If you go down to the woods today you'll be sure of a big surprise

Hot morning at the Lodge

Early start , for me not Mike, so we could crack on with mowing & strimming at Lodge Park. Couldn't avoid the red hot weather so by the end of the morning we were suitably drenched but not by rain for a change! Prior to the lunch break Mike prepared me for the afternoon which I have to confess I had some reservations , ok some big ones.

Dentastic

The afternoon featured a premier for Mike for hosting a den building session hosting a large number of young children each accompanied by one of their parents. The starting point was Northfield Barn car park Sherborne with a short {long for short legged people} to Clarks Close wood where Mike had previously prepared some material for building the dens. I waited for Mike to lead the large group to the wood and I followed with the 4x4 Ford Ranger with tools and water supplies if required. Mike gave a quick talk on safety along with some tips about building a den. The group then split up into smaller teams to build 7 dens! Any thoughts about having a relaxing afternoon disappeared as our offer to help cut up some of the larger 'material' was taken up with gusto. The really impressive part of the event was the total participation of all the adults and the involvement & enthusiasm of the children. It would be fair to say each of the 7 dens were unique with different strengths in their construction & design. It was pleasing to see my reservations unfounded and it was a tired but happy group that walked back to the car park leaving some interesting habitat for the local wildlife. It was also good that everyone had a chance to see all the dens constructed with the children taking central stage and naming their masterpieces. A special mention goes to young George who decided to build a den on his own, aptly named 'den of George'. We also had some 'professionals' who built the 'Ash Cabin' which was seriously engineered. But all of the dens as I have said were something to be proud of, so all in all a satisfying day for all.

REM rain equals maintenance

No surprise to me this morning as yet more heavy showers arrive and once more the weather forecast off the mark so I guess this 'jet stream' influenced wet period defeats the experts predictions. However Mike decided the extensive array of power tools could do with some basic maintenance and a good clean in the relatively dry workshop at Sherborne. So we waited out the rain and given thunder was forecast for the afternoon postponed a decision on venturing outside.

Spent a damp lunch time walking round the Pleasure grounds and 'soaking up' the variety of poems currently on display.

location for afternoon task behind trees on the horizon

Good news for the afternoon was the improvement in the weather and so we set off to finish clearing  the rear Lodge Park drystone boundary wall,  over half a mile of it!. Good test for the strimmers with metal blades we had serviced in the morning. Some heavyweight strimming and clearing was needed to clear thick shrubs. The sun decided to make an appearance mid afternoon which was a welcome sight albeit providing an overheating challenge for us. Not a problem for Maddie who enjoyed a good romp around the woods during our refuelling of the strimmers and a much needed drinks break.

The dark knight rises

Alien lands on Lodge Park roof?

After the torrential rain, view over deer park

Toad of Lodge pond, courtesy of Andy

Last week was a wash out! but today Andy {work experience}, myself and Mike hit Lodge Park for some mowing and strimming. One or two surprises before we began the mornings work. It was sunny, we witnessed the bee keeper remove a few thousand wild bees from the Lodge chimneys and Andy captured a picture of one of the resident toads in the Lodge pond. Pleased to say the tadpoles and newts also continue to do well in this surprisingly well stocked habitat.

Our luck didn't last as the heavens opened as we started the mowing but we had to carry on since this weekend an Opera was to be staged at the Lodge so everything needed to be in good presentable shape. As the above image above suggests we did finally get some respite as the sun broke through late in the morning to allow us to complete the mowing and dry out.

The afternoon was spent in the Pleasure Grounds at Sherborne in the vicinity of the ice house and 'round' seat where during my mowing I encountered a large {6 children!}, friendly family all the way from Idaho! The day was not quite over as we made our way over to the bat cave to meet up with Morris, our dark knight!,  at the quarry.  Before we could make our way to the bat entrance Mike had to carve his way through dense vegetation, yes there had been quite a growth spurt since our last visit. The objective of this visit was to see if any of the lesser horseshoe bats were still in residence. I lost heavily on my guess on the numbers still present, with Mike winning with his zero entry! So the planning for the work needed to be done on this bat habitat can proceed with suitable haste and hopefully later in July should see start of implementation without impact on the bats.

Quite a day and marked with a return to what seems to be normal weather as my return trip home was hit by a violent thunderstorm.