Mud, mud glorious mud

We beat the All Blacks this year, I was there!, (c Colin Elsey)

Seriously muddy in the Nursery, (c Pete Williams)

Not a great end to the year but in keeping with one of the wettest for a long while. Spent the damp morning in the nursery churning out more wood supplies. As may be expected with the conditions the mud becoming increasingly cloying. This provided Mike with quite a challenge as he had to drive the Ford Ranger with loaded trailer out of the mud wallow to make the deliveries. Some pretty impressive driving required without resorting to a tow using the tractor.  Made it to lunchtime albeit a little wet and mud spattered but the rain put paid to the usual walk round this part of the Sherborne estate.  The afternoon was a bit of a gamble since the rain initially eased but gradually got heavier. However two more loads were produced before we finally called it a day without the Ford Ranger getting stuck and Maddie getting her afternoon exercise.

So not a bad year with the weather limiting the extent of countryside conservation I could contribute to but lets hope for better opportunities and weather in 2013. On the negative side are clearly the various fungal diseases attacking our woodlands and a Conservative Government influenced Defra which ought to be performing better ( Mark Avery view more extreme ).  On the plus side has been more reasonable documentaries raising awareness of our neglected countryside and core skills. Perhaps the leaders of our key charities and supporters of nature can inspire real action to get our youth and education centres more involved in nature. If only we could find something akin to the Olympics for involving more people 'in standing up for our countryside' and to act as a springboard for more sustainable actions.

Crank up the volume

Frosty in the Pleasure Grounds

Completed Play area

'cool'  Sherborne Brook 

Plummeting temperatures, -8 centigrade early this morning and not rising above freezing all day, has meant increasing pressure on Mike's 'wood' service. So armed with the wood processing machine and an increasingly 'honed' approach to this way of processing the wood piles {I still prefer the axe approach but bow down to the more productive machine} we were ready to crank up the volume of wood production. Before we started however the xmas tree for the Sherborne House residents needed to be installed in the quadrangle. After a slight delay caused by the low temperatures, with the additional help of Pat & a helpful resident,  the tree now stands proudly in its festive place once more.   

A cold lunchtime was spent firstly in the Pleasure Grounds where I was pleased to see the completed Play area which looked pretty good albeit in the absence of children. No doubt the swing, see saw, climbing wall and two stepping stones features will get plenty of use in the years to come. Just had time to have a quick look down by the Sherborne brook which was swathed in mist first thing this morning but had cleared by lunch. Lots of the usual bird residents still enjoying the habitat here even in these cold temperatures. 

Throughout the day we managed to fit in deliveries to 4 local customers ending up with the Sherborne school and all of them were genuinely pleased to see us and have their wood for the cold weeks to come.

Kestrel, Kites and Cormorant

A good day for flying

'Poplar' spot by Windrush

Bit of a busman's holiday as I visited Sherborne's water meadows while Mike was actually on a break in Prague! Water levels down by about a foot since my last visit but a fine sunny day and pretty quiet. Plenty of Red Kites on show together with a Kestrel being pestered by a Crow and a brief fly by of a single Cormorant. Oddly a juvenile Buzzard joined 3 of the Red Kites over one of the larger Barrington estate fields. Other than that 2 pairs of fallow deer I disturbed in my not so stealthy patrol around the meadows.  No owls or harriers on this visit but still a pleasant way of making the most of a dry sunny day.

Worth mentioning another good guest entry Ralph Underhill, on the Mark Avery Blog. Surprised to see  that NT wasn't one of the participants on the Common Cause for Nature project it looks worthy.