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.