Return to Pasture Wood

Geoff, filming, Ben and Dave. And Marsden down below.

Gorgeous sunny day, and we went up to Pasture Wood again, myself, Ben, Geoff, Dave and Duncan. It is a big site, so there is still plenty of work to be done up there removing old guards and stakes. Geoff had his camera and was doing more filming for his documentary. We took 200 hare guards back to the nursery, and left a number more on site. Cake was homemade apricot sponge, though Duncan missed out because he had gone rogue and dissappeared off to a far flung corner of the site.

Remember folks, 11am always means break and cake time. And it is a volunteers duty to be nearby when cake is dished out. It saves me having to carry it back down the hill.

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.

Last day of the Season, Cubs, Clubs and Chainsaws

Cubs from Wakefield at Scammonden, twas a bit foggy.

So it was the last day of planting for this Season, and we were in three places. Myself, Ann, Cath and Geoff were at Scammonden with Cubs from Wakefield, planting 150 trees.

Philip and Ben at Slaithwaite Spa

 Philip, Dave, Duncan and Ben were at Slaithwaite Spa cutting down some trees, at the request of Friends of Slaithwaite Spa. And Andrew, Peter, Brian, Peter, Trevor and Dianne were at Marsden Golf Club, planting the last 60 trees there.

At 1pm we all met up at Hey Laithe to plant a tree in memory of Granville Shaw. We were joined by members of Granville's family.

We will now take a few weeks off from tree work, and will schedule some days for Summer maintenance work after Easter.

1600 tree challenge at Scammonden

For our penultimate weekend of the season Guy organised a big push at Scammonden, and bought another 1600 trees. Quite a few of them were planted on Friday by Guy's corporate outreach volunteers. We came along on Saturday and helped finish the rest. We were: myself, Philip, Simon, Dave, Peter, Stephen, Andrew, Geoff, Cath, Ramsay, and Duncan. Ben was around, and had stayed in the Scout centre overnight, along with Guy and some other irregulars. The Senior Section of Brian, Peter, Trevor and Dianne were also on site. Quite a few people, and a lot got planted.

Of course, there were rumours of mysterious drink related incidents on Friday night. Some Society members were uncharacteristically quiet on Saturday morning, and one was even sporting an oddly positioned elastoplast. I hope that there were not similar ribald and deblitating shenanigans Saturday evening. Or at least, that there were no further injuries.


Footnote to myself. There are 150 trees on site, plus 140 stakes and 130 guards, for planting with Wakefield Cubs next Saturday.

Sunny Sunday afternoon

Went up to Butterley Reservoir to finish planting a last few trees leftover from a session in the snow a while ago, and put spiral guards on the last of the trees at Tracey Wood's above Marsden.