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| "The mother tree" |
Can't believe I am going to be working away all week in Norway and Germany when so much is going on at Rais right now. The bird activity is phenomenal and despite not ever seeing Nuthatches at Rais until just last week, today we watched two regularly visiting the feeders and coming right down to the peanuts on the ground in front of the hide, along with woodpeckers, a squirrel, a fat but magnificent male pheasant and numerous tits. The sounds of woodpeckers drilling and buzzards calling overhead filled every minute of the day, which I spent sorting out the storage boxes, clearing the bank of debris and helping Ant burning yet more Rhodies - will it ever stop!?!?
After months and months of ripping up Rhodies by the roots or hacking them back to ground level, we finally made it through to the northern border this weekend where we found the "Mother Tree" - she's truly enormous! - the biggest Rhododendron I think I have ever seen. She's definitely not going anywhere, but her children (well most of them) will certainly be destroyed.
It's nice to see the pathways have all pretty much dried out now too, makes walking around less traumatic on my clumsy days. The constant pedestrian traffic has compacted them nicely - but there are some places where primroses are desperately still trying to push through only to be trodden over again - so I may have to get the bulb planter out next weekend and transplant some of them for a better chance of survival - I'm thinking down the sides of the new steps - a cheery view from trap number two.
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| Kitchen / shelter coming along |
