It’s just over two weeks since my last visit and although we had a few days of heavy rain, the ground is baked dry, as the hot arid weather continues. The trees seem to be coping well, just a few showing signs of dropping leaves early. The good news is that the ash dieback (chalara) that I noticed around this time last year, seems to have waned. I had expected to see an increase in saplings dying back as the disease spreads, but there are fewer new ones so far. Is it the hot dry weather that has temporarily slowed down it’s spread? Some of the previously infected ones even seem to have made some new growth.

The new blackbird eggs I found last time have gone and the nest is empty. I doubt they could have hatched and fledged in such a short time so an guessing a predator suh as a grey squirrel, Jay etc has taken them.

I had two main jobs on my list – to take some photos for the Woodland Trust fixed point project that I volunteer for and to prepare for the blacksmithing weekend coming up. Last time I prepared a stump for the potato weight anvil. The base has been polished up with an angle grinder flap wheel to create the working surface and I fitted a spare engineers’ vice to another stump. The handles on the anvil stump will also serve as handy racks for my hammers. This is how they look now. Can’t wait to try them on Saturday.

Time for a coffee break using my Vietnamese coffee filter which works a treat. The mini kettle and gas stove quickly boil enough water for a brew and is clean and convenient. I love making a fire but it’s time consuming and sometimes you want an easy option.

I spent an hour or so doing my volunteering photography, spotted a a buzzard – apparently there are a lot in the woods right now and I suspect some young ones have recently fledged and flown the nest. I met two woodland neighbours. It’s always good to catch up and talk woodland stuff. Some of us belong to a private facebook group specifically for ours woods and I had heard several people comment on the abundance of wasps this year. They were correct, they seemed to be crawling and hanging around everywhere. I filled a tray with water for the birds but it was an oasis for wasps. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for the dry weather to hold out for the weekend but it’s looking like a change is on it’s way. Be sure to come back here next week to see how the blacksmithing went.