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.