Lydgate - sunshine and heavy digging

All the crew, Philip waving in the distance.

Lovely morning up on the moors above Marsden. We have 300 trees to plant on the edge of the shooting club's land. We managed to plant 185 of them, as we were digging through very tough grass and heather. We were, Philip, Brian, Duncan, Cath, Heidi, myself, Neil, and Jack and Josh the Explorer Scouts. And the cake was a very very fruity fruit cake. We will be back there again next week, fingers crossed for more sunshine.

Scammonden Reservoir

First week of what will be a long term project for us, planting up some fields on the edge of the Reservoir. It is our contribution to a wider project developing the site for public access, benefit and enjoyment. So we started by planting 300 Ash trees and some Hawthorn and Rowan along the edge. Good turnout, with myself, Cath, Philip, Neil, Dave, Duncan, Diane, my mum, Brian, Trevor, Peter, Guy, and two guests, Jack and Josh the Explorer Scouts. We will be back at this site over the next few weeks, planting considerably more trees. This week's cake was chocolate.

Hats off to Dave!

Just a note to acknowledge all the hard work that Dave has done at the Nursery in the last few weeks. The work area, paths, and drainage all look brilliant. Dave, we salute you.

Butterley Reservoir- more trees and a lot of gorse.

Cath, Ben and Heidi enjoy cake despite rain

2nd Week at Butterley Reservoir this year. Horrible, horrible weather, windy and rainy, our least favourite. Not cold though. We finished planting Emma and John's patch with 20 Holly. Planted 50 more trees in a clough for Blue Ginger. And then planted over 200 Gorse in several clumps. Planting the gorse meant clearing patches of Molinia grass and then putting the Gorse in at 1ft spacing. It did stop raining right at the end, which was nice. Cake was banana and walnut, and was universally acclaimed. And we all had a nice time, considering!

Cath, Philip, Geoff and Neil planting gorse above the reservoir.