Notes from Simon in my absence - thank you for the updates

8th Jan - Ant did lots of rhodie chopping over by the top shed and I had a big burn of the piles we had already. There were a couple of small trees down from all the wind, one of which was right on top of Xayahs tent from Christmas, good job she wasn't in it!
22nd Jan - The weekend was terrible weather, rain Saturday morning and all day Sunday but I did manage a couple of hours at Rais on Saturday afternoon (I needed some time outside after a week of planes and hotels).
29th Jan - It was a productive weekend, if rather slippery and muddy at Rais though. There was another big fire and lots of rhodie chopped and burned. I had saved the steep bank down to the stream by our tent to clear this week in order to give the legs good workout before skiing and that definitely worked, I'm quite achy this morning! As we were leaving Tracey slipped, in the wayleave by the fire and went down quite hard, landing on her camera. It was quite a knock but she was up and ok almost immediately and drove home ok. I think she's feeling a bit sore now but seems like no major damage done luckily. It's definitely a reminder to take care.
2nd Feb - The first snowdrop came up at Rais.
27th Feb - Had a good weekend, properly cold, barely above freezing but sunny and dry. Cleared masses of brambles from the wayleave by the dam towards the shower and more rhodies by the hive.
9th March - A lovely day in the snow. I had noticed the owl box was occupied for several weeks and was quite optimistic as there were several small white feathers on the ground around the base of the tree. I finally had a proper look this weekend only to find...Squirrels! Grrr! So they were evicted on Sunday, it may be a bit late for the owls now.
30th March - More rhodies cleared and Ant managed to break both forks getting roots out!
Easter Weekend - The weather forecast for Friday and Monday was grim, continuous rain both days, but Saturday and Sunday looked ok. I went up on my own on Saturday and reorganised the log store a bit, to move all the green wood to one place, and then carried on clearing rhodies up by the cars. It's pretty difficult going up there. When I left I got the car properly stuck in the mud, a winters worth of parking has taken it's toll and it's really slippery. Eventually I had to get Helen to come and pull me out in the z4! On Sunday we carried on chopping and burning and pretty much finished the clearing to the boundary by the cars. That will be the end of the chopping season for now so the birds can do their nesting thing! Ant didn't stay over, it was pretty cold and wet, but I did with Flee and Tracey and we had chilli and wine and chilled out by the fire (chilled both in the sense we were relaxed, and rather cold! :)) Monday was as wet as promised so we just had breakfast and headed home. A really nice weekend all in all. I did get the car stuck in the mud again when it came to leaving even though I parked on the other side of the space so I think the next project is going to be getting something down to make the parking a bit better.
9th April - We'd agreed it was getting close to the end of the rhodie chopping season so Thursday evening after work the weather was good, and it's finally light enough, so I went to Rais for an hour to work on the rhodies down by the shower. I made good progress but remembered once again, painfully!, that the shower bridge is really slippery. Ouch, one brazed shin and one very wet boot!
Helen came up on Saturday and we cleared the gully behind the yardarm and found a very leggy rose bush in the process, looking forward to seeing it flower. Spring has definitely arrived. Finally.
20th April - When I got back from a work trip to Brazil, I had another lovely sunny Sunday at rais, getting rid of a huge pile of rhodies we cut a couple of weeks ago up by the cars, I'm amazed how much space was hidden behind the rhodies up there, it looks so much better.
May 11th - Bank holiday weekend at Rais and the weather was fantastic. Warm and sunny all weekend. Ant and I had a huge fire on Saturday and burned all of the stumps and rhodie brash, I always seem to be having these big fires on hot sunny days! We also found a new visitor to rais… a rat! he was all over the peanuts in the holder by the wood store and totally unconcerned we were standing right there. Ant had a shot at him but we don't think killed him, but we didn't see him again after midday so at least it made him more cautious. Flee and Tracey arrived for the evening and we had a nice chilled time round the fire.
I did go to Rais on Monday evening to see if I could lure that rat out, and then shoot him! but there was no sign of him and all I managed to do was lose my fold up glasses! I did eventually find them again after an hour and a half of searching and with a bit of help from Ant on Tuesday lunchtime.
May 29th - Bank Holiday weekend and the weather was fantastic again, May has been very unusual! it was 25 degrees + and sunny with little wind all weekend so I had to stay at Rais Saturday night. Ant, Flee and Tracey were off at the boat show and Helen was walking, so it was just me, and it was a real contrast to last week. It was nice though, in a different way. I did some clearing by the shower, those brambles grow quick! but it soon got too hot so I pottered around by the yardarm. Fixed the cracks in Cassius, inside and out, went round and cleared all the bramble and stingers by camp and made a first attempt at wrapping chicken wire round the yardarm deck planks. I think it has come out well but will be interesting to see what the others think. Had a nice evening by the fire (not that I needed one it was that warm) and headed home Sunday lunchtime.

Sunday 24th June

It was an early start this weekend as Helen was planning on walking for 8 hours and with a very warm weather forecast she wanted to get started. As it turned out it was a very warm day, despite the forecast of clouds. Hot and sunny with just a slight haze.

The better weather had brought the insects, and horse flies, back out in force and I started in the gully behind the yardarm in a cloud of bugs. Luckily none of them seemed to be of the biting kind just there! I spent an hour in the shade and cleared stingers and some rohdie stumps, there is still quite a bit to do up there though and probably 20 stumps still to get out, slow and steady is the way forward in such hot weather though. Despite being chopped only a couple of months ago all of the stumps have all sprouted new leaves like crazy so I am going to try weedkiller sprayed on the leaves to at least slow them down a bit.

Ant arrived about half 10 and after a chat he headed up to dig stumps by the top shed. I went next to the wayleave at the top of the steps and pulled bracken and brambles, it was hot going in the sun but once again there was plenty of green left once it was done.

Helen arrived, for a 30 minute half way pit stop, about 1 so I stopped for lunch while she was there and then wrapped chicken wire on the next plank of the yardarm deck while chatting to Ant. Four down, five to go! The horse flies definitely like the area around the yardarm and especially when you are hot and sweaty (as you cool down they seem to lose interest a bit.) Interestingly they are also really bad up by the top shed but up by the Hive there are none at all. I guess it is dryer and more open so doesn't appeal to them so much. I had been quite thorough with the insect repellent and it mostly worked but I did get one bite on my hand, the minute I took my glove off! and another on my cheek while I was concentrating on the chicken wire. I will need to be still more thorough next week because I don't want to be at Helen's sisters wedding the week after with a huge swollen insect bite on my cheek!

Ant left about 2 and I sat quietly for 10 mins or so and before I knew it a pair of squirrels were down on the bird food! They bolted the moment I moved though.

To finish the day I had another hour in the wayleave and cleared all the stumps and brambles (for now) on the right side of the path from the top of the steps to the dam. I did notice that there are plenty of brambles, a tree and a holly mixed in with the rohdie behind the wood stores so maybe if they were encouraged we would eventually not need so much rohdie as a windbreak there?





On the way home I checked in my tent for the first time in a few weeks, it looks like something has been trying to get in! although there is no obvious sign inside that they managed it. I will make a better check next week.







I had to pause at the hive on the way out and just take it in. It was a beautiful afternoon, warm and sunny the birds were singing, the oak saplings are doing well (soon they will need bigger enclosures) and some foxgloves getting established. There is definitely a pair of Chaffinches who are quite brave hanging around the Hive and I have caught a couple of glimpses of another bird leaving from the grounds in the wayleave as I approach over the last few weeks that I want to get a better look at. So far I have medium sized, bigger than a blackbird, maybe about the size of a Jay and probably grey. Maybe a Cuckoo? The bins will need to be added back to the Rais kit bag!

Away from Rais, we have clearly had some busy squirrels at home over the winter because this week we had ten! Oak saplings coming up through out the front lawn. An Oak forest would be quite a cool thing to have on the front lawn but they might just overshadow the house a bit after a while, and they do make mowing it rather tricky. Inspired by the success of the saplings at Rais Helen saved two of them before mowing the lawn, so we'll see how they do.

Sunday 17th June

Helens parents were visiting this week and on Wednesday we took them to the wood for a hour so they could put a place to the stories, they seemed quite impressed, even though the birds did not really show themselves while they were there.

The weather forecast was slightly less good this weekend and it turned out to be quite cloudy with quite a strong breeze, but still really quite warm.
Summer is on the way and the trees have more leaves every week, the view from the yardarm is now out onto a wall of green.

and there are lots of foxgloves on the top of the wayleave as well as some colonising into the wood by our tent and the hive.

The rose in the gully behind the yardarm has flowered and it seems to be a Small White Rambling Rose (Rosa multiflora)

I was on call so needed to have phone signal today so stayed at the top in the wayleave and by the Hive for most of the day. I started by clearing brambles in the wayleave, and was surprised by a baby fallow deer as I stood by the fire site, it came round the rhodies walked right past me, not six inches away, and headed off down towards our tent. Shame it all happened too fast for a photo! I also thought the buzzards were back for a fleeting moment, but although one did fly over calling it must have been on it's way somewhere else.

The other wildlife was very strange this weekend. After weeks of fending off swarms of horse flies (Joanne has managed to identify them for me as the common horse fly (Haematopota pluvialis)) this week I did not see a single one, and whilst there were lots of birds audible in the trees some way away not a single one came down to the food in the half hour I was in the yardarm.

Once the top of the wayleave was pretty clear I moved into the clearing towards the hive and ended up with a good pile of bramble, and it looks much clearer. Then I moved on to pulling bracken in the section by Rais, it looked really bad but actually was not nearly as dense as previous years and there was plenty of green left once the bracken was gone. To wrap up I cleared the bracken by the hive (again!) and then headed home.

On Monday night I went down for an hour to see if the squirrel would come down if I put some food out and sat quietly. He did not come to the nuts but I did see him on the tree close enough to have a shot, if I had the gun! The birds were absent again, although it was evening and they were vocal not far away, and I did see a very brave Chaffinch at the top of the wayleave and a tree creeper on the twisted oak. Since yesterday the grass has flowered and the wayleave is suddenly quite white rather than green!

Sunday 10th June 2018

It was another sunny and warm weekend and Sunday saw me and Ant at Rais while Helen walked up, in a round about route to continue her walk training.

The horse flies were still around, although not quite a bad as last week, it must be a very good year for them. I managed to get a closer look and they are definitely a fly of some kind, as opposed to a large mossie so that is that question answered!

The first round of birds nests have fledged and the trees around the yardarm were full of young blue tits, coal tits and nuthatches arguing amongst themselves and flitting down to the food trays. There were also some blackbirds and I think I saw a tree creeper too. They are all very brave already and not fussed by our presence at all. Forrest was busy darting back and forth from the stump to stock up on seeds.

Ant finished some details on the wood store and then spent the day filling it up with both new and old wood from over by his tent and up by the top shed. His new chainsaw got a good workout!


I wandered from job to job. I dug 4 stumps and poisoned 3 others in the wayleave by the shower, so that section should be done now and there are just a few more to get at the top of the steps.
Then I cleared some missed rohide twigs that were sprouting in the areas up near the cars, and some brambles that were starting to get established too before moving on to clear bracken in the wayleave. It's quite hard now the grass is growing taller to it will definitely need doing again in a few weeks.
After a break for some lunch I added chicken wire to the next two planks of the yardarm decking, it's looking ok.

Helen arrived around 4, after a five hour walk and the flies were still annoying so we left about half past.

Sunday 3rd June 2018

It was another hot sunny weekend to start June and I arrived expecting a hard day digging roots and clearing brambles, but Ant arrived with other ideas! so Sundays task was to extend and reorganise the wood pile.

Ant worked on adding a new roof section with the remaining fence panel and putting two pallets down underneath it as a base and I worked on putting a new pallet down outside of the covered section then tidying and building up the section of green wood. After that I worked my way through splitting the larger oak sections still left

That took most of the day, it was hot and sunny and the horse flies, or whatever they are, we out in force, swarming round us both all day and leaving several bites despite the Deet. I have bitten before of course but never seen so many of these flies or had them so persistent. Hopefully they will have dispersed a bit by next week.

Once the wood pile was sorted Ant worked on a bit of oak he hopes to make into a crossbow handle and I pulled the bracken up by the hive. There were only 596 individual stems this week!

The first hatchlings of this years brood have left the great tit nest and young birds of all types were visiting the nuts in the feeders and in the Hive clearing I found several oak saplings, and some holly that I will try and protect next week