The 1

This Saturday we were at Scammonden again, removing old tree guards and stakes. Most of the tubes were off mature trees, or Ash, so were not re-useable. 80 long stakes were brought away for re-use.

We were: myself, Geoff, Dave, Jess, Lee and Hap.

It was a pretty damp and midgy morning, with one notable deluge. But still turned out to be fun!

Me and Jess were quite excited about the new Taylor Swift release, so this week's song is off it. Even if the title isn't relevant. So there.

https://youtu.be/KsZ6tROaVOQ

Meeting

This Saturday morning we held our AGM and Summer meetings, amongst trees we planted.  Due to Covid we didn't feel it was appropriate to cram ourselves into a room for the meeting, and this seemed a good idea. It was a bit damp, but I still managed to take the minutes.

We were: myself, Guy, Cath, Dianne, Peter, Stephen, Duncan and Harvey the dog, Sue, Hap, John, Ben, Lee, Jess, Geoff, Dave and Philip.

The outdoor setting seemed to work, in that we got both meetings done in an unusually short time.

https://youtu.be/Jv0NUZVdIVQ

Blue orchid

Geoff, Tanya and Ben collected 117 shrub guards from Scammonden SC14 on Saturday and probably about 100 stakes (some broke). Dave came along later to 'reconnoitre' and took 30 back to the nursery; the rest are left on site for now. There are a few more there though not many, but most of that site needs de-guarding so could well go back there next Saturday. The weather was fine really - constantly rainy but not at all unpleasant.

 

They speculated that the visit of Jason McCartney to this site must have blessed it since Geoff found this rather fine common spotted orchid specimen (Dactylorhiza fuchsii), maybe even on the very spot that he had stood, proudly posing for a photo of him pretending to plant a tree.

 

Not many songs about orchids...

https://youtu.be/jW8UlrtcEac

Myself and Philip were visiting two prospective sites, the final additions to the Winter's activities.

Do anything you wanna do

The view from Scout

This  morning I was up at Scout talking to a landowner about a planting plan for the coming Season.

Geoff, Tanya, Ben, Lisa, Alexander and Jared were at Scammonden de-guarding.

Dave, Stephen, Peter, Cath and Hap were over the other side of Scammonden, de-balsaming.

https://youtu.be/rK8pAfhC4Rk