It was Saturday the 1st September when I went. Apparently it is the start of the “meterological” autumn whatever that means. Personally I prefer the start of seasons to be governed by the earth’s orbit around the sun – the solstices and equinoxes. Something that has been acknowledeged for centuries rather than some new fangled idea dreamt up by a bunch of weather readers! Apparently it’s based on average seasonal temperatures rather than astronomical motions and makes it easier to produce meaningful statistics. There you go, statisticians thinking they know best.
Well anyway it still felt like summer to me – warm, dry but starting to feel mellow now. The hawthorn trees in the countryside are laden with berries this year and there were lots of ripe blackberries to be seen. Now that’s a bit of a sore point because the newly cleared coup in the sycamore area that I cleared in winter, is now overgrown with brambles. The extra light has created a thick , criss-cross mat of bramble runners. So much so that I can’t walk around the saplings to check and water them.
So armed with my heavy duty brushcutting machine, I set-to for an hour and roughly cut them down to th ground. They will return next year of course but hopefully weakened. This is the same area after my brushcutting session.
The cutting back last year has paid off and combined with extra light from felling some trees, the large ferns have done very well here and a number of naturally regenerated saplings are springing up – ash, wild cherry, hawthorn. Also some new patches of wood sorrel have appeared which I like very much. They are the plants that the Irish call Shamrock and the leaves taste of cooking apples. These species of fern (called Male Fern) are quite abundant throughout the wood.
My other main job was to bag up some dried, seasoned logs. My woodland neighbour has kindly offerd to take and sell them to a friend for me. Hopefully he will want some more. I have a surplus of logs and the small income will help pay for some overheads – fuel and oil for the chainsaw and my vehicle etc. I had hoped to do numerous jobs but as usual, time slipped away faster than I expected. I spent quite a while looking for a suitable spot for my wildlife trail camera. Up till now I have not really used it but a couple of other neighbours have had some fantastic shots on theirs. Roe deer, foxes, owls, buzzards, woodmice, hares, hedgehogs etc. I’m not confident that my camera will produce much when I return next. Tests done walking around it showed that it has a fairly limited range of about 5 metres for picking up movement. I’m hoping to go later this week to check it out.
Bird activity has dwindled. I guess the small songbirds like the chiff chaffs, warblers and blackcaps have returned to their mediterranean winter homes. The good old faithfuls – wrens, robins and various tits were around and I heard the loud yaffel call of a green woodpecker as it flew nearby. Still haven’t seen one close up yet though.
One last comment to make. One of my old pals, and a regular reader of this blog passed away last week. We used to exchange the odd email and meet up once a year for a pub lunch and a good old natter. His illness must have been lurking for a while but overcame him quickly. It always shocks me to realise that someone I knew pretty well, has just disappeared from existence. It serves to remind me too, how lucky I am to be the custodian of this fantastic place and to enjoy it and to enjoy the company of friends and family while I can. So goodbye John and thanks for your friendship.
