Chillier times ahead

Dieback attacks our Ash!

Disturbed to hear of the 'dieback' of Ash and the 90,000+ trees already destroyed in England ! to curb its spread. You would think that the Dutch elm experience plus the devastation in Denmark of 90% of its Ash would have elicited more prompt action from Defra but we should be grateful its now stopped further diseased Ash imports into our nuseries. Mike has yet to check our recently planted Ash,  no easy task since we have a lot all contained within tree protectors and spread across several different woods. In addition determining the nursery which sourced the saplings should indicate if we have a serious problem. What with squirrels attacking especially the Beech, potential Ash 'dieback' and Phytophthora its not easy protecting the already little woodland we have.

Spotted 4 Red Kite on my way in to Sherborne this morning, hopefully they are returning to this area for winter. Started the day with blocking and splitting in Sherborne nursery and maybe because my splitting days are numbered it was more enjoyable than normal even though the first blocks of sycamore, beech and ash were more 'resistant' than usual. Mike joined in on some even gnarlier beech which tested his technique to the limit. We both then enjoyed splitting some good ash and even better lime, like a 'knife through butter!'  Such work kept us pretty warm so we didn't notice the cold wind which gradually increased in strength during the course of the day.

The afternoon was spent back in the West Belt , continuing the thinning work. The cordwood piles are really building up, but according to Mike we are only a quarter way through this area! Rain and increased wind hit us early afternoon and in spite of the hard work we both felt the drop in temperature for the first time.

Wednesday evening watched the next part of Wildwood where I imagine Mike would have cringed a little on the felling & cutting technique applied to the Ash. Interesting to see the use of horse power to remove the Ash from pretty tricky terrain. Mike is at least  able to use his tractor plus me for initial stacking.