Keeping dry?

Winter colour in the Pleasure Grounds

Another wet day forecast (contributing to why this is the wettest January on record} but the show has to go on at Sherborne so I duly reported in and happily was rewarded with fine weather. The day began with a wood delivery to a nearby village and on the way back checked out a few things on the Lodge Park boundaries. The first was assessing a fallen beech branch which will need clearing at  a later date, the second was observing sheep happily grazing in the pasture where we had previously erected the temporary fencing adjacent to Larkethill wood and lastly, because we had the trailer, was to collect some of the wood previously stored in the Eastern borders of Larkethill wood. While doing this a red kite dropped in to see what we were doing followed by a buzzard. By the time we had dropped the loaded trailer of wood in the nursery it was lunch.  After spotting the usual birdlife on the Broadwater with the addition of 2  little grebe I paid a brief visit to the Pleasure Grounds. It was good to see fine displays of snowdrops & aconites and a good number of great tits enjoying the relatively mild & dry weather.

Riding our luck a little with the still dry weather,the afternoon was spent back at Larkethill woods . It is still one of the few areas of the estate where  its possible to use the tractor with trailer and the 4x4 with trailer without getting bogged down in mud and deep water. Before starting to gather up the cord wood stacks I had time to take Maddie for a short walk and wandered over to the Lodge Park boundary to check out the water levels by the river Leach. Surprised to disturb 2 herons by the river and noted the water levels were still high. Soon had filled both trailers and with the rain finally making its appearance retreated back to the nursery to end a pleasant day out in the country.