Back to basics at Sherborne

Cattle at Sherborne Pleasure Grounds enjoying their lunch

Mike?no Maddie gathering cord wood

Back from a wild at times but very rewarding stay in the Scottish Islands, has a month gone already!, straight back into the harness at Sherborne. It seems the cold snap has Mike's wood customers clamouring for supplies so the morning was spent getting re-aquainted with the axe on splitting duty in the nursery. The weather was surprisingly good and for once short sleeves and no waterproofs was the order of the day. It was good to get stuck into some honest work again and exchange stories with Mike about our respective Scottish breaks, Ok I did enjoy the majority of the sharing!

Spent a relaxed lunch break walking around the Pleasure Grounds and all seemed in good order with some of the beech and sycamore displaying early autumnal colours. Bumped into the resident birdwatching duo {by special arrangement with Ranger Mike} who had enjoyed a relatively quiet day, albeit pretty damp on the ground down in the water meadows, But had spotted a peregrine, 4 red kites, 30 canadian geese and seen some chiffchaffs. I can't wait to be around when things pick up! No news from Mike about the Bat cave, but watch this space for an update which should reveal the lesser horseshoes returning to their refurbished winter roost.

The afternoon was spent on gathering a full trailer load for a Rissington customer and it looked like we might catch a heavy shower on arrival but it had passed by when we had to unload. We also had the bonus of a very welcome cuppa. Back to the nursery for some local wood deliveries with the tractor gathering up a couple of loads of cord wood, Maddie clearly has been getting driving lessons in my absence. So we didn't get around to some thinning but not a bad first day back.