I say "d-i-y", but it was more like rustic work. Very rustic, as our visitors can see! Two benches made of chestnut spars are good and strong - so you can sit on them. One is next to a stream-side ghyll, while the other is sited in a glade. Another job was to make a board-walk over a new muddy patch. "Board-walk" is something of a misnomer, compared to the posh board-walks in other places, but it will keep the feet dry, which is the main object.

Then in early June, in a bit of a gale, a large ash tree, all of 40ft high (15 metres or so) fell over the lower ride, decapitating a couple of nice young oaks on its way down. When we cut up the branches, we found that the once-massive root was almost non-existent, and together with the bole, were rotten. My books do not suggest that the common ash (fraxinus excelsior) rots easily, although one says they can fall to bits when quite young! So it seems that our late friend had reached the end of his life.

Finally, our calendar brought us to the hated heather weeding. It is interesting that the Trust has tried to cope with the heather (calluna vulgaris) through power tools, but to little avail. The ten-year-old, tough stems lying horizontally, slipped underneath the cutter. The heather should have been cut into a rotation years ago when it was small, but it is easy to be wise after the event. The trouble is that our small area is not suitable for grazing, which is generally used elsewhere.

So our team is planning to use hand tools, to cut an area each autumn in rotation. Eventually, we could make careful use of our cutter-bar mower. We will always have to weed, but as I know from experience, short heather is much easier to cope with.

In our neighbouring wood the rides, once full of woody rubbish, were tackled with farm equipment and now they are full of short heather! So we are taking a leaf out of our neighbour's book. Anything to see some end to our miserable summer existence!

John Hall © 2006