Rais Wood: May Bank Holiday

The end of May bank holiday weekend saw more atypical British bank holiday weather. Hot and sunny all weekend with a threat of thunderstorms that didn't materialise (where I was anyway.) Rais is starting to look like summer, the trees are almost in full leaf and the grasses, thistles and other greenery in the wayleave is growing quickly, such a difference to a month ago. It was a very different feel to last weekend. Jo has gone back to Africa and everyone else was off doing other things so it was just me at Rais.

Saturday was hot! I did some clearing of brambles and rohdie stumps by the stream until the sun came round and it got too hot. There was one very disappointed wasp who had obviously been starting a nest in the roots of one of the stumps I dug up and the brambles had been growing like crazy so it looked quite different after an hour of digging. My new hand axe is working pretty well for brambles, loosening the soil round the roots so I can pull them out

Once it got too hot I moved into the shade and found a very strange looking beach (?) by the twisted oak that was totally stripped of it's bark with the bark lying on the ground in strips all around it. I thought it was dead at first but the leaves were very healthy.

Looking around I found a couple more with similar damage just starting so hopefully it is natural growth rather than any disease.

I did find some good news at the top of the wood though. The dead oak sapling is.... not dead! just behind the others, it has some new growth so fingers crossed it will be ok

During the afternoon I stayed in the shade and cleared all the brambles and stingers by the camp, repaired the cracks in Cassius, inside and out and tried adding chicken wire to the yardarm deck planks that get wet as an alternative to grip tape. I just did the very outer board as a first try and it seems ok to me. Just need to see what the others think before I do any more.

Two woods over the digger was busy again all day and my curiosity finally got the better of my manners so I wandered over to see what they had been doing after they had gone. Looks like they are expanding round the edge of the pond they dug last year, and not being too worried about any trees that may be in their way in the meantime!