Can't tell Stork from Heron!

Tricky access through wood on left, for delivering walling stone

Stork at Sherborne Broadwater

Stork not a Heron!

Back of Monks Farm, rebuilding of  drystone wall

Hot and varied morning at Sherborne on Wednesday, starting with a fire alarm drill at the estate offices before we 'escaped' with both tractors and the 4x4. Mike took the 'new' red tractor with large trailer to Lodge Park to collect a supply of stone. This was for the rebuilding of the dry stone wall at '33' in Sherborne village. The access to the wall was tricky and needed the smaller blue tractor with trailer to deliver the stone supply through a narrow wood trail. Some testing driving of both tractors was needed to even get to the start of the wood trail just up from the Broadwater weir. While Mike and I moved the stone from the large to the small trailer James set about 'strimming' the overgrown trail before we could move it to the work site. As we were discussing with the waller where the first load of stone was to be placed Mike interrupted with news of a rare visitor to the Broadwater.

One of the villagers had spotted a Stork landing/flying in the pasture by the Broadwater. Without too much persuasion and armed with binos, camera {no long lens!} all of us {including 'waller' } headed back to the Broadwater pasture to get a look. It was indeed a Stork and I was volunteered to try and capture it on camera by careful approaching it { couldn't stalk it given I tweaked my back earlier in the week}. An amusing sight I'm sure but I did my best. Although the Stork was the star of the morning we did also see an actual heron, an egret and I saw the mute swans with at least 2 cygnets. All in all a good mornings experience at Sherborne. 

Meanwhile on the 'bigger picture' we now know who replaces Truss heading up DEFRA, Andrea Leadsom  'being a mother' and therefore having a real stake in the future could mean her children might have a countryside environment  left to enjoy?. Sadly Truss gets promotion for doing absolutely nothing {well nearly if we ignore her dismissal of the ban on lead ammunition}. Question is will her replacement Leadsom take any notice of this Martin Harper blog.

A cut above..

Entry to overgrown ride in the Commons

Ringlet soaking up the sun

Spent a hot, clammy  morning in the Commons at Sherborne today with Mike plus two pole saws. Like last week, strimming in Picardy, it was good to be in the relative peace and quiet of the woodland. That is until we cranked up the pole saws to clear the overhanging branches over one of the rarely used 'rides'. The only slight negative was the presence of 'biting'  flies which clearly enjoyed our exposed flesh/blood supply. I even had the opportunity to fell a badly damaged young oak tree using the pole saw. Seemed to be making good progress until Mike pointed out we had only covered a fraction of the ride, so yet again plenty more work to add to the list of future work. I'll need to increase the strength of my left arm as holding up the pole saw for the higher branches certainly exposed my current puny condition. When the work is finished the new tractor will be able to move along the ride without scratching the still immaculate paint work! Whilst there it was also good to see a good number of butterflies, mainly ringlets but also speckled wood and a large skipper. 

On a totally different note some good sporting successes with 'Cav' in the Tour de France, the great win by Hamilton in Austria and the English cricketers still on a winning streak. Absolutely no mention required of Brexit or the English football team!!