Do it clean

A trip back to Hey Laithe, to clear more brambles from trees, and collect more old tree guards. Site is looking very tidy now, but still a bit more work to do.  This site was planted 20 years ago, and where once was a unused field, is now a nice bit of upland oak birch woodland. Plenty of walkers passed by us as we worked, no doubt enjoying the ambience we have created.

We were: myself, Philip, Kayleigh, Paul, and Julia.

Plus Geoff, Richard, Dave, Cath, Jess and Lee were at Scammonden collecting and bagging up more guards.

https://youtu.be/wjbTCI8o0X4

Bombers

 Up to Wessenden Lodge this morning to re-guard a bunch of trees that were collateral damage during the great rhododendron removal campaign. Myself Dave and Stephen wondered around on the stricken hillside tending to the survivors.

Rescue me

Sarah and Michael in the snow

This morning we were up Wessenden, retrieving and tidying tree guards on previous plantings.

Weather was supposed to be sunny spells in the morning turning to wintery showers in the afternoon. It was the opposite. Steady snow all morning, and now you need factor 50 in the back yard!!!

Still the young and the foolish carried on. We were: myself, Philip, Paul, Laura, Shaun, Kayleigh, Sarah, Murray, and Peter.

On the way back down we encountered a near full set of emergency services who had turned out for a crashed mountain biker. Helicopter, ambulance and a dozen mountain rescuers. He'd only been riding down the (drive-able) Wessenden track. Still, hope he is ok.

Meanwhile, Geoff, Steve, Jess, Lee, Tanya and Richard were at Scammonden removing guards. Though it was apparently a bit more sheltered there.

Fontella Bass!

Nice bass line Bass.

Trash

Today, Hap, Geoff and Dave went down the track at Scammonden and retrieved 100 deer stakes for re-use. They also did a litter pick along the way, and spoke to a Yorkshire Water Ranger. Had a discussion with her about the piles of tree guards, and how we are talking to Yorkshire Water about their disposal.

https://youtu.be/aEJkJBqNwAo

Horses

No oaks here.

Geoff, Tanya and Cath went back to Spring St to plant the last 40 rowan, crab apple and oak.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5FrS5aQc50 (?)

And Tanya and I agree this deserves a look too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rki7iko_7lk

My old school

A reduced team this week, at Longwood Edge helping New College to plant some trees that they acquired.

We were: Jess, Lee, Laura, Kayleigh, Michael, Dave, Peter, John H., Richard, Jared, Alastair, Julia, Jon, Tessie, and myself - plus Sarah and her colleagues from New college.

Not many trees, so the work got done quickly with an early finish.

We planted 45 downy birch, 45 oak, 30 goat willow, 30 hazel, 30 rowan, 15 elder, 30 blackthorn, 15 hawthorn and 15 dog rose.

https://youtu.be/m_8_SkSMwT8

Strange day

Clouds, sunshine, blue sky, hail, and vividly wet vegetation.

Our official last day of the planting season, the last of our own trees for this year.

We were up high, Netherwood, Marsden, in the wind, rain, sleet, sunshine and hail. A strange day. But still convivial.

We were: Sophie, Geoff, Dave, Matthew, Stephen, Ben, Julia, Kayleigh, Tanya, Shelley, Jon, Richard, John H., Paul, Hap, Philip, Jess, Lee, Jared, Alastair, and myself.

We planted 240 trees, oak, rowan and crab apple.

https://youtu.be/Fe85C96-eg8

Happy birthday!

Industrious chap that Jared.

This week we were in two groups. Both groups had great views of the valley.

One group was at New Hey up west of Marsden. We were: myself, Dave, Hap, Julia, Shelley, Jess, Lee, Kayleigh, Paul, Jared, Alastair, Jon, and birthday girl Tessie! We planted: 50 blackthorn, 25 crab apple, 25 dogwood, 6 rowan, 25 dog rose, 10 elder, 100 hawthorn, and 25 hazel

The other team were up above Spring St. Slaithwaite, and were: Geoff, Matthew, Tanya, Peter, John H., Ben, Kati, Jo, Cath, Oscar, Stephen, John F., and Max. They planted, 115 sessile oak 35 rowan, 100 downy birch, 25 grey willow.

For someone of my generation, there really is only one birthday tune.

https://youtu.be/eeMqW2jjNa8

I think I'll go watch Gregory's girl again...

Goldeneye

How does a toad get to have golden eyes?

Today we were up above Slaithwaite. The ground was dry and the sun shone.

We were: Ben, myself, Geoff, Philip, Dave, Kayleigh, Laura, Sophie, Tanya, Paul, John F., John H., Jon, Tessie, Shelley, Jo, Peter, Stephen, Steve, Alastair, Jared, Matthew, Murray, Michael, Cath, Hap, Julia, Anna, plus our hosts James, Eric and Evie.

We planted 115 hawthorn, 80 dog rose, 50 blackthorn, 15 elder, 25 hazel, 25 alder, 25 small leaved lime, 10 field maple, 50 wild cherry

https://youtu.be/iZy63vxe5G0

Not the Tina Turner song, but the music from the opening of the Nintendo 64 game, which is best played loud.

In dark trees

Philip, Stephen, Hap, Oscar, John H., and Dave spent the morning in Marsden felling some large larch which were planted as nurse species, and were now shading out the other trees. Larch is of limited value as a firewood, so everything was left on site as habitat material.

https://youtu.be/OH4oeGU_o1U

Dirty work

Everyone got very muddy!

This morning most of us were at a site near bolster moor. Planting a hedge and strip of trees in a very, very wet field.

We were: myself, Laura, Kayleigh, Shelley, Jo, Kati, Ben, Geoff, Peter, Richard, Cath, Max, Jon, Tessie, Sophie, John F., Arthur, Matthew, Alastair, Jared, Paul, Murray, and Jake.

We planted 25 hawthorn, 25 blackthorn, 50 dog rose, 50 dogwood, 25 oak, 100 alder, 25 downy birch, and 25 willow.

A random act of kindness from a passing stranger. A lady gave us two packets of Bolster Moor Farm shop biscuits, as a reward for our work. 

And the field owners also plied us with goodies too, more biscuits and homemade cupcakes.

We had banned snack sharing, but so we could enjoy these kindnesses I slathered my hands with hand sanitizer several times while handing the stuff out.

https://youtu.be/QrE_cDvcgJg

Harder than you think

Jess, Lee and Geoff, throwing gang signs?

Hats off to the other half of the mornings activity. A select few made it to Scammonden and deserve a big shout out: Jess, Lee, Geoff and Hap. A couple of others made it partway, Michael and Peter. Some stakes were gathered and left for later collection.

CVTS, harder than you think.

https://youtu.be/L4EDy6wTOsg

Black cow

Them cows got attitude

Small group of us at Hey Laithe to do some light woodland management. Wasn't so cold once you were working. We were: myself, Philip, Stephen, John H., Oscar, Julia, Matthew and Kayleigh.

On the way across a field going home we were charged by some attitudinous cows. They pulled up just before they got to us, and then pretended they were cool. But cows can kill you if they want to. We also saw some walkers with tankards.

The mighty Steely Dan.

https://youtu.be/JzrDs_Vaho4

Madness

What kind of lunatic does this on a Saturday morning? Assaulted by heavy rain and sleet from above, and mud and water from below.

Our stoic and heroic crew were: Sophie, Michael, myself, Philip, Dave, Geoff, Hap, Stephen, Laura, Kayleigh, Oscar, Steve, Darren, Jared, Alastair, Cath, Peter, Duncan, Matthew, Julia, and Remy.

We planted 150 downy birch, 25 wild cherry, 25 bird cherry, 35 rowan, 15 crab apple, 15 hazel, 65 sessile oak and 50 scots pine. Which was quite an achievement in the prevailing conditions.

https://youtu.be/6sar3Ew9ZXQ

Yes we can

Back in Marsden to finish planting at this site. Snowed again. Seems to snow every Saturday.

We were: Kayleigh, Jo, Sophie, Cath, Hap, Philip, myself, Paul, Kayleigh, Oscar, Jared, Alastair, Julia, Matthew, Peter, John H., Stephen, Jon, Tessie, Steve, and our host Yogi.

We planted a pretty epic 115 sessile oak, 100 downy birch, 60 rowan, 25 bird cherry, 50 wild cherry, and 25 aspen. And left 25 dogwood behind for later planting.

Hard work. But done.

https://youtu.be/H_SuyOLW_f0

White riot

Sophie and Jo enjoying the weather

Snow!

Another Saturday of two halves.

Some of us were at Marsden planting 100 Hawthorn, 100 Blackthorn, and 50 Scots Pine. We were: myself, Matthew, Kayleigh, Sophie, Joe, Tom, Oscar, Remy, Dave, Tanya, Michael, Jake, Kayleigh, Jon and Tessie, Paul, Peter, Julia, Alastair and Jared

Others were at Meltham planting 50 Sessile Oak, 100 hawthorn, 50 dog rose, 15 blackthorn, 15 crab apple, 15 hazel H They were:Philip, Stephen, Ben, Hap, John H., Darren, Cath and Geoff.

An old punk song. A cryptic clue for fun in the snow?

https://youtu.be/IvG3is7Bm1w

Sunday morning

Back to Meltham. And on a Sunday, a decision made based on how long it would take all the ice to melt.

We planted a further 30 sessile oak, 75 pedunculate oak, 50 scots pine, 15 crab apple 15 hazel, 50 common alder, 15 goat willow and 15 grey willow.

We were: myself, Hap, Philip, Stephen, Remy, Murray, Kayleigh, Jon and Tessie, Dave, Peter, John H., Sophie, Steve, and Ben. Plus our hosts Heath, Harry and Sam.

We need to return to plant a short length of hedge and 50 remaining pedunculate oak.

No photo this week, I was busy making up mesh guards for the pines.

And there is only one song for a Sunday morning...

https://youtu.be/Xhbyj8pqUao

Slippery people

Hap and Philip arriving, in glorious sunshine.

A trip out of the valley, to Meltham today. In the ice and snow.

We were: Geoff, Dave, Hap, Peter, Philip, Darren, Stephen, Steve, Murray, Alastair, Jared, myself, Kayleigh, John H., Ben, and Michael. Plus Heath and his two sons.

We aimed to plant 275 trees, 60 sessile oak, 50 hazel, 25 wild cherry, 25 bird cherry, 35 rowan, and 50 scots pine.

The ice and snow cause a bit of fun at going home time. With a treacherous slope down from the parking spot, some manual snow clearance and a handy tow from Heath's land rover were needed. 

I was last man out, and my little car needed no assistance. 

https://youtu.be/rx2_iHftARo

Burn it down

We plan our plantings and order our trees in the Summer. What we didn't anticipate this year was a sudden and near exponential growth in the number of volunteers.

Some tasks we planned just won't accommodate 30+ people. And we can't just magic up more trees and bigger sites. Happily we do have some larger sites to occupy us for the next few weeks. Hopefully our increased membership is long term, and we can plan for next year accordingly.

This Saturday a reduced group met to plant 150 hawthorn and hazel on an old site, where we were asked to clear some larger trees last year. 150 might sound a lot, but with 13 adults and 2 children we still finished very early.

We were: myself, Philip, Dave, Geoff, Sophie and Arthur, Jon and Tess, John, Cath, Jess, Lee, Hap, Kayleigh, Peter, and Tanya.

https://youtu.be/IV6WFnLUl10

Hillbilly Christmas (is every Saturday)

 

A rampantly successful morning, finishing at this Marsden site. 600 trees got planted, which might be a proper record for proper trees and not hedging. 50 scots pine, 75 rowan, 75 aspen, 75 Willow, 75 alder, 50 silver birch, 25 hawthorn, 25 gorse, 25 crab apple, 25 elder , 50 field maple, and 50 hazel.

We were: myself, Dave, Stephen, Connie, Helen, Kayleigh, Laura, Richard G., Hap, Geoff, Philip, Ben, Kati, Cath, Julia and Ben, Tom, Richard P., Peter, John F., John H., Jo, Michael, Jake, Matthew, Dianne, Jess, Lee, Sophie, Tania, and Jared. And Ben the photographer.

This weeks tune is an absolute, unquestionable, belter. 100% guaranteed to make you feel more Christmassy.

https://youtu.be/_SCjoMqz65I

Yeah!