Pasture Wood again

Ben, Dave and Dianne try to make the trees look bigger by sitting down.

First official day of the Summer seasons work, and Philip, Dave, Ben, Duncan and Dianne went back to Pasture Wood above Marsden to take off more guards. 125 more stakes were taken back to the Nursery.

It would seem that some trees have been deliberately cut back, we think by someone trying to preserve a particular view from their house. This happens sometimes, we do try to be sensitive to people living near to where we plant, but its always disappointing when someone takes matters into their own hands rather than talk to us.  On the plus side, there are still several thousand trees up there growing well (if slowly). The Holly in the photo are notoriously slow, but are growing.

Pasture Wood pastoralism

Artful shot of some Alder

This morning myself, Ben, Dan, Peter and Geoff went up to Pasture Wood above Marsden to inspect the trees planted there 7 years ago, and to remove and reclaim stakes and guards. Growth up there has been slow, but we were pleasantly surprised to see the vast majority of the trees are establishing themselves. Geoff was particularly impressed with the Alder (see photo).We came home with around 80 reclaimed guards, a mix of hare and rabbit lengths, and around 125 long stakes. Still lots more work to be done up there.

Peter and myself bundling stakes.

Raffles - the amateur cracksman

So, this is the second combination lock we have had fail. As you can see I drew on my extensive knowledge of lock pickery, and then just carried out a frenzied attack on it, focussing on the relatively soft brass rather than the hardened shackle. Took me 40 minutes, 2 hacksaw blades, and a broken screwdriver to destroy it. Probably not a lot of chance getting this one replaced under guarantee, not in this state. There is a new new lock on the gate, with the same old combination.

Dry stone walling at Scammonden

Thanks to Simon Pedley of Kirklees, and Yorkshire Water, five of us began a 2 day dry stone walling course today. We had beautiful weather (despite concerns) and all had a lovely time. We were: Neil, Sarah, myself, Peter and Dianne - plus all the other non-tree Society people booked on the course. Fingers crossed for the weather tomorrow. Of course, two pints at the Riverhead and a nice hot shower did round off all that hard work properly.