The Blues: British or Spanish

Lynches wood, British blues

Orchid, Littleworth wood

While Mike is enjoying the Irish sun I took the opportunity to seek out this seasons bluebells. Usually the best time for seeing the bluebells is much earlier in April plus this year, having seen the invasion of Spanish Bluebells which includes my garden, I was curious to see how the British Bluebell was faring in the NT woodlands. I chose Dovers Hill,  Lynches wood,  followed by Littleworth wood as I was confident my best chance of a good showing would be at these locations. I may get some stick from Mike but I wasn't sure of the best spots at Sherborne.

Amazingly I was greeted by sunny skies at Dovers Hill and was certainly not disappointed by the display of British bluebells in Lynches wood. It was also good to see the Sweet Chestnut trees which feature strongly in this woodland and alongside one of the paths, form an impressive avenue. So a good start to the day and I was in good heart as I headed for Stanton village where I would use the footpath from the Mount at Stanton {good pub} to head up the hill towards Littleworth wood. Again the British bluebells were on display but not quite the numbers at Lynches wood. To make up for this there were a good number of orchids on show and it was also good to see that another 'compartment' for conservation had been erected since I last worked here. So enjoyed another woodland walk and couldn't resist having  quick look at Snowshill even though I will be working there this Sunday. I grudgingly returned to Stanton where I forced myself to take some refreshment at the Mount which was a pretty good way of ending a satisfying day.

Snowshill, from Littleworth

Liked this guest blog concerning the NT and I can certainly relate to the countryside conservation observations. So has the NT got the balance wrong between recreation over conservation,  its current strategy has meant less resources for conservation. This doesn't mean there is an absence of conservation. I personally have enjoyed and observed the past work of the NT Rangers in: woodland management , hedge building, planting, water meadow restoration tasks {sometimes in partnership with the Wildlife Trust}. There's just not enough done and doubts about sustaining the good work carried out mount.

Power rangers meet 'leisure' furlong

M&M unfazed by size of task

On full power helped by tractor

Not much 'leisure' down in Leasow Furlong where most of the work this week took place.  Mission was to make safe and prepare this area of Sherborne woodland for a local scout troop camping trip later on this month. Not much time so the full team,  {rangers Mike and Martin plus volunteers Simon and me}, combined to get it done. Armed with chainsaws, pole saw, strimmer and for extra power the tractor we set about clearing the numerous fallen larch, which were casualties of the April storms. Was worth the days effort spread over two days, extra revenue from the fallen larch and a good looking & safe area for the scout camp. With the sunshine we were blessed with, its safe to say we all would have enjoyed some  actual leisure time at this location. Lucky scouts!

which topping would u go for

As we finished early afternoon Martin and I shot over to Dovers Hill for a quick chat with the olimpicks organiser. Bit surprised by the local advertising displayed on the NT fence, although agreed with its message for careless dog owners.   Helpful discussion regards the installation of the 'Beacon' hopefully common sense will see this approved and in time for the start of the games scheduled for beginning of June. Completed the day with a visit to Littleworth wood where we made safe and cleared woodland paths blocked by fallen trees. Busy week, glad for the break before next weeks surprises. May even try out a pizza. 

High tension in Littleworth wood

Its been a while but was back again in the semi natural ancient woodland of Littleworth nestling on the hills which look down on Snowshill.   Over the winter quite a bit of thinning and coppicing had been carried out in a selected area of the wood. Also  management of  scrub growth in the rides was done so as to encourage habitat diversity of the woodland. This is a continuation of good woodland management carried out by Martin over the years coupled with the creation of a number of protected 'compartments' {with ~5 year life cycle} and upkeep of woodland boundary fencing/walls. The job this week with Martin was to build a new compartment with deer fencing around the prepared area to both benefit plant & wild life and as a by product eventually provide good quality hazel. The advantages of setting up compartments is evident by the healthy plant growth in existing compartments. This stems from having a more open canopy which provides more light intensity for ground plants, protection of young plant growth from hungry deer or clumsy humans and preservation of dead wood for habitat diversity {insects especially!}.

early purple orchid

deer fence in construction

wood anemones

Anyway back to the job in hand, we arrived in the wood heavily armed with some of my favourite tools: the monkey strainer, the drival, gripples, the mighty metal pole and a really heavy coil of high tensile wire for the two wires to support the deer fencing. The 26 fence poles and fencing were already on site so all we needed was some decent weather and a careful eye on the spring plants carpeting the compartment area ie. didn't want my big feet crushing the wood anemones, primroses, emerging bluebells , Herb Paris, Ransoms, Tway Blade orchid,  early purple orchids. 


Soon discovered that when uncoiling high tensile wire you can easily let it get out of control and then stress levels mount as you try and untangle  it. Good news is that there is a technique to lay it out flat over long lengths, but can't reveal such ranger dark arts here! Having laid out the ground wire, applying tension to it with the monkey strainers,  we got down to positioning the poles and defining the compartment area. Further good news was the ground wasn't as rocky as Sherborne! but 20 plus fixed poles later energy levels were depleted. Up to this point the weather had been perfect and the predicted rain/snow hadn't made an appearance. Unfortunately as we prepared to install the top wire late afternoon the heavens opened and the days work brought  to a close. 




After having such good weather with Martin I shouldn't have been surprised as I set out for a day with Mike at Sherborne to encounter a mini snowstorm but amazingly as I neared Sherborne the weather once more improved. So instead of facing near arctic conditions I was soon overheating as I tackled the first job of the day splitting wood from the recently restocked wood piles in the nursery area. The afternoon was spent planting  more ash saplings where I rediscovered more stony ground which needed to be penetrated to receive the ash roots. Once more Maddie, Mike's springer,  proved to be of no help and even worse I learnt not to trust the usually sound advice from Mike that 'the soil should be easier to dig here!'.