Lindley Infants Owls rule!

Tilly looking a bit wet, and lots of Lindley Owls and mums and dads in the background.

We were joined today by Lindley Infants Owls, led by Mrs Shires. They bravely turned out on a not very nice Saturday morning, and helped us plant almost 500 trees. Again we were at Scammonden, planting, Oak, Ash, Hazel and some Rowan. We were also visited by Colne Valley MP Jason McCartney, who lent a hand, made a cash contribution, and gave us some suggestions of local Companies we could approach for more support. Tree Society folk attending were, Guy, Philip, Dave, Ben, Neil, Geoff, Andrew, Ann and Tilly. Tilly helped me hand out badges and leaflets to the children. Ann handed out home made oat biscuits to all. Considering the drizzly damp weather we had a good productive morning. I just hope everyone got home, got dry, and warmed up afterwards. I recovered by having three pints of Linfit Bitter in the Sair, so I wasn't very effective for the rest of the day, quite relaxed though.

Scammonden and Golcar Scouts

Golcar Scouts planting an Ash tree

Back to Scammonden today and we planted over 300 more Ash. We were assisted by a brilliant turnout of 19 Golcar Scouts, who were excellent workers! Weather was mixed, but the sun shone some of the time. Cake was a splendid coconut crunch. Regular tree society folk included myself, Philip, Neil, Geoff, Dave, Brian, Roger, Trevor, Ann, and new recruit Andrew (well we hope he is a new recruit, we tried not to scare him off).

We who also work on Thursdays

Trevor and Brian finishing off an ailing Birch

I was recruited by the Senior section this morning, and went round to various sites with Brian, Trevor and Peter to "beat-up" (which means plant extra trees) and to cut down a couple of dead Birches.

What we did on our half term holiday.

No tree planting today. A bit of snow, and the fact that a number of us were on half term breaks meant that we called it off. Myself, mother, Dan and Geoff did turn up, plus a couple of bright and enthusiastic Scouts. But we decided that the roads to Scammonden would be unpassable. We spent an hour sorting out reclaimed stakes and guards which Brian and crew had retrieved from Bolster Moor. We can use these in a couple of weeks time at Marsden. So that saves us some money and means the morning wasn't a total wash-out. Thanks Brian and crew for their recycling work, and to those intrepid few who did turn out this morning.

Access improvements at Fieldhouse

There is now a new gate, and levelled access, to Fieldhouse.

Scammonden. Herons in the trees!

Philip leans on his mattock and admires the winter sky.

Quite a nice morning, cloudy then sunny. Back at Scammonden attempting to plant Rowan high on the hillside above the reservoir. We managed 118 Rowan, which is not bad given the heavy digging and effort of dragging everything up the hill. Brian and crew managed a similar number down the bottom of the slope. While having coffee and cake we could see a number of herons roosting in the trees on the opposite side of the reservoir. I had not seen herons in such a big group before, and not seen them in trees. After the planting, off to the Sair for the mid season meeting.

Cath, Heidi and Neil hard at work. Previous
planting visible bottom right.

Finishing at the rifle range, not with bang but a whimper.

Rifle range sign cheekily augmented with CVTS waymarker

Second week at Lydgate, finishing off. We planted a further 140 trees, taking our total for this site to around 320 - Larch, Rowan, Hawthorn, Scots Pine, Sitka Spruce and Western Hemlock. A classic tree society damp and cloudy morning, but enlivened by lovely bakewell tart at break time. We were, myself, Ann, Ben, Philip, Geoff, Neil, Dave, Duncan, Cath, Guy, and Josh the Explorer Scout. The shooting club is a very large patch of land, and depending on how this season's trees fare then we may well look to come back here and plant more over the coming years.

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.

Butterley Reservoir

Geoff's photo of the crew in winter sunlight - he's a much better photographer than me, as you can see.

 

A murky kind of morning, but not too bad. Myself, Cath, Neil, Philip and Geoff set off.  We were joined by Emma and John who had made a donation for an area of planting. It is a stiff walk round to the far side of the Reservoir, so some of the less agile volunteers weren't with us today. First we planted 55 trees in a small clough above Butterley Clough. These trees were sponsored by local company Blue Ginger. Then we moved round the hill a bit and planted 75 trees with Emma and John, in a spot that they can see from their house down in Marsden. We need to go back next week to finish that off, and to plant a further 50 trees for Blue Ginger. And also to put in 300 gorse plants. Today's cake was the ever popular lemon drizzle.

 

Philip, Cath and Neil with Butterley behind. No other caption required.

Hard at work on Sunday

Tree Society is not just for Saturdays you know. Two of us were hard at work this fine Sunday morning. I was carrying stakes and guards up to Butterley Reservoir, and Dave was working on the paths and drainage at the nursery. Just one way of burning off those mince pies.

Fieldhouse finished, more or less

I remember this when it was all field...

As a hangover-buster we agreed to meet and plant on New Years day. Very brave, some braver than others.
We finished planting all the trees for Fieldhouse, 2000 in total now planted. We still need to waymark the permissive paths, arrange the access improvements, and possibly add a handful of fruit trees.

At breaktime we had freshly made scones with butter and damson jam. And Heidi had brought a fine fizzy wine.

 

Philip, Heidi, fizzy wine, Lisa, Geoff, my hand.

Winter woodland management

A cold and foggy December morning and myself, Dave, Philip and his chainsaw were doing woodland management at Throstle Green Farm. The landowner had asked that some of the Alder we planted 8 years ago be taken down, to preserve his view of the valley. We agreed, so long as we could take timber away as part of our nascent community wood fuel project. Funny thing to do with your Sunday morning, but it was actually really quite nice up there. Quiet (when the chainsaw wasn't going) and peaceful. Hard work mind.

Season's greetings from the CVTS

The fruit vodka gets passed round.

Our fifth week at Fieldhouse, and another 400 trees planted. Quite snowy and flippin' cold, but a healthy turnout nonetheless. Myself, mother, Philip, Geoff, Aaron, Cath, Neil, Ben, Heidi, Lisa, Lisa's Dad, Dave, and Duncan. And Guy dropped by for a chat. One more day at Fieldhouse and the planting should be finished. New Years's day anyone? Homemade chocolate biscuits at breaktime, and Dave brought fruit vodka. Followed by a pint in the Swan afterwards.

Happy holiday's everyone!

 

The motley crew: Geoff, Aaron, Cath, Heidi, Lisa, Philip, Me, Ben, Neil, Dave and Duncan

 

540 more trees planted at Fieldhouse!!

Tilly experimented with the panorama setting on the cameraphone. In the photo, Dave, Heidi
Dan, Diane, 3 Scouts, me, and then me again. Freaky.

Crikey, at this rate we may even finish this site one day. Really nice morning. Sunny and quite mild. All the snow had gone. Good turnout, with me, my mum, Tilly, Heidi, Geoff, Philip, Dave, Dan, Guy, Diane, Trevor, Brian, Peter, Duncan and Scouts. Cake was a mincemeat fruitcake, a Delia recipe according to my mum.

Anyway, well done everybody!

Tilly, and lots of trees.

450 trees planted!

Philip and Ali and weak winter sunshine.

Well considering the weather this week and the snow still on the ground we had an ok turnout and a good morning. We worked like crazy and got 450 trees in. Photographer from the Huddersfield Examiner was there to record our efforts. Duncan, Sophie and the Scouts focused again on Rhododendron control and brushwood clearance. Ali, Philip, Cath, Dave, Neil, Julia, Geoff, Guy, Isabel, and myself, planted trees. We had been expecting the local MP Jason McCartney to make an appearance, but he was stuck in London. Never mind, we had rum and sloe gin in our breaktime coffees to make up for that. For the record we planted 150 Hazel, 150 Oak, and 150 Ash today.

 

Sloe gin, flapjack and woolly hats.

Fieldhouse week 2

 Picture of me, for a change.

Dicey weather for driving, but actually a nice morning for tree planting. Not too much snow on the ground, and lots of sunshine. In attendance were myself, Cath, Philip, Dave, Brian, Roger, and Duncan brought Scouts again. We planted around 240 trees (60 Guelder Rose, 60 blackthorn, and 120 Ash) and dug a lot more holes ready for next week's big do.

The assembled throng, minus Brian and Roger, enjoy lemon curd bakewell tart.

First planting of the season

Scouts, volunteers, and tree planting materials

Always gratifying to actually plant some trees, after all the admin work and maintenance. We transported all the stakes and guards to the site using Brian's trailer and Peter and Trevor's help. Duncan brought some Scouts and their leaders. And we started planting. We have 2000 trees to plant on this site, so it is quite a big job. Nice site with a nice view, and a nice bit of ginger cake for break time.And a nice pint in the Sair afterwards. I think we planted maybe 90 trees today, Ash and Hazel.

 
Linfit bitter, Tunnocks wafer, and the tree order excel spreadsheet.

Scouts at Fieldhouse!

Philip standing in the middle of where the 2000 trees will go.

The following is an email review by one of the Scouts helping Duncan at Fieldhouse, Slaithwaite today.

Hi guys me and dannielle have been to slaithwaite today with duncan, daisy, mary, henry, will, aaron and martin {lydias dad}. We have cleared wood into piles so that small animals like hedgehogs, insects and minibeasts shelter. We have cut

RHODODENRONS down to get more light to the ground.

so come next week at 9,45 am untill 12.30 approx outside the swan pub bring some thing to eat & drink bring your mum & dad too its fun {careys email for more details}

see you next thursday

One day our trees will come!

Another Saturday spent doing necessary ground works at the nursery. Dave continued creating a border for the slabs, with Dan's and Neil's help. Cath and I dug more drainage channels, which was kind of fun for a while watching the water pouring away. Then we sorted the broken flags into matching pairs. Guy moved woodchip around. Philip was at Fieldhouse with Duncan and Scouts for the first half, dealing with brushwood and felled timber. He then joined us for cake and some more digging at the nursery. Tree delivery should be this week and hopefully we can go to Fieldhouse and actually plant some trees next Saturday.

Dig for victory!

More nursery work, and no pictures because it was too muddy to get the camera out. Worked on creating an edge to the hard standing area, and digging a drainage ditch to take water away. Very very hard muddy work. One day soon it will all be over and we can plant some trees. When they arrive that is.

Acorns! Acorns!

In an ongoing effort to cut costs and be more sustainable, I have planted 360 plus acorns, all gathered in the Lake District this week. Half of them were already rooting. The main danger now is that mice will get them, I lost half those I planted last year to mice. For this reason they will be kept above ground level until growing. The root trainer trays have been in the Society's possession for some years, but haven't been used, and the compost to fill them came from expired tomato grow-bags on local allotments. So there were no costs at all. If they all grow then this will save the Society £190.

Nursery work

The start of tree planting is still a couple of weeks away, when we can get all our financial ducks in a row, and get trees delivered. In the meantime we have been doing essential work at the Nursery.

We spent the morning moving vast amounts of wood chippings created by the contractors who cleared the site for fencing. Also we acquired a large number of big, heavy, slightly broken paving slabs from the local cricket club -these will be used to create an area of hard standing for us to work on and store materials on. And we began to clear and level off the area for that hard standing.

All very, very, hard work. But very gratifying in its way (I hope I still think that when I am aching tomorrow morning)

Should Heidi be forbidden from wearing that t-shirt again though? Sober environmental types us.

Nursery work

This morning we busied ourselves tidying the nursery, and discussing the groundworks that need doing. As you can see, we had a bit of a play with the blue drainage pipe, working out how much we had and how far it would go. We also cleared rubbish, and gathered rocks from the cleared area, to use as hardcore for over and around the pipe. Picture below is of me trying to pull up some of the vast amounts of black liner which was buried in the soil. We intend to install the drainage pipe and sort out the hard standing work area on the first day of the season, Saturday 30th October.

Button badge design

More photoshop fun. I designed a button badge, using some of Dan's artwork.

Huck Hill signs and waymarkers

A lovely morning, a lovely morning to carry very heavy bags of cement, signs and fenceposts up a big steep hill. Good workout that.

We were at Huck Hill installing signs and waymarkers for a permissive path joining two public footpaths. Iain the landowner joined myself, Philip and Neil.




Dave, AKA Private Frazer, was there too early on, warning us of the Tree Society's impending financial doom. But, just like in Dad's army, we think he is overstating the matter a bit.

Cake was a very nice coconut and chocolate cream thing.

While on site we also took a look at the scrapes and the liner that will form ponds to encourage biodiversity. Scrapes have been done, though the landowner would like to enlarge them. The liner is on site (as pictured) but has yet to be installed.

Now that the scrapes are done, liner on site, and waymarkers and signs installed, the Kirklees Environment Grant Scheme parts of this project are now complete - barring final approval. There is a small amount of money left in the budget, which we hope Kirklee's will agree can be spent on replacing some failed trees on this site.

Nursery developments

The palisade fencing has now been completed, it runs continuously from the main gate round the top and far edges of the site until the boundary meets gardens. There is no longer gate access from the top far corner. The shipping container has been levelled. The old sheds have been moved, and damaged, so we might need a bonfire at some point, with all the wood and rubbish in there from the work, then we could have a pretty good November 5th bonfire. Plus we have room for fireworks? Just a thought. Anyway, the new gate is still a work in progress, and further landscaping might be in the pipeline. All looks a bit bare at the moment, and could benefit from further tidying.

Fieldhouse site visit

A Thursday evening site visit to Fieldhouse, to meet up with Luke from Beneficial Tree Care. Beneficial have recently cut down a lot of the dead trees at the back of the site for us, part of the process of making the site safe for public access. There were a lot of dead trees, and so, as you can see, there is a lot of timber. We discussed Luke removing timber from the site, and the possible use of the site in the future for a community woodfuel project. Access to the site seemed to be the main sticking point. There is no access for any medium to large vehicle. A quad bike and trailer would perhaps be the answer. Funding for the project did include some money for improved access, but only enough to pay for a new gate and stile.

Nursery carnage

Got call from Dave about 4pm this afternoon. He had seen tree work being done at the nursery. So I whizzed down there and found Luke and his Beneficial crew razing the top half of the nursery to the ground. According to Luke the allotment grant money that Julian had said we would be getting, was got, and needed spending pronto. So the area designated for the storage containers had to be cleared. All the top area of the nursery has been deforested, including the copse by the entrance. The sheds are now somewhat exposed. The horse tail bed at the far end of the top has also been destroyed, along with the small trees that were planted there. I phoned Philip and he and Ali zoomed up to have a look, Luke and crew had gone by then though.

On the whole, though a bit of a shock, it looks like a positive development, as we should now get the secure storage and fencing that we asked for.

Tidying up the nursery

Neil, Justin, Tilly, and my Mum (looking like an old hillbilly)

This Saturday we spent the morning tidying up our nursery base. We are hoping to get some money from Kirklees allotment department for securing the boundary of the nursery and having some secure storage set up for the Society to work from. A recent inspection by Julian Faulkner from the Council found the place looking a bit sad and neglected. So we worked hard on it this morning. My mother came a long to lend her expertise with sorting out the Raspberry bushes. Philip, Geoff, Neil, myself, and Justin were also there. And later on Sarah and Tilly appeared. We cleared paths, trimmed hedges, weeded beds and generally did very well. What we didn't know was that a few days later....