Been an amazing
summer at Rais, very sad it’s over, but immensely proud of our achievements so
far. We have cleared and burnt a huge number of Rhododendrons and created dead
wood piles all over the place with the storm-damaged trees we’ve cleared. You
can now see quite a stretch of the downstream ghyll and there are 3 new
crossing points (using the term “bridges” is possibly stretching the truth a
little), as well as a fair
number of new steps of course.
We have learnt a load we didn’t know we needed to learn and
a lot we were hoping to discover along the way. Ant is mastering the machete
and has made a great start with the chainsaw, and I can now identify at least 4
woodland butterflies without a guide book, at least 5 birds by sound alone and
am almost there with the different trees. Going to get harder as the leaves
fall of course, but it’s a start.
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| caught on my camera this monster of a pheasant is super-stunning |
We have registered
the land with the Rural Payments Agency and aim to get our woodland improvement
grant application completed ready for consideration by the Forestry Commission
next spring. I’m excited by the changes in the wood and the coming of my
favourite season – the harvest of Autumn.
I quite fancy having a go at some Leaf art too but this year
but fear I will miss most of the best bits of Autumn with all the holidays I
have in October and only a few free weekends available. I had hoped to find a
day when rain has fallen overnight and it’s not too cold (a bright day, but
ideally slightly cloudy) to photograph the fungi at the wood. I really enjoyed
crawling around the undergrowth (on a training course) last year with the
camera – would also give my new waterproof trousers a thorough testing.
We need to find time to burn the ever-growing piles of Rhodies
too before the wildlife has a chance to get comfy in it for the winter.
The mind is awash with ideas for tihngs I want to do at the
moment too… plant the cut willow whips to form a living seat structure along
the banks of the stream? Use the spindly tree thinnings to weave single-person
bird hides? Listen for the sounds of the male deer as rutting season gets
underway, but ultimately we need to finish work in the bottom left as soon as possible.
We need to leave the south-west corner where the outlying badger sett is as
undisturbed and attractive as possible to encourage the wandering young male
badgers to take up residence for the winter. They will be on the lookout for setts
of their own in the coming weeks and I want them to choose ours.
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| example willow dome - similar to the one I created at St Mary's |
Ooh, I have found the Oak I aim to climb first too, and
chosen the “workhorse single” rope I need to do it with - http://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/ropes.html
(who knew there were so many types of climbing rope!?!). It’s ideal as it’s
massive and on the edge of the clearing, so the views of the buzzards and owls
from up there will be awesome. It also has a massive kink in it halfway up
making it quite an interesting shape for a potential tree-seat/hide (as well as
being host to the only tree fairy I have found so far – one special tree).
