Heightened security at Dovers Hill?

New feature at Dovers Hill

A surprise greeted Martin and I as we arrived at Dovers Hill this week for some fencing, strimming and general maintenance.  An impressive structure,  Camelot like, dominated the landscape ready for the Olimpicks on Friday. Resisted the temptation to climb the ladders to the battlements and proceeded on down to Lynches wood. Here I set to strimming the woodland paths, needed the metal blade as the vegetation was quite dense.  I always enjoy being in this wood given the mixture of beech, larch, sweet chestnut , ash and oak. Plant and insect life also good with fern, cardinal beetles and orchids. Slight setback on the work planned as 'I forgot ' to pack the drill for the steps repair,  sigh from Martin, but I still enjoyed the day.

Lodge Park pond, there's life but not as ...

Ewe Pen Barn, 2 men went to mow..

Spent this week with Mike on ensuring Lodge Park, Sherborne village and Ewe Pen Barn grass & verge areas were in presentable state for the up coming Bank / Jubilee holidays. Benefited from M&Ms strimmer training which meant with tuition I combined my immense mowing skills with new strimming ones. On another hot day we were pushed to complete the work especially since Simon {of 3 men went to mow fame} was absent enjoying himself in France. Couple of highlights {rests between work} were the buttercups carpeting the Lodge deer park and the pond at the front of the Lodge. I spotted a pied wagtail by the pond but although nice to see it wasn't this that had Mike and I gazing into the pond's hidden depths. On close inspection the pond's secret citizens were revealed with water boatmen , BBC dragonfly, newts and tadpoles. Ok perhaps its the boy in us but we could have spent a good while observing if not for the work still to do! A good but hot day and somewhat a relief to me all tools still working {after some previous stirling work by Mike on the Honda mowers}.

Three men went to mow....

3 men, 2 men ,1 man and his dog? went to mow..

Greeted by blue skies and swallows, house martins , buzzards plus a 'close' hovering kestrel over Sherborne. So what was on the ranger menu this week, you'll have to link to the great outside for more. Basically its easier for me to create a slideshow on my other blog site.

Power rangers meet 'leisure' furlong

M&M unfazed by size of task

On full power helped by tractor

Not much 'leisure' down in Leasow Furlong where most of the work this week took place.  Mission was to make safe and prepare this area of Sherborne woodland for a local scout troop camping trip later on this month. Not much time so the full team,  {rangers Mike and Martin plus volunteers Simon and me}, combined to get it done. Armed with chainsaws, pole saw, strimmer and for extra power the tractor we set about clearing the numerous fallen larch, which were casualties of the April storms. Was worth the days effort spread over two days, extra revenue from the fallen larch and a good looking & safe area for the scout camp. With the sunshine we were blessed with, its safe to say we all would have enjoyed some  actual leisure time at this location. Lucky scouts!

which topping would u go for

As we finished early afternoon Martin and I shot over to Dovers Hill for a quick chat with the olimpicks organiser. Bit surprised by the local advertising displayed on the NT fence, although agreed with its message for careless dog owners.   Helpful discussion regards the installation of the 'Beacon' hopefully common sense will see this approved and in time for the start of the games scheduled for beginning of June. Completed the day with a visit to Littleworth wood where we made safe and cleared woodland paths blocked by fallen trees. Busy week, glad for the break before next weeks surprises. May even try out a pizza. 

Do you know the way to...

On guard! 

Started the day with Mike at Sherborne nursery splitting wood, this time to my relief some really good ash and of a 'manly' size. Yet again Sherborne seemed to defy the gloomy weather forecast and we remained dry. Once more another deserving local! on the receiving end of this Sherborne ranger wood service. By lunch time the  dry weather disappeared and at one time my days work looked under threat. However after some gentle pushing Mike was persuaded to venture down to the water meadows area to install some hefty sweet chestnut guide posts. The rain had died down but nevertheless, and inspite of the 'drought', I thought we might be better off with a canoe vice the 4 wheel drive. Have to say that apart from the water hazard I was a little wary of the usually stony ground in these parts as we began to dig the hole to place the first of the three posts in. Happily the first at least went in a treat. But 'how many tools' did it take to carry out this task. Interestingly all of 'the above' with the screwdriver for the direction arrow discs absent in the shot. At last we found a job for Maddie while we searched for it, couldn't risk losing this many tools. As is normally the case different challenges were faced for the next two posts but in true ranger fashion they were overcome and at least one local dog walker benefited from the newly installed  guide posts.

Bibury, never too early to start the swimming lessons

After weeks of rain struck lucky with Martin earlier in the week where we and a large number of multi national tourists visited sunny Bibury. The river Coln was in full spate and the water channel in between Rack isle and Arlington Row was as full as I had seen it. Martin in appropriate water gear ignored the dangers of the high and fast flowing water to carry out removal of the rapidly growing weeds. My job given I wasn't waterproofed was to wheel barrow the extracted weeds to the trailer on the main road. As it happens my other role, hugely underestimated by Martin, was to control the crowds of tourists who converged on Martin.  Have to say the most public engagement I've experienced although some of it a little trying. However it was worth observing Martin, somewhat a captive figure wading in the stream , fend off some 'trying questions' from the enthusiastic tourists. My award went to the brave person asking Martin what he was looking for! On a positive note some of the more sensible passersby appreciated this bit of conservation work and did have one or two interesting questions on 'countryside ' work in general. More of this in a future blog.

Stormy weather

Who lives in a house like this..see below!

Rain stopped play, { last weeks ranger duties},  but back in play this week to face the clean up of the storm damaged trees. Started in the rain with Martin at Crickley hill where urgent action was needed to make safe 2 badly damaged beech trees one of which had one of its huge limbs sheared off. Both trees were close to public paths so needed to be sorted quickly even though its never good to work in the wet! Needed to use the landrover winch to pull the heavy branch free followed by some careful chain sawing and then some fancy rope work to pull down some branches which were precariously balanced high up in the surviving part of the tree.  On the way to the next task we discovered a recently fallen ash tree which needed to be dealt with and removed from one of the woodland paths. While doing an on the spot survey of Crickley trees, prompted by the stormy April weather , we squeezed in some clearing work around two youngish Oak trees hopefully allowing their growth to proceed more successfully. We finally managed to get around to inspecting a more mature Oak tree Martin was concerned about. Those concerns were well founded as the Oak tree buttresses were lifted significantly off the ground. Given this and the Oak's proximity to a main path Martin sadly decided the tree needed to be pulled down.  Again some smart work with the winch and chainsaw saw the tree made safe and the area suitably cleared. Some day with no casualties and an interesting inquiry by a Sculptor who was seeking to source a sizeable piece [2 tons +] of wood for an upcoming project.

Over dozen larch blown down in April storms

Casualties :Large Beech and  Horse chestnut {background}

At last some dry weather working with Mike at Sherborne. Started the day with an inspection of the blue tractor now out of action because.. 'a robin has its nest in the engine compartment !' aint nature marvellous . Surprisingly the morning was spent blocking and splitting in the nursery , it seems the demand for wood continues whilst the coldish weather remains. Had to work harder on the splitting the sometimes green and not so seasoned wood, Mike suffered my moans stoically. The afternoon saw us on our way to Ragged Copse to deal with some of the fallen larch and to repair any of the damaged new ash saplings which suffered collatoral damage. Amazingly they were few in number. Sadly two mature broadleaves were badly damaged by the storms over the weekend. The large Beech uprooted was suffering from deceased roots and the Horse chestnut losing a huge branch limb because of 'unbalanced' growth. So the wet April and strong winds tipped the balance! So for both Martin and Mike extra work plus the need to re-inspect vulnerable trees which although not yet damaged may be at greater risk to the public or farmers.