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.