparing the other week though. There are 11 empty screefs, 12 guards, and 14 stakes left over. Maybe if there is something suitable left over at the end of the season I will pop back and fill these in...

https://youtu.be/a_426RiwST8

Rocks

A Hogarthian scene.

We were back at Butterley Clough finishing off. Or was it finishing us off? (Thanks Guy). Not only is it a pig to get to, it is also, in places, very rocky. I could have built Stonehenge with the stuff I dug up.

Anyway, we were: Steve, Lee, Jess, Cath, Dianne and Lizzie the Dog,  Duncan and Harvey the Dog, Andrew, Hap, Dave, Ben and Solo the dog, Lesley, Robert, Geoff, myself, Philip, Adrian, Susan and Stephen.

The 200+ trees got planted, and fruit cake got eaten. Onwards!

https://youtu.be/Z3ZCZjhjguA

The Climb

Hap in attention seeking beatific pose.

Today we were at Butterley, deep in the clough, which made it steep, to say the least. We were: myself, Steve, Philip, Adrian (half session), Geoff, Dave, Jess, Dianne and Lizzie the dog, Hap, Stephen, and Andrew. We planted 105 Sessile Oak, and I think, 105 Scots Pine.

Cake was chocolate.

Pictures by Jess this week, with her Motorola G4 (sponsorship opportunity?).

Surrender yourself to this epic power ballad, which, lyrically, pretty much sums up this morning.

https://youtu.be/NG2zyeVRcbs

Deep in the clough.

Apology song

Today we ventured back to Huck Hill, planting another 60 trees, and digging holes for the remaining 30. We were: myself, Stephen, Dave, Hap and Tanya.

Tanya arrived by bicycle, and we gave her a bit of a lecture about her rather casual approach to bicycle security. Hence today's title and song.

https://youtu.be/ZctK51RwK8A

Keep on keepin' on

Today we were high up above Marsden planting a long hedge and some trees. We were: Stephen O., Stephen K., Steve, Tanya, Robert, Hap, Philip, Dave, Jess and Lee, Dianne and Lizzie the dog, Duncan and Harvey the dog, Ben and Solo the dog, Geoff, John and myself.

We planted 510 trees and hedging plants this morning. Which is a pretty heroic effort. Though we did have to keep on keepin' on til 1pm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBOlxHnZDQQ

Everybody is a star

Somebody wake Hap up!

This Thursday morning five of us went back to Huck Hill and planted another 80 or so trees. We were: myself, Stephen, Dianne, Dave and Hap. Scones had been freshly made by Ann.

Well done everyone!

This leaves 60 Downy Birch and 30 Alder to be planted at this site (all of which are at the nursery).


https://youtu.be/m29F4FtVo-U

Elected

Mystery guest and his political hat.

This week we were back at Huck Hill. The weather was not kind, and the ground here is still the hardest digging we ever do. Nevertheless we planted around 200 trees. We were: myself, Dave, Philip, Guy, Cath, Steve, Lesley and Robert, Adrian, Jess, Dianne and Lizzie the dog, Ben and Solo the dog, Iain, and Geoff. Cake was sticky ginger.

I guess we still have another 150 trees to plant here, which is either another days team work, or a little hobby for me on my days off!

Dave and his deckchair.

https://youtu.be/1i4EnjRKVQw

Heartbroken, in disrepair.

I popped back up to Huck Hill, and dug another 20 holes ready for next Saturday.

Unfortunately, I broke Dave's new toy. Only had 4 days of use, so am filling out the Amazon return form now...

https://youtu.be/9o4l10CtN7g

Misty

Today were were up at Huck Hill, Marsden. We were: Iain (who's field it is) myself, Philip, Geoff, Hap, Stephen, Peter T., Cath, Dave, Ben and Solo the dog, and Adrian.

To the best of my recollection we planted 52 Hawthorn (out of 60), 90 Downy Birch (out of 105), 13 Oaks (extras from Stephen's garden), 95 Scots Pine (out of 105).

Cake was an adorable coconut and cherry affair, which some people had 3 bits of.

Back here again next week for more punishment! (heavy digging) (so many parentheses today).

This week, a wildly inappropriate (but classic) country tune.

https://youtu.be/ko56rc30qdk

Thank U

Doug, Rebecca, Guy and Philip

Today we had a visit from Rebecca Speight, Chief Executive of the Woodland Trust.

Myself, Philip, Guy (in his White Rose Forest role) met Rebecca and Doug Edmundson, Woodland Trust Woodland Creation Advisor (North Central).

We took a quick tour of Hemplow Wood and expressed our extreme gratitude to them for the support that the Woodland Trust has given us in recent years.

https://youtu.be/OOgpT5rEKIU

Me, Guy, Doug and Rebecca

Apple blossom

A game of two teams today. Myself, Duncan and Harvey the dog, John, Ben and Solo the dog went back to Highwood to finish planting 75 Oaks, plus another 13 Oaks home grown by Stephen. Duncan was very proud of how the apple trees he planted here have done, and took fruit home.

Meanwhile..Philip, Geoff, Hap, Cath, ,Dave, Diane, Jess, Lesley and Robert, Stephen, Steve and Adrian went to Cop Hill Slaithwaite to plant 375 assorted trees. I believe they were assisted by Neil, Julie and Seth.

Cake was also Apple!

Geoff likes to pretend he is digging for Time Team.

https://youtu.be/y8gU1zhzJ2E

Red

First day of the Season and were at Fieldhouse, Slaithwaite planting 150 Red Oak and 45 Sessile Oak. We were: myself, Steve, Hap, Adrain, Jess, Dianne and Lizzie the dog, Duncan and Harvey the dog, Geoff and Dave. 75 Sessile Oak still to plant on this site.

https://youtu.be/gW_LaqKudLY

Keep on truckin'

The day of our big delivery. We are now ready for the Season. Scott from Alba brought us all our gear. There to greet him were myself, Neil, Philip, Peter, Adrian, Dave and John.

https://youtu.be/Mx43392TEbA

Winter

Embracing the idea of it now being Winter,  we were cutting up logs and filling our drying bays.

We were: myself, Philip, Jess, Adrian, Guy, Lesley and Robert, Hap, Steve, Ben and Solo the dog.

https://youtu.be/IeRDdzJgeD0

Ron

Another sad loss this Summer, Ron, the legendary landlord of the Sair.

While I am a comer-inner, and haven't known Ron for my whole drinking life (unlike some Society members) he was a friend and supporter of the Society for many, many years. He will be missed.

Way up yonder - in the minor key

This Saturday we ventured up the far, high end of the valley to do some tidying of a site planted in 2009. Its coming along well up there.

We had apple sponge at break, which contained some of the nursery's thousands of apples.

We were: myself, Steve, Dave, Hap, Ben and Solo the dog, Jessica, Peter and Geoff.

In the pines

Robert and Lesley remove the stump of a tree they felled.

In the pines, is exactly where we were today. We went to the small Scots pine plantation round the back of Butterley Reservoir. We think this was planted by the water board back in the 1960s, when that sort of thing was fashionable. Sadly the plantation is not looking as vibrant or viable as it did even 10 years ago. There are a large number of dead trees, and a number of trees that have been blown down in storms. At the same time, there are beginnings of natural regeneration of native broadleaf species, including Oak, Rowan and Holly, at ground level. We went in there with bow saws to take down some of the smaller dead pines, in order to allow more light to the natural regeneration. We were: Joanne and Jake, Lesley and Robert, Guy, Geoff, myself and Peter. Everyone worked safely, and no trees fell on us. We left the site at least as tidy as we found it. All timber was left on site in habitat piles.

https://youtu.be/gOZKz_sPM6U

Clare

We were extremely sad this week to hear of the death of a friend and member of the Society, Clare Bakhtiar. Clare planted trees with us between 1998 and 2001, but moved away from the area. She stayed in touch, and twice came with us on our occasional Summer walking and mountain trips. The above picture was taken at Inchnadamph Lodge in Scotland, just before we walked up Ben More Assynt. Her sudden death in an accident is a terrible loss, most of all for her son Caleb.