Sunday 4th May 2025 - work party

As we arrived at woodland it started to rain but the woodland group are made of strong stuff so we carried on and it rained on an off. In spite of the dry weather, right up until Sunday morning, the woodland has had it's usual spring growth spurt and this months work was about reclaiming the paths.

This is the 'before' taken while it was sunny on Saturday morning.

The verge on the roadside edge was trimmed back before it flops over.

The hazel hedge around the picnic bench has done really well. The new growth was woven in to the structure.

Ash logs, previously cut down were moved to the woodside. Photo taken on the way back to get another load!

Lovely green crab spider on the hazel.

Quince flowers.

 Near the entrance, there was a sprawling honeysuckle which used to climb up a sycamore tree, now removed. A new structure was created out of the hazel coppiced last month. 

Cherries forming. 

The glade, all tidy again.

The bench with the hazel arch now forming it's own structure.

Main path after mowing.

 

Sunday 6th April 2025 - Work Party

 We have had long spell of dry weather and sunshine and today was no exception. It doesn't really show in this photo but the woodland is beginning to green up now. Sunny days but still very cold at night, frosts forecast for this week, so growth remains slow. 

The blossom is out on the plum amd cherry trees.

Margaret has very kindly bought some more snowdrops in the green and these were planted in the grassy area on the right of the main path.

Planting the snowdrops in the sunshine.

We had a quick trim along the edges of some of the paths and the glade, where the cow parsley and grass had started to encroach.  Things will grow really quickly at this time of year.

              

The owl box was successfully reattached to the tree. The other owl box was checked and found to contain a nest with baby pigeons. 

Sunday 2nd March 2025 - Work Party

 It was a perfect spring morning in the woodland and lovely just to be there. A few people had sent their apologies so I wasn't expecting many. Nevertheless we had a few jobs to get on with.

Some of the bigger hazel was coppiced and the longer rods woven into the den structure to give a bit of definition.

The snowdrops have been great this year, and the weather was cool making them last a long time. We divided the clumps, replanted a bit and then made new planting further along the path. This is the best time for planting snowdrops to get them to establish well, while they are still green.

The tawny owl box had fallen down so we took the side off and were able to see how much debris was inside. It was pretty full. Richard cleaned it out and will make some repairs to the box. 

New green shoots!

The wild (planted) daffodils have done well this year as well. 

Sunday 2nd February 2025 - work party

 It was a bright, crisp morning, hurrah, and despite most people having to leave early due to other commitments, we got a lot done.

Beautiful morning shadows.

As an experiment, we didn't clear the leaves as usual in December but the oak leaves in the glade were still laying thickly, because they take a long time to rot down. As the grass is now trying to grow, the glade was raked and the leaves added to the compost heap.  We left the paths as it would just make them more muddy if they were cleared.

Raking the glade

The snowdrops are flowering and looking lovely, there are a good number now but some were covered by brambles so these were cleared away.

Snowdrop under the brambles

Bramble clearing in progress.

Jeannie lightly pruned some of the fruit trees. It's not an ideal position as it is too shady in the woodland but we do our best.

Clearing vegetation around the snowdrops

Some hazel was coppice and long poles added to the den, other bits were put aside for future use.

Snowdrops all cleared.

Sunshine at the top of the woodland.

Hazel catkins 

A lot of dead wood was also collected and added to the log piles .

Sunday 19th January 2025 - FWG extra

 A few group members met with Edward Tollemache to plant trees to extend the pasture with trees on the Helmingham Hall parkland. Supervised by Glenn and Jeannie, we planted just over 50 trees, mostly oak but also a few sweet chestnut. All grown from seed collected locally by the Framsden tree wardens, hence the first stage of  prising the trees out of the seedbed. 

The deer came to see what we were doing but moved away once they found out there was no food.

The holes were pre-dug so we were shown how to plant the tree and then place hessian mats to suppress the weeds.

Digging out the saplings from the growing medium, good root systems!

Planting the tree, hessian mats and tree guards added after.

Extra protection is needed because of the deer. Each tree has a cactus guard which is held in place by 2 stakes and then attached to the stakes with staples otherwise the deer use their antlers to lift them off!

We got a really efficient system of putting the stakes and guards together and then pushing the stakes in with the telehandler.

Finished!

About 3 hours and 50 trees later on a rough terrain felt like a good morning's workout!

Sunday 5th January 2025 -

 Happy New Year! It was a very wet morning but we we needed to get the bench tops done and it a couldn't be postponed so the elite team met to remove the old rotten bench tops, last picture, and do a few other jobs

Snowdrops are starting to show their flowers and we cleared a bit of undergrowth so we can see them properly.

  

Some trees have come down in recent high winds, this one was resting on another one so it was cut up to bring it down safely.

Honeysuckle leaves - it will be spring although not just yet!

The finished benches

Mid Build

Before

Jeannie planted the hedge plants from last time in between work parties