December 2005 Weather Summary

31 Dec 2005 Pollarded the rest of the 3rd coop and also the self-sown ash below the high current electricity cables at the very top of Bank field. A very enjoyable time was had by both man and dog, then home for a late night to watch the firework display at the London Eye. No I don't know why Flag is terrified of the occasional firework going off half a mile away in Sleights, but still doesn't mind 7 tons of them going off on the telly... Happy New Year to everyone (except for their petrified pets)!

30 Dec 2005 More snow overnight with strengthening winds during the morning, so I settled for a mainly indoor day. I bet those 200 motorists trapped in their cars by snow drifts on the road between York and Hull wish they had done the same!

Down here in the bottom of the dale it is just blustery and snowing lightly (from the west this time), but up on the moortop, where there is no shelter, any strong winds soon whip up the lying snow across several square miles and blow it into drifts. The police continue to advise that no one should go anywhere. By early afternoon the thaw had begun, the icicles on the flume had gone and the Groves Dyke snowman is looking a bit sad and droopy. Sub-zero temperatures are forecast again for tonight, then rain as a warm front crosses the country.

The snow on the drive had melted enough by mid-morning to take the car out and go shopping in Whitby. Wow! The Co-op car park was full to capacity, with a 'one out - one in' system in operation, just like mid-August! Hardly a spare trolley to be found, aisles full of people, shelves emptying rapidly and PA calls for 'All check-out trained staff to the check-outs, please.' No, this is NOT panic buying before a bank holiday, it's just the first time for several days that very large numbers of rural residents have been able to get their cars out to go shopping.

29 Dec 2005 The drive is still too slippery for vehicles to get all the way up to the house, so I just walked to the village for meat and groceries. No danger of starving over the New Year bank holiday now! The main roads, buses and trains are all running normally, so Whitby and beyond are only a bus stop away. The sun is shining, there is no wind and everything is very pretty. Spent some time with the camera, just in case this is the last snow ever seen here, then started to dismantle the big old apple tree which keeled over during the summer, while my faithful companion went off to excavate further up the wood. By 3pm the sun was weakening and so low that the cold began to bite and we soon headed back for the great indoors and all that lovely dry firewood from last winter.

A 15-minute bird count from my conservatory gave: chaffinch 4, blackbird 3, blue tit 3, great tit 3, coal tit 1, greenfinch 1, marsh tit 1, robin 1 (1005-1020 hours, overnight min of 22ºF, now very cold, 3/8 cloud, calm and dry). A bank vole appeared briefly and 9 long tailed tit arrived too late for a mention.

28 Dec 2005 Snow fell overnight and is still falling in the form of wintry showers, some quite heavy. My pond is frozen over again, with a layer of hailstones on top of the ice. Bits of grass still show through the snow on the lawns, but this could be because the grass is so long, not because the snow layer is so thin! Both the milkman and the postman had to walk up the drive this morning. The moor roads are open but police are warning everyone to 'just stay at home'. Small white clouds scuttle westward against a near black sky and the snowflakes fall diagonally in the easterly wind, until the low winter sun shines again between the showers.

Flag insisted on being in the great outdoors (digging holes) while I settled for a day of genteel firelog sawing and stacking under the pole barn. When the snow eased and the children from Groves Dyke began to build a snowman, Flag immediately abandoned the wood and its wildlife, and spent the rest of the morning 'helping' with the snowman instead. Far more fun, he said!

27 Dec 2005 Christmas has been survived and even enjoyed. Snow was forecast for last night but it seems to have gone to East Anglia and Kent instead, leaving Sleights with yet more dry, mild and sunny weather. The rain gauge reads 1¾ inches so far this month.

The Third Coop, singled last winter, was polled this morning. Or, to put it another way, the third coup (Norman French meaning 'blow') of coppiced (cut back every few years to encourage the growth of vigorous young stems) hazel trees was pollarded (truncating the trunk several feet above the ground to prevent grazing animals, in this case roe deer, from eating the young shoots) before noon today. And very enjoyable it was, too. Several long, whippy rods were left tall so they can be bent over and pegged into the ground to 'layer' and create new hazel trees to extend the coop, but this procedure is best done in the spring.

A goodly collection of cut hazel poles is now leaning against a nearby tree to dry out, lose weight and then be carried down the hill to the woodyard later in the year. Another nearby tree is now dangling with potential Unique Walking Sticks and (a new line, this) Harry Potter-Esk wands (I suspect that 'Harry Potter' is copyright, so these are just 'in the style of'). The firewood and walking sticks will take a year to season, but the wands may be ready for this summer. I wonder if the Grosmont to Pickering steam railway, used in the film, would sell them? They already sell locally made traditional heather besoms - better known as Harry Potter broomsticks - which is a real bonus for the economy of one local farm!

23 Dec 2005 There were 3 roe deer in the field just above the wood this morning, grazing amongst the thistles and ignoring me completely (Flag being both unaware and out of sight in the long grass). As I got closer and closer, their nerve finally failed them at about 20 yards and they ambled off up the hill, only to be joined by another 2 which I hadn't even noticed.

Having ignored the poor dog for most of the last week, we went for a good stroll along the beach at Sandsend. Mild weather, bright sunshine but a bit of a cool breeze. We passed an elderly couple on their folding chairs, with their brightly coloured windbreak tapped into the sand. She was reading a magazine and he was admiring the view - in December.

At Sandsend the Sandside Cafe (the big wooden shed just above the beach) was open for business and fairly busy with strollers - in late December. Every single outside table was taken, bar one, so I grabbed it and enjoyed a coffee and a lovely slice of homemade walnut cake (Flag had the walnut, of course - it's in his contract). And what was I wearing? Short sleeved shirt and fleece (unzipped) - on Christmas Eve Eve! Crazy weather.

Driving down through Sleights in late afternoon, after a bit of last minute dashing around, visiting, buying even more food, buying even more presents, etc, I noticed poor old Santa Claus, in full regalia, waiting at the bus shelter. It's not just builders, you know, you just can't get reliable reindeer either...

22 Dec 2005 Finished! The last few little jobs were completed by lunchtime, which gave time (just!) to rearrange the furniture back to normal (Isn't 'normal' a nice word? I like 'normal'.) and finish cleaning. In fact, the last bit of dysoning in the conservatory (or 'sawmill' as it has been known for the past few weeks) was still in progress as the guests arrived for Christmas week! Now that is what I call 'cutting it a bit fine' and I promise I will never do it again. In fact, I will never do any more building work again. Ever.

Conclusion: The new kitchen is FAR better and seems to be far bigger, too. It was well worth doing, but - there is no point is allowing 6 weeks for a builder to complete a job, if most of the work is left until the last 3 or 4 days and then completed at a frantic pace, with late night and early morning sessions to make up all the time lost by just starting with the occasional day's work here and the occasional day there. 'I like a deadline, it makes you concentrate' said the builder...

21 Dec 2005 The builder, his wife, the joiner, the plumber and I worked feverously all day to get everything ready for the Christmas guests to arrive at 3pm. In fact, they aren't due until tomorrow afternoon, but I didn't tell him that - and it did have the desired effect! What a pity the gas inspector decided to put a cat amongst the pigeons by announcing about 2.30pm 'I shall have to disconnect the gas because the under floor ventilator no longer meets the new regulations.'

The solution was to take the plumber off the washing machine fitting and put him onto drilling a nice new 5 inch diameter (97 sq cms) ventilator through the outside wall (with draught excluder) before the gas man would sign-off the annual service and inspection. Just what we needed, thank-you British Gas and the Health and Safety Executive: ruin the cavity wall insulation, increase the heat loss, use more gas, pay for using more gas, increase British Gas profits, increase fossil fuel consumption and increase Climate Change. Good, innit?

It has been mild and sunny today. So mild, in fact, that I noticed the first policeman in summer plumage (shirt sleeves - short - and stab vest) on foot patrol in Whitby. Crazy clothing for North Yorkshire in late December, but at least we now know that British Gas and the HSE are doing their bit to make it even crazier...

20 Dec 2005 The builder's bits were removed from the dining room (some via the window onto the patio!), the room cleaned and the carpet fitters were able to do exactly what it says on their van. The dining room has had a bit of paintwork touched-up and now looks very smart. The kitchen is (almost) finished and now there is just the kitchen door to re-hang, the new fridge-freezer to move into the old larder, the washing machine to move into the new utility room - and an entire hall and conservatory-full of builder's other bits to remove. Once that has all been done, THEN the cleaning can begin...

Bright, sunny and less cold today with some rain forecast for tonight (the rain gauge is still at 1½ inches of rain so far this month) and my pond has thawed completely.

19 Dec 2005 The electrician finished wiring-up the new kitchen sockets this morning, then the builder and joiner spent all afternoon and a good part of the evening making good the skirting and door frames, changing the kitchen door to open into the hall, etc, etc. Why do it gradually over 6 weeks, when you can wait until the last 3 days and then really get a move on with it?!? The carpet fitter is due (again) tomorrow, having had to admit defeat on his last two appointments because there were still too many bits of wood, tools, bits of kitchen units, etc, etc all over the floor! Poor man! Tomorrow morning I WILL clear the dining room floor ready for his 3rd attempt to re-lay the carpet - even if it means piling up any remaining 'work in progress' in the hall instead...

There has been some light snow on the moortops (there wasn't any in Cumbria nor the Pennines 2 days ago) but all the roads are open as normal. The temperature is just above freezing and my pond is still frozen over. Several smokey fires smouldered on Egton Moor as the shepherd / gamekeeper swiddened the tough old heather to rejuvenate the roots into producing the tender young shoots required by both sheep and grouse.

18 Dec 2005 The builder spent much of today working on various bits and bobs (that will teach me to go on holiday again and imagine that it will all be finished on my return)! The kitchen units and worktops are now in place, the tiling is finished, the appliances are in position and the new kitchen looks and feels a LOT bigger.

A walk around the wood revealed not a single holly berry, not even in Hollywood itself, but a visit to this almost inaccessible area showed that the electricity company's forest contractors had been in recently and felled half a dozen 15-year old ash trees under the 'leccy wires. They are just the right diameter for fire logs (c3 to 6 inches) and will do very nicely thank-you - once I have carried them down to the woodyard, sawn and stacked them for a year or two to season.

9 Dec 2005 Hooray! The new kitchen floor tiles went down today (and they do look rather nice) and I bought the new fridge - freezer (A-rated for energy efficiency, of course), which will be delivered next week... Progress!

6 Dec 2005 The final coat of paint was added today, while Flag and I had a very pleasant stroll on the beach at Sandsend. The rain has stopped (1 inch so far this month), the temperature has risen (only one fleece required on the beach) and the sun is shining brightly (wide brimmed hat needed to keep the low sun out of my eyes).

At the moment the tiler is waiting for the electrician to finish before he can start, the electrician is waiting for the joiner, the joiner is waiting for the plumber, the plumber is waiting for the gas man, the gas man is waiting for the painter and the painter is waiting for the plaster to dry and the plaster is slow to dry because the central heating is off and the central heating is off because the kitchen and dining room radiators are being altered and the plumber is waiting for the painter, etc, etc. Don't panic! There are some 'bits of work' to do tomorrow, the new floor tiles go down the day after and then the joiner can get on with fitting the new kitchen units, which the plumber and gas man can then connect, so that the tiler can finish the job off, then the carpet fitter is already booked to re-lay the dining room carpet and then all the furniture can be returned to its rightful place - and the cleaning can begin...

A 15 minute count (0915 - 0930) revealed: blue tit 4, chaffinch 4, blackbird 3, coal tit 1, dunnock 1, great tit 1, marsh tit 1. A baby bank vole also put in a brief appearance.

British Gas have been concerned about how little gas Groves Dyke has been using over the last year - and then discovered that their meter had stopped entirely! Now, I accept that the house hasn't been using absolutely no gas so at all so far this year, but it seems that it has used so little gas that the poor old gas meter just ground to a halt! They were a bit suspicious about what I might have been up to, until I explained about the super insulation of both loft and cavity walls, the double glazing and the solar panels. They now accept that it 'may just have slowed down a bit too much' and planned to replace it today, until they realised that it would be easier to wait until all the kitchen work is completed. How very similar to the electricity inspector's visit some years ago, when their computer flagged-up that I 'just wasn't using enough electricity'!

The solar panels were installed at Groves Dyke in 1991 by Solarec (Yorkshire) and since then have clocked up 22,926 hours of 'solar gain' (ie 'free' hot water). This is just over 25% of all the daylight hours (61,170 hours) available in the past 14 years. The solar system cost about £3000 in 1991 and has had just one 10-year routine maintenance check in all that time.

Groves Bank's solar panels were installed by the same company in 1994 at a similar price and have now clocked up 18,648 hours of solar gain in the 48,180 hours of daylight over these 11 years, again working for about 25% of the available daylight hours. So why do we need to build more nuclear power stations when even in North Yorkshire there is more than enough solar energy to worry both the electricity and the gas company? Could it be that they may have some kind of vested interest in keeping energy demand high, so that all their shareholders make a good profit every year, for years to come? Ah, yes - it's those good old Market Forces again!

4 Dec 2005 The painter returned to add another coat of paint to the new kitchen, while dog and I pottered in the wood: he looking for anything that did not require any more digging and I looking for anything that did not require bending my by now rather stiff elbow!

3 Dec 2005 Cool, grey, damp and drizzly today, so I drove the car out of the pole barn, set up the saw house and spent the morning under cover with the big bow saw and the big pile of poles. By lunchtime Flag had got really involved with a new excavation nearby and I had got really involved with an ever growing wall of firelogs - so we continued there all afternoon as well. By dusk Flag was barely visible behind a mound of freshly dug soil and I was barely visible behind a wall of freshly sawn logs. The saw horse was removed, the car replaced, the dog washed and the sawyer bathed and both one man and his dog had a great day and considered that the pole barn was well and truly christened today.

2 Dec 2005 The painter started work today on the new kitchen, now that the plaster has dried (the cold weather didn't help it to dry out over the past couple of weeks). Painting should be finished by the middle of next week, then the new floor tiles go down and then the new kitchen units can be mantled (opposite of dismantled)... I hope it all goes to schedule as the carpet un-fitter has been booked to relay the dining room carpet 2 weeks from today!

30 Nov 2005 Above freezing again. Not warm, but at least it's less cold than a few days ago. The sun shone weakly as Flag started a new excavation in Bank Orchard, while I just sawed up the fallen oak limb from earlier this summer. This was the second case of Sudden Limb Drop from the General Oak (just a little less senior than the Major Oak). On the first occasion the falling limb snapped off a sound limb on its way down, so the running total is 3 fallen limbs from just 2 cases of SLD - which is itself usually an act of desperation by the tree to reduce water loss in times of severe drought. I also collected the very first crop from the young medlar tree which we planted there about 10 years ago. 'Ripe' may not be the correct word, but they have now been 'bletted' (ie softened) by the first hard frost of the winter, which (apparently) makes them as near edible as they are ever likely to get! With a total crop of just 8 fruits, the culinary possibilities seem a bit limited...

Yesterday the road from Scarborough to Whitby was snow covered and only just 'passable with care' and by evening the temperature had dropped enough for screen wash (even with antifreeze in) to just freeze solid on contact with the windscreen. Nasty. The Whitby to Scarborough road even made the evening TV News, with a lovely shot of the RAF Fylingdales early warning station on a snow-covered moortop.

Also on the news: It seems the UK is going to rely on more nuclear power stations to produce our electricity and 'reduce our CO2 emissions in future'. Except they won't, of course, because all you can do with nuclear power is produce electricity and electricity power generation is not the main contributor to our rising CO2 levels.

The main culprits are actually: 1. Road traffic (why are there more gas guzzling 4x4s within the M25 than in the rest of the UK put together? It must be all those really steep mountainous roads in Greater London and all those really deep flowing fords across the River Thames, I suppose. And why, with the purest drinking water in the world, do we really need to send 42 tonne lorry loads of bottled Scottish water to England and then send a different fleet of wagons carrying English bottled water to Scotland? It must be urgently, though, as all those wagons hurtle up and down the motorways at 80 mph!) and 2: Air traffic (can those 'silly money' air fares be anything to do with the fact that there is no tax of any sort on aviation fuel, so that we can all fly off to the sun and get our annual dose of skin cancer for next to nothing? Just think of all the money we've saved!) and 3: Wasting energy eg heating poorly insulated buildings (we don't give elderly people properly insulated houses to live in, we just dole out winter heating allowances year after year so that they can continue to pump more and more energy into cold houses full of draughts, thus killing far more of our elderly in the UK every winter than in any Scandinavian country) or leaving electrical equipment on Stand-By (which alone would cut our CO2 emissions by 20%, if we just walked all the way across the room and turned the TV or computer OFF for a change)! No, far easier to leave it all on Stand-By all the time and then drive across the suburbs - probably in a 4x4 - and pay to join an expensive gym where we can exercise by running on an electrically driven conveyor belt, instead. Isn't it a good thing that we are the most intelligent species on the world? The dolphins would probably have made a real mess of it by now...

Still, who wants to save a mere 33% of our UK energy requirements by using a bit of common sense occasionally (switch it Off; insulate buildings properly; reduce consumption generally, and repair, reuse or recycle things before we just throw them away and go buy another one), when we can always build a few more heavily subsidised and completely uneconomic nuclear power stations to produce even more toxic waste (which we still don't know how to dispose of safely) which our children's children will have to guard for the next 240,000 years (even longer than human civilisation has already existed), while at the same time creating vast amounts of CO2 in their construction / maintenance / running / decommissioning AND at the same time provide lots of terrorists with lots more really interesting targets, in order to produce even more electricity - which we will continue to waste 33% of? Good, innit?

NB: Niall has now dismounted from his hobby horse and it is safe to come out from behind your chair again. The Energy Saving Trust (www.est.org.uk) has lots of information and suggestions, plus a collection of all the best energy saving offers from various electricity companies, etc.

28 Nov 2005 Another ¾ of an inch of wintry showers fell last night, bringing the rain gauge up to 4 inches. It is 5º F above freezing but feels raw and cold. The ditch I cleared out yesterday is flowing brink-full today and the beck is as high as I have seen it since the Stickery flooded in the spring. There is some water from the repaired culvert seeping out through the retaining wall, but hopefully this is an acceptable, if disappointing, leak.

27 Nov 2005 Occasional wintry showers but mainly bright and sunny. Any sleet or hail that falls just melts on contact. A heron flew off reluctantly from the ground near the viewpoint at the top of the wood.

Another ½ inch of rain has fallen since I came home. A 15-minute bird count from my conservatory gave: chaffinch 7, blackbird 4, blue tit 3, great tit 3, wood pigeon 3, coal tit 2, robin 2, bull finch 1, dunnock 1 and kestrel 1. A single bank vole also appeared under the feeders. Shortly after the count period ended, 2 marsh tits and a sparrow hawk decided to make a belated appearance, but I shan't even mention them. (7/8 cloud, showery, raw and calm, 1020 - 1035 hours).

Leafing today, with armfuls of fallen leaves to sweep or rake and then carry away. Clearing the fallen leaves from the ditch is best done by walking slowly downstream (in wellies, of course!) and pushing wodges of soggy leaves into temporary dams, before lifting them aside with one boot while balancing precariously on the other. Flag seemed to enjoy this even more than I did - still, it is an opportunity to get muddy and wet at the same time!

25 Nov 2005 A few days in the Lake District were very enjoyable. Cold, but enjoyable - and this time it was dry (for a change)! There was no snow in Cumbria, no snow on the Pennines and none until I got to the highest bits of the North York Moors, where only a light dusting remained.

17 Nov 2005 This morning the lawns and the roof of the pole barn were white with frost, but the bright sun soon cleared it all away. The plasterer and his mate were back again today for more 'dotting and dabbing' in the kitchen and larder, then a general tidy-up before quitting time.

Flag and I flushed the first woodcock of the winter from the top of the wood this morning.

The grass cutting gang from Scarborough Borough Council gave the verges on Whitby's Mayfield Road and The Switchbacks their final mow of the season (mid-November but it was still growing) while North Yorkshire County Council lorries whizzed past, gritting the roads for another frost tonight - never, Never, NEVER have I seen or even heard of both events happening in the same place at the same time! Global warming, climate change, climate chaos - or what?

Talking of climate chaos, the Loss Adjustors' letter arrived this morning to say that they had approved all the expenditure over the last few months on my flooded Stickery, and that a cheque for just over £8000 would soon be on its way - thank goodness!

16 Nov 2005 First wintry shower of the season, with a slight scattering of hail stones on the road just outside Whitby. It was only when I got to Sandsend and found very little beach to walk on, that I realised the Northerly airflow carrying those wintry showers had actually been strong Northerly winds and had whipped up a big sea with hundreds of white horses galloping full tilt for the shore. On what little sand there was, I managed to walk Flag around the 5 turnstones and 6 ringed plovers (they had quite enough to contend with, without being forced to take to the air unnecessarily!) until one of those big white horses came and took his tennis ball away. 'Fear not' I said, 'For now I always carry a spare' and we continued merrily on our way - until the second ball was washed away as well. Flag was keen to go after it, but I persuaded him not to (with difficulty).

By tea time the plasterer had finished day one of sheeting and skimming the exposed brickwork and the construction phase now looks well advanced.

14 Nov 2005 First frost of the winter last night, with ice on the gate and the car windscreen at 2230, but this morning it was all gone, the sun was out and the air temperature was notably cooler. Perhaps autumn has finally arrived - now that the trees have lost most of their leaves!

The plasterer is due on Wednesday to finish off the walls, then the new kitchen floor tiles will be laid...

A green woodpecker flew out of the pole barn as I drove the car in. I think we both looked quite surprised.

13 Nov 2005 Over night rain (now up to 1¾ inches so far this month) but bright, dry, sunny and mild this morning. Fifteen minutes recording at the feeding station revealed: Chaffinch 5, Great Tit 3, Blue Tit 2, Coal Tit 2, Dunnock 2, Blackbird 1, Greenfinch 1, Marsh Tit 1, Robin 1, Wood Pigeon 1 and Bank Vole 1 (0945 - 1000 hours, 3/8 cloud cover and Force 2 Easterly wind). A sparrowhawk swooped in just too late for inclusion, and a skein of 90 geese gabble ratcheted their way south across the dale.

Having de-brambled the line of the drain, I continued work in that area just in case the digger turned up. But, surprise, surprise, it didn't. So I de-brambled the old hedge between Dyke orchard and the pole barn, and still the digger didn't show up. Then I decided to remove all the long redundant barbed wire entanglement from the old hedge as well - which seemed like a very appropriate thing to be doing at 11 am on Remembrance Sunday.

12 Nov 2005 A fine, dry and sunny day to do 3 loads of washing and drying (mostly wet and muddy dog towels!) and to carry down a few more firelogs. The paths are still too wet and slippery for the Chinese transport system, so back to the 'one log in each hand' method. This was soon abandoned in favour of opening up the next section of the ditch behind Dyke orchard, just in case a different dinky digger (with its own driver) turns up tomorrow...

10 Nov 2005 This bright, mild and sunny morning a wasp flew in through the open bathroom window and then, luckily, flew out again. Thinking of which, the leaning ash tree is completely naked now (its leaves having fallen this autumn without changing colour) while the major oak and its fellow officers are semi-naked, following the strong winds. Only the smaller and the lower down in the dale trees are still fully clothed, still waiting for the first frost.

Plumber and brickie completed the first fix plumbing (including my laundry, thank goodness) and the loose plaster removal and tidy up by lunchtime.

9 Nov 2005 The early electrician catches the chance to get on unhindered before anyone else arrives and, when the brickie does arrive, the new kitchen counter is built. Here endeth the destruction stage and the construction stage hath begun...

Heavy overnight rain has brought the rain gauge up to 1¼ inches so far this month and the River Esk is running high - but still my beck has hardly reached more than a trickle, so the Stickery flood relief work has still to be seriously tested. Bright, dry and sunny all day, but a few degrees colder when we walked / ran (ie: I walked and Flag ran) on the beach at Sandsend.

8 Nov 2005 Today the builder built, the brickie bricked, the plumber plumbed and the electrician did what electricians do and by the end of the day the ceiling props were up, the new lintel was in, the wall between the kitchen and dining room was down (as planned) and the first fix plumbing was completed and nobody had got in anybody's way. Much.

7 Nov 2005 Today the plumber, the builder and I all joined forces to empty my Laundry, locate and then trace every pipe in and around the whole of Groves Dyke to work out what exactly had been connected to what over the many years that various bits of work have been carried out, and then rationalise all the pipework so that the hot water is still hot by the time it arrives where it is wanted and the cold water can be turned off in an emergency at the nearest stop tap. That is how it is all arranged now, but it certainly wasn't how it has been for the last 20 years!

Mild, sunny weather has returned and carrying logs down to the woodshed resumed this afternoon - apart from a stroll on the beach.

6 Nov 2005 The horribly wet and windy weather finally arrived this morning, although more windy that wet. It was very odd to sit comfortably in my conservatory while the still mild south westerly gale toppled my plastic patio chairs and blew them tumbling up the hill to the woodyard. Neither dog nor I felt like doing any outdoor work until the gale blew itself out and the sun shone later that day.

5 Nov 2005 Isn't it nice having Saturdays off? The horribly wet and windy forecast was completely wrong for today, so I had a very pleasant 2 hour drive across the Yorkshire Wolds, over the Humber Bridge and into North Lincolnshire to collect a Gnome Man coffee table I had just bought on Ebay. Then a quick visit to Gainsthorpe Deserted Medieval Village (not a patch on Wharram Percy DMV, which I had passed just south of Malton), followed by a very nice lunch of homemade soup and homemade organic stone ground bread from the windmill cum bakery just alongside the cafe. This was a happy (but completely accidental) discovery with a Whitby connection, as Rick Stein has declared this miller cum baker at Kirton in Lindsey to be one of his Food Heros. He was right about The Magpie's fish and chips and he was right about this bread, too!

The afternoon was spent at Blacktoft Sands RSPB reserve (near Ousefleet, off the A161 between Goole and Scunthorpe) reacquainting myself with such nice things as Shoveller, Gadwall, Whooper Swans and Marsh Harrier. Wonderful.

Bonfire night was much less appreciated, especially by Flag who shivered with fear throughout the entire evening as volley after volley of fireworks went off throughout Sleights. Closing the heavy curtains and turning the telly UP VERY LOUD was useless. The homeopathic remedy I had been given for him seemed to have little effect either, so I doubled and even tripled the dose without noticeable improvement. At least, with no active ingredients, there is little chance of giving him an overdose...

I wonder why we celebrate an unsuccessful terrorist atrocity on 11/5 1605, when we all find the successful one on 9/11 2001 so upsetting?

4 Nov 2006 A noisy morning as work began on jack hammering a pipe run across the concrete kitchen floor. The noise and vibration permeated both houses until Flag and I decided to go out and leave them to it.

3 Nov 2005 The reinforced concrete lintel for the new kitchen was delivered by wagon at 0745 this morning. Oh good. Just what I really wanted: a Neanderthal weight-lifting session before breakfast. Then work continued (at a more reasonable hour) on carrying an awful lot of awful heavy tiles from the poor car, removing curtains and arranging dust sheets before ripping out door frames, skirting boards, wall tiles, old electrics, old plumbing, etc, not to mention lifting enough dining room floorboards to locate the gas pipe and decide how it could be extended to the new gas hob in the kitchen.

Strong Southerly gales continued throughout the day, with occasional showers but mild, so very mild! A Red Admiral butterfly, which had probably settled down in the conservatory for the winter, woke up and assumed that winter must be over already. It battered itself repeatedly against the glass until I gave up and let it out into the great outdoors. Thank goodness for this wet and windy weather on the run up to Bonfire Night, as poor Flag hasn't had to contend with a single firework. Yet...

2 Nov 2005 Off to B&Q on Teesside to choose the new floor and wall tiles. I am told that some people actually enjoy going to very busy places far away on grand shopping expeditions, but I am glad to say that I have never suffered from this affliction. I don't know where exactly I was taken, as I have no intention of ever going there again, but if it isn't called 'Big Shed Avenue' then it really ought to be!

31 October 2005 Kitchen demolition began in Groves Dyke. Water and central heating have been turned off, appliances removed and the 15-year old Farouche (?) kitchen units ripped out.

29 October 2005 I continued de-brambling my way along the line of the old ditch behind Groves Dyke orchard, ready for the dinky digger to dig it out - which will be the first time in the last 30 years to my knowledge. The preparation is a bit less urgent now, as the digger is not now arriving on Monday...

The paths around the wood have dried out a lot, so I carried down a couple of coolie-loads of sycamore logs to the woodshed. As I prepared the second load, I heard the sound of a very big Gabble Ratchet, as c700 grey geese flew south across the Esk Valley. Very impressive! No wonder the locals were so terrified of the noise, if they didn't think to look up for passing skeins of migrating geese.

27 October 2005 This morning I un-stacked all the logs from one bay of the pole barn, so that the dinky digger will be able to drive through the side of the pole barn to get to the other side of the 'leccy pole stay wire in the ditch.

The new kitchen units, work tops, etc arrived in the back of a van and are now stacked up in the dining room. The rain has gone (2¼ inches so far this month), the wind is warm, the sky is blue and the sun is shining strongly. Very strongly. So strongly, in fact, that it called for lunch out of doors at Sandend - but a hat was necessary to keep the sun out of my eyes. Every single outdoor table was full and I felt sorry for the poor waitress, as she dashed back and forth when she might have been expecting a bit of an end-of-season lull.

The beach was pretty busy with half-term holiday-makers and the cars were parked bum to tum all the way from Sandsend to Raithwaite Beck. Whitby is also very busy, with the combination of wonderful weather, school holidays AND the first Goths of the winter gathering for their 10th anniversary Goth Fest at Whitby. Over 1,000 are expected this Halloween weekend, filling every hotel and guesthouse in Whitby, dancing to lots of Goth bands at Whitby Spa and other venues, drinking lots of brightly coloured cocktails, remaining very polite and peaceful throughout - and pumping something like £100,000 into the town's economy. So should it matter that they dress all in black, paint their faces white, dye their hair red and have an unnatural interest in vampires, Dracula and death? Bram Stoker has a lot to answer for!

26 October 2005 We emptied the dining room and stacked everything up in the sitting room before T & C left. The carpet unfitter arrived in the afternoon and lifted the carpet & underlay carefully. They are now rolled up for safety and stored on the landing until the gasman has beeneth.

24 October 2005 An afternoon trip to Filey produced a windswept yellowhammer (which tried to disguise itself as something really interesting) on the tip of the Brigg, with small parties of winter thrushes (redwing and fieldfare) and blackbirds just moving from west to east as they arrived after their sea crossing. There were even more in Parish Wood and on the strip crops. At Filey Dams a dabchick dived amongst the mallard and teal, while a couple of black tailed godwits ('blackwits') mixed with the redshank, snipe and curlew feeding on the mud.

23 October 2005 T & C are staying in Groves Dyke for a few days and T, as ever, came up with a First: in this case the first fieldfare of the winter calling 'chacka-chacka-chacka' in the wood. We walked on the beach, gamely hanging on to our umbrellas as the mild blustery wind drove showers at our faces. Flag ran and then lay in the shallows, trying to convince us that the North Sea is at its warmest in October. He failed.

22 October 2006 The barometer has fallen from 'Fair' to 'Change' (ie below 29.5 mb) for the first time in many weeks, as bands of light and steady rain cross the country. The rain gauge is now showing 1½ inches of rain since the beginning of the month. Still no overnight frost, so the autumn colour is rather slow to appear. The ash trees are starting to drop their still-green leaves, the little beech hedge by the pole barn is the only bit of bright red and apple trees are just turning a lighter shade of green. They are also dropping a big crop of apples, as well as leaves, and Flag enjoys running after them as they roll downhill. Wonderful! An endless supply of self-propelled 'tennis balls'. Perhaps I should have called him Newton?

20 October 2005 This morning was spent looking at the CAD pictures and the item listing of the new Groves Dyke kitchen, double checking the details and making a few corrections. The carpet un-fitter was booked for next Wednesday pm, which means that all the dining room furniture has to be moved into the sitting room in the am (so that the gas man can get under the floor boards to extend the gas pipe to the new gas hob) and the new kitchen units are being delivered on the Thursday, to be stacked at one side of the dining room ready for wall demolition to start on Mon, with the bricks being handed out the window and into the motorised wheel barrow (on hire for the day) to be moved around the outside of the house to my front lawn, where the (reliable) dinky digger (on hire for the day) will be ripping up half of my top lawn, to lay them as hardcore for my new patio, with the spoil being moved to the woodyard (to fill in all the holes which Flag has dug over the past couple of years), before moving round to clean out the ditch behind the Groves Dyke orchard. Simple, innit? I'm sure it will all go like clockwork, janoattameen?

After such a busy morning (my brain hurts) I took Flag to Bridge Cottage Cafe in Sandsend for lunch. Mine, not his. It was pleasantly warm, the sun was shining but I had taken a hat to keep it out of my eyes, and lunch was enjoyed (by me, not him) out of doors and without the need for a coat. In late October!

19 October 2005 Busy week, so I can't remember what happened when, exactly. Today was supposed to be a very wet day, but it wasn't. Not here anyway, even if Cornwall did have 2 inches of rain in just 3 hours. Presumably it wasn't on Boscastle again, or we would have heard all about it!

The Met Office has issued advance warning of a very, very cold winter 'probably' just ahead, advising the Natioanl Health Service to be prepared for large numbers of casualties with hyperthermia (just add that to the imminent Bird Flu pandemic)! All we need now is for some terrorists to disrupt the Russian gas pipeline that the UK now depends on, since we have already used up most of our own North Sea gas. Or perhaps we could all be encouraged to insulate our houses rather better, instead of just wasting more money on more fuel in an effort to keep warm? No? Silly idea. Never mind, we are the most intelligent species in the world and most of us in the First World usually manage to muddle along regardless, no matter how stupid our actions. In anticipation, Flag and I carried more firelogs down to the wood shed and also began sawing up the cordwood from the fallen sycamore and stacking it in the woodshed, which is now just over half full of firelogs.

On one recent morning walk around the wood (and I've forgotten which day it was) I found myself eyeball to eyeball with a roe doe at the top of the wood. She was just the other side of the sheep net fence and refused to move, so I settled down for a long stand off to see what she was up to. A couple of minutes later a frantic young deer, about half grown, galloped alongside my side of the fence. It rushed up and down the fenceline, throwing itself against the wire netting every so often and just bouncing back again, too panic struck to remember anything its mummy had ever taught it about the Green Cross Code for Deer. I moved further along the path, ready to grab Flag in case he arrived in hot pursuit, but happily he was elsewhere (and probably still running in the wrong direction). The youngster relaxed a little as I moved away from its mum, paused to consider its situation, and then remembered to 1. Always Back Away from the Fence before 2. Running Towards it at Right Angles so that you can 3. Jump Over it Safely. It ran to its mum (I bet she said 'I told you so!') and together they fled across the fields and were gone in seconds. Pity really, it was just the right size for my freezer...

17 October 2005 Flag helped (not a lot) to de-jungle the ditch at the back of Dyke Orchard, ready for someone (reliable) with a dinky digger to come and clean it out a bit. Overhanging hawthorns were removed, together with numerous brambles, stray strands of rusty barbed wire and several very rotten fence rails. By midday we were out the other side again (ie behind the pole barn), having discovered that some time in the 1960s the electricity board had anchored the stay of their 'leccy pole right in the middle of the ditch! No way the dinky digger can work its way up the full length of the ditch, so everything upstream of the 'leccy pole will have to be dug out by hand. Oh good.

16 October 2005 A 15-minute bird count this morning gave: chaffinch 4, dunnock 2, blackbird 1, blue tit 1, coal tit 1, great tit 1, magpie 1, robin 1. High above the wood a circling Kestrel was mobbed by a couple of carrion crows. (1020 - 1035 hours. wind Force 2 Southerly, dry and mild). Once the counting period was over, a greenfinch and a bank vole appeared and a couple of jays flew silently across the woodyard. This is still the season of mellow fruitfulness, which probably explains why so few birds need to visit the feeding station. There has been only ½ " of rain so far this month and only a couple of chilly dawns.

Carrying just 2 logs per day from the fallen sycamore down to the woodshed is a bit too slow, so today I tried carrying 4 or 5 logs in a sling. That was fine but a bit lopsided, so better with a slingful of logs in each hand. Good, but a bit heavy. So I put a pole across my shoulders and hung a slingful of logs from each end. Carrying this 'port and starboard' across both shoulders was ok but on the steepest and slipperiest parts of the path it did seem like just one slip and this would be a very good way to dislocate both shoulders at the same time. How did traditional milkmaids manage to carry 2 full buckets on a yoke safely, I wonder? Perhaps their route from the milking shed to the dairy was less steep - but probably just as slippery.

So I tried carrying the pole 'fore and aft' across just one shoulder and that was the answer. Much less precarious and with far less swinging and swaying. Devilishly cunning, these traditional Chinese coolies. No wonder they have been doing it this way for 5,000 years! Four logs per sling is the ideal number, so with just 10 trips I soon had 80 logs stacked in the woodshed. This is even better than sliding 20 logs at a time downhill on the homemade slipe (a beach combed plastic bread tray fixed to 2 wooden runners), as the empty sledge has to be dragged back up the hill again for the next load.

Steam trains have been running back and forth all day, from Grosmont to Whitby, with lots of huffing, puffing and whistling just a couple of hundred yards away. Very pleasant.

13 October 2005 Spent this morning with the kitchen designer and the project manager, working out what is required for the new kitchen in Groves Dyke and then leaving him to use a bit of computer-aided design to make it all fit. Then I chose all the doors, worktops and appliances, ready for work to start early next month.

Strimmed the Dyke Orchard this afternoon, all except a big clump of dog's mercury in the middle. This plant is an indicator species for ancient woodland, which is always reassuring.

12 October 2005 A few days holiday in Edinburgh was very enjoyable, with a mere 10,000 Pink Feet Geese at Aberlady Bay in the Firth of Forth. 'Landform' in the Museum of Modern Art is wonderful and I hope the digger driver got an award as well, but I'm still not sure about all the other exhibits there... still, it's good to know that Andy Goldsworthy is not the only great Earth Artist.

Called in at The Alnwick Gardens for 'lunch up a tree' on the way north and again on the way back home again. The Treehouse (and its restaurant) are mind bogglingly brilliant and recommended to absolutely everyone who is still a child at heart. 500,000 visitors so far this year can't be wrong!

On this morning's walk around Groves Coppice Flag put up 3 roe deer and chased them in several different directions simultaneously. Quite an achievement! The silver birch have almost lost their leaves already and the wild cherry are the next to species to change colour. Does this mean that it is that time of year again - already?!

1 October 2005 A fine, warm, sunny day with a large yellowy / green dragonfly patrolling the pond and basking on the stone wall. Had lunch out of doors at the Bridge Cottage cafe in Sandsend where the all day breakfast is highly recommended.

The trees are still all green, with no sign of autumn colour yet. The chiffchaff is still calling in a half-hearted sort of way and neither buzzard nor roe deer have put in another appearance. The British Trust for Ornithology's national Tawny Owl Survey starts this month and I have volunteered myself to take part in a 20 minute listening session every week for the next several months. Nothing too complicated, just sitting outdoors (ok, in the conservatory, but with the door open) and listening. I think I can do that ok.

28 Sept 2005 Strimmed the path around the wood this morning (last time this year? I wonder...) and then half the woodyard, bits of the beck and half of the wildflower bank by the Stickery steps.

A wagon arrived and took the dinky digger away, just as I was about to put a 'For Sale' sign on it. The job's a good 'un!

26 Sept 2005 From the viewpoint at the top of the wood this morning I noticed a roe doe with two well grown young in the field above. Even though they were only 25 yards away, they were completely oblivious and continued to graze head down amongst the thistles. It was only when I got tired of standing and tried to slide onto the bench that they noticed me and bounded away. Flag continued to snuffle for bank voles in the wood, equally oblivious.

While the dry weather continues I used the new (nice insurance man) hedge trimmer to seriously attack the box hedge and also to tidy up some of the other hedges. Then lots of raking and numerous wheel barrow loads of trimmings up to the woodyard bonfire site before the rains duly arrived.

25 Sept 2005 Today was a good day to move a windrow of cut and split firelogs from the fallen sycamore behind the second hazel coup, some 30 paces through the hazels, to the side of the path. There they were re-stacked ready for me to carry a couple down to the woodshed every day on the morning dog walk. Now let me see... 200 firelogs at 2 per day will take about 100 days... which will be about 3 months... which means that that particular windrow will have moved to the woodshed in time for Christmas, with another 2 windrows to follow. That's ok then. No rush.

24 September 2005 It was only when the buzzard finally glided from the top of the leaning ash tree behind the woodyard, that the noisy mobbing of a couple of dozen rooks was finally explained! What a nice cabaret to watch while having breakfast in the conservatory! This first buzzard is a completely new species for the wood and indeed for the Sleights area, and is probably a youngster on its first solo travels after being kicked out of its parents' territory. Despite the many square miles of apparently suitable territory in the North York Moors, buzzards are almost non-existent here, so perhaps it has come across the Vale of York from the Yorkshire Dales, or even from the Scottish borders? I hope it decides to hang around, as the mewing call of a couple of buzzards soaring high above Groves Coppice would be the ultimate, and very unexpected, approval of our tree planting efforts 'way back in 1982!

22 September 2006 A fine sunny day for pottering in the wood, having a picnic on the newly completed table, checking the hazel coups, tending the blackthorn shoots, opening up a gap for the young, self-sown rowan tree and generally enjoying the wood. Flag approved, too.

21 September 2005 A mild and misty morning exploring Staithes with Flag. He was very good and enjoyed exploring (off the lead) the great rocky scaur exposed at this very low spring tide. Luckily he didn't set off to chase the gulls, nor did he do the splits on the slippery, sea-weedy rocks. Not, indeed, did I.

Lunch was taken at the now sunny harbour side watching Hydrex, the giant son of Fiat and Hitachi, waken with a start, stretch his long metal neck and yawn his rusty metal jaws before trundling off across the harbour sands to his prized collection of great green boulders. The controller sat within, his beer belly relaxing on his thighs as his nimble fingers flew across the levers, pinching gently, lifting here, twisting there, moving it a smidgeon and finally nudging yet another 10 ton Norwegian marble block into line. The plaque by the harbour railings said that the head of DEFRA Flood Committee had officially marked the completion of this £3½ million cliff stabilisation and harbour improvement scheme in 2002, but that clearly wasn't true...

I wonder what young James Cook would have made of all this work on the harbour where he first met the sea? I wonder if those two legendary mermaids ever realised that this would be the result of their curse on the village which once held them captive in a coal shed for many a long month, when they swore that 'The sea will flow to Jackdaw Well!' as they finally escaped from the confines of the harbour and back to the open sea?

19 Sept 2005 Yes! The dinky digger, driver, tipper wagon and a couple of men returned to finish the job. Three and a bit more loads of soil were removed, the digger opened-up the culvert, a plastic pipe was inserted and joined to the recent pipe, the cap stones were raised a few inches on a cement bed, the cap stones replaced and covered in soil, the pipe entrance was concreted to make sure that all the water goes into the pipe, the old steps were covered with soil and all the area was levelled and tidied. Wow! At last!

While all that was going on, I tied Flag to an apple tree at one end of Bank Orchard and then I started strimming the other end. We swopped ends at half-time and by mid-afternoon the job was complete: he had dug several large holes and I had completed the strimming. It would have been easier and quicker to strim if the brambles hadn't been so though and woody, but the high pollen count in June had meant no cutting after the spring flowers had set seed, so this was the first cut of the year. Note to self: no matter what the excuse, do NOT omit the June cut - if you do, it takes more than twice as long in September.

18 Sept 2005 Bright, warm, dry and sunny weather returns. Pottered in the wood before sunbathing in the Stickery.

15 September 2005 A day of cool wind and steady drizzle but an evening of sitting by the nice hot wood burning stove. Already? In mid-September?

12 September 2005 Following the heavy rain at the end of last week (1½ inches so far this week) a new leak has appeared from the culvert into the trench around the Stickery, just a couple of feet upstream of the newly piped section. The nice Loss Adjuster man says to go ahead with whatever is required to put it right, which means that the firm supplying the digger are now required to do some additional work as well. Oh good.

Strimmed the steepest and most difficult half of Bank orchard, its first cut of this year since the June cut was abandoned due to high pollen counts. It took about 2 hours, followed by another 1½ hours sweeping the bits of cut grass off the drive. Still, waiting for the perfect combination - of no wind AND the available time, the energy, the dry weather and the inclination - would have meant an even longer delay.

11 September 2006 Flag dug under the fallen cherry tree seat while I worked on the picnic table beside it.

10 September 2005 Still dull and drizzly this morning. The dog dish just outside the Stickery (a favourite haunt of newts) contained a couple of inches of rain water - and 11 young toads this morning! They were all scrabbling about but unable to get out until I provided them with a wooden island.

Strimmed the path around the wood and half of the woodyard. Digger? No, don't be silly.

9 September 2005 A wet night and a wet day (the first this month) and the rain gauge is now showing about 1 inch.

8 September 2005 Another visit to Scampston Walled Garden near Malton. The garden is as impressive as ever and the cafe is even better. I have eaten lots of lamb shanks, from here to Cumbria and beyond, but these ones really get the red rosette.

7 September 2005 To Runswick Bay with friends for a stroll on the beach with Flag. He was fine until we were heading back to the cafe when he decided to get involved with a lady who was throwing stones into the sea for her spaniel. Flag thought this was far more interesting than being a faithful and obedient companion, so he totally ignored me and barked to encourage the lady to keep on throwing stones. Which she did. And on. And on and on and on. And on. And on. So we all went and had our coffee, keeping one eye on the nice lady and waiting for her arm to get tired. Which it did. Eventually. Once she had stopped I was able to get him back under control again and we left with a very tired, very pleased and very soggy doggy.

5 September 2005 Another Purple Picnic and walk in Bumble Wood, but this one was even better 'cos it included not only some very good friends but also a bag of Coopland's cheese straws and lots of strawberries!

Hello! Several days have gone missing... I typed them in and saved them as normal - and now they have gone! I wonder where they went?? I know they must be somewhere, so I'll skip that problem for now and just carry on where I left off, in the hope that I can find them again later...

28 August 2005 No dinky digger yesterday to complete the job, so I pruned the living willow Twigwam a bit more and then planted the cuttings at the very top of the wood (Bankside, as opposed to Dykeside). Its not the best time of year for planting trees, but it did need some serious pruning to stop it looking more like a living willow Hedgehog than a Tree-pee!

Three or four Jays were very noisy up there, presumably searching for acorns and Zit (the Great Spotted Woodpecker) has also been calling throughout the wood. A couple of Kestrels had a mid-air screaming match over the wood, presumably a parent chasing one of their young away from their breeding territory - no KIPPERS* in this family!

26 August 2005 On the way to Ruswarp yesterday evening I had to break suddenly for one of the many ducks crossing the road by the weir - except this was no duck, this was a cormorant walking across the road, to demand its evening breadcrumbs from one of the houses. A cormorant? Yes! Walking across the road?? Yes!! For breadcrumbs??? Yes!!! (And no, I hadn't been drinking).

The heather is looking magnificent just now and I must go for another purple walk in the next few days to appreciate it at its very best. Perhaps a drive from Castleton to Hutton-le-Hole via the Lion Inn on Blakey Rigg, with a bit of a walk around the head of High Farndale on the old railway line? Or maybe on the Hamer road from Egton Bridge to Rosedale? Or even the Little Fryup Dale to Rosedale road, via Trough House? Or why not the... Never mind which, just as long as it is very wild and very purple!

The new steps are completed and I now have a proper path from house to Stickery again for the first time in months, but there is a bit of a drop on one side into the trench, until I get some safety rails up! Now all I need is the dinky digger back again to spread the several tons of soil it piled up last time...

24 August 2005 Gales and heavy overnight rain were exactly what Egton Show did NOT need, but the rain stopped by midday, the sun came out and smallish crowds enjoyed the biggest agricultural show in the North York Moors.

Victoria Farm Garden Centre, just a mile outside Whitby on the A171 Guisborough road, now stocks some of my Unique Walking Sticks from today. This is in addition to Dunsley Hall Hotel and Larpool Hall Hotel and, of course, newly reopened Stickery itself.

The retaining wall around the Stickery was completed and digging out the new path / steps began, uncovering just below the surface the capstones of the leaking stone-lined culvert. Removal of two hearth stone sized capstones revealed a dry culvert, meaning that the water was leaking out just a few feet further upstream. Digging down about 2 or 3 feet and removing a third enormous capstone (some 6 inches thick and about 3 feet by 2) revealed the damaged area, which was by-passed by 10 feet of 9 inch diameter plastic pipe cemented into place. Does this make it a Triple Hearth By-pass?

23 August 2005 Hot and sunny again today. Work re-started this afternoon on the new retaining wall alongside the Stickery, so now there is just the culvert exploration / repairs, the new path and the tidying-up to do...

22 August 2005 It rained hard from mid-morning to mid-afternoon, then cleared up again. The total rainfall so far this month is just under 2 inches - but Egton Show is on Wednesday and you can guess what that will mean!

21 August 2005 The Stickery re-opened this afternoon, for the first time since the flood damage in April. Now I can get back into production, at last! Click here for Unique Walking Sticks.

20 August 2005 Strimmed half the woodyard and the path along the top of Bank Orchard as far as the fallen oak limb.

18 August 2005 This evening a mini frog, as big as a little finger nail, crossed the edge of the pond in a number of mini hops before taking a mini freefall down to the patio far below. Then it set off across the patio, with lots of mini rests every few mini hops and eventually it reached the edge of the lawn and disappeared from sight. See you back here in about 3 years from now, little fella...

I took Flag to the beach at Sandsend this evening and this now 90% reliable dog proved his 10% unreliability by setting off in hot pursuit of a passing speed boat. It was already being chased by a man on a string, so presumably Flag didn't want him to catch it first! Luckily the water skier fell in, so the boat slowed and then circled back, closely followed by Flag in the shallows, which gave me the chance to get him back under control!

17 August 2005 Tidied up the now-withered hedge cuttings, then decided that the mad dog and Irishman should not be out in all this mid-day sun, so I started moving some of the work benches, tools and equipment back into the now repaired Stickery. If only the work outside the building was also complete...

This evening a roe buck strolled unconcernedly across the lawn as I sat in my conservatory and Flag lay on the patio (fast asleep).

15 August 2005 Summer weather returns! It's hot, dry and sunny just like it ought to be in August. I trimmed a few hedges before the battery and I ran out of energy. A few goldfinches have been feeding on the thistle seeds just opposite the kitchen windows, so light that they hardly bend the stems. A family of bullfinches have been calling their characteristic 'deep' contact call throughout the day and when Flag found the body of a young one with a broken neck under a window, the constant 'deep' became even more plaintive. This 'deep' mourning lasted for the rest of the day.

The moors are looking absolutely magnificent just now and it would be a shame to waste all that purple, so Flag and I went for a little stroll over the moors above Lealholm. We followed the monk's trod past the guide stone, struck off across the purple heather to the old coach road and back round. Two snipe flushed (yes, he was on a lead) and no grouse. Seems they have had a very poor breeding season this year due to the wet spring.

12 August 2005 Some heavy rain today. Cool and overcast all day - so much so that I even lit the wood burning stove this evening! In mid-August!

10 August 2005 Not a bad day today, weather-wise. A bit sunny and a bit warm, but dry at least. This month it has been rather cool and grey, with about a ½ inch of rain so far. Certainly not the kind of hot, dry August weather required for sitting on the beach.

The driver of the dinky digger (but no dinky digger) and two others almost completed the retaining wall alongside the Stickery today. That only leaves the retaining wall to cap, the new set of steps to dig and construct, the inspection pit to dig out, the culvert to repair as required and then all the tons of spoil to remove or regrade...

8 August 2005 Strimmed the path around the wood this afternoon, then half the woodyard and half the beck. Then, ever the optimist, all of the wildflower bank by the Stickery where the new steps are to be built - when the dinky digger and team finally reappear...

7 August 2005 Took Flag to the Wintergill plantation on the moor edge above Egton Bridge. He travelled without incident (he used to get so car-sick) and we enjoyed a walk on the public footpath to admire the purple heather. Just a few more days and a bit of bright sunshine and the moors will be looking absolutely wonderful...

5 Aug 2005 Another driver arrived this afternoon and took the dinky digger away - but there are still 2 days work to do!

Whitby Regatta this weekend, with millions of people (well, it feels like millions) and the weather less than perfect (cool and a bit grey). It is nice to see the Grand Turk back in Whitby again for the next several weeks, after her exciting role as HMS Victory in the Trafalgar anniversary celebrations.

4 August 2005 The small kestrel perched on top of the road sign at the top of Blue Bank (just above Sleights) turned out to be a merlin! But I had driven past by the time I realised...

3 August 2005 Pulled a mere 3 Ragweed plants from the wood today (25 years ago it used to take 2 of us several hours to remove them all) and another 12 plants from Bank orchard. The meadow sweet is in full frothy flower in the orchard and the grass is far too long (blasted hay fever)!

1 August 2005 The new concrete floor was laid today. Shovelled, not poured. All 2½ tons of it! Then the digger driver was called away to an emergency job elsewhere and nobody was seen again, until 5 August...

31 July 2005 I rescued some bits of building stone from the spoil heap by the Stickery, then pottered in the garden.

30 July 2005 Work continued on raising the retaining wall a bit further and the persistent drizzle began again. I spent the afternoon tending the bonfire, on the assumption that the fire risk is now about zero and nobody in their right mind would have any washing hanging out to dry. Talking of nutters, Flag appreciated the rain softened soil and excavated the woodyard still further.

29 July 2005 Another 1¼ inches of rain last night. Thanks a bunch. Surprisingly, the grass in the fields is long and the trees are in full leaf, so much of the rainfall has been retained (rather than running off downhill immediately) and the beck hasn't actually risen much. Work continued on concreting the floor of the L-shaped trench around the Stickery to lead the water into the pipe and away. Two courses of concrete blocks are being built along one side to help retain the hillside and prevent any more slumps.

The River Esk is a bit higher and now coming over the top of the Salmon Leap weir. I didn't see any actually leaping as a result of this 'fresh' but a couple of anglers were casting their lines in the pool below the weir.

28 July 2005 The National Park 'Extreme Fire Risk' signs have done the trick: after weeks without any rain the warning signs went up all over the moors on Monday - and by breakfast today it was raining hard! Just what you don't want when you are trying to pour concrete.

Using a little bit of quick-setting cement the new drain under the Stickery floor is in place and (hopefully) may be suitable for the new floor tomorrow...

27 July 2005 Working on the L-shaped trench around one side and one end of the Stickery, the contractors have discovered a steady flow of water into what is supposed to be a pretty dry trench. By removing more mud, silt and soil from the side trench they have discovered that the water must be coming from the end trench. That means removing the concrete slab path over the trench and then removing the 14 inches of mud and silt to reveal a leak, presumably from the culvert a few yards away. More excavations required tomorrow before any concrete floor can be laid and any new path can be excavated and created...

26 July 2005 The dinky digger and gang reappeared bright and early this morning (oh good) and removed the flood damaged concrete floor of my Stickery. Water continued to weep through the end wall, however, requiring further excavations tomorrow before any new concrete floor can be poured...

Apparently there were over a dozen Tall-ish Ships visited Whitby over the weekend before sailing on to the main event on the Tyne. The regional television has appreciated the sheer size, beauty and gracefulness of these magnificent white birds and they have featured large on the local news over the last few days. I certainly remember the life-defining thrill of the Grand Parade of Sail when the Tall Ships Race visited the Mersey 'way back in 1982. Who could ever forget the sight of the world's largest sailing ship, the Krusenstern, with its uniformed crew evenly distributed along every yard arm as it sailed out past the Royal Yacht Britannia and into a everlasting Liverpool Bay sunset?

25 July 2005 Today I carried down the final 2 branches from the fallen sycamore and added them to the (almost complete) new cord in the woodyard. All the shorter, fatter branches and all the split logs are still to be carried down over the next 6 months...

No sign of the Not Very Tall Ships in Whitby today. A few of them spent the weekend in Whitby as an overflow, while the really Tall Ships (too big for Whitby) were visiting Newcastle.

A light shower this afternoon was the first rain for days, with the rain gauge still showing 2¼ inches since the beginning of this month.

24 July 2005 I tackled the still-flowering rosebay willow herbs in the ditch behind the pole barn, sawed through the fallen hawthorn brought down by the storm thrown willows behind the orchard and sawed up a few more bits of bendy beech branches from the disappearing cord. Flag spent the morning helping by digging holes in the rock hard soil, then spent the afternoon limping on one front leg (the wrenched toe one) while still trying to dig with the other leg! My efforts to stop his digging and let his sore leg recover were not appreciated and eventually I had to shut him indoors to stop him. This gave me the chance to strim half the woodyard, half the top pond, half the wild flower bank and 3/5ths of the beck.

A 15-minute count at the feeding station (now serving a limited summer menu of peanuts, lard and the occasional handful of sunflower hearts) gave: Dunnock 3, Chaffinch 3, Great Tit 3, Blackbird 2 (all with juvenile/s), Coal Tit 1, Marsh Tit 1, Robin 1, Wood Pigeon 1 and a Willow Warbler / Chiffchaff 1. (0930 - 0945, 6/8 cloud, warm, dry, calm, bright).

21 July 2005 Just back from an unexpected few days in Fife, for Jimmy's funeral.

St Andrews is only just recovering from some major golfing event, with 100+ portacabins in a 'Contractor's Village', miles of temporary security fencing, a temporary footbridge across the main road, acres of great white marquees, thousands of plastic seats and miles of scaffolding for stands, a fleet of cherry-pickers for cameramen and hundreds of pallets waiting to be taken away - until next year. Wow! All this just to pay someone millions of pounds for wearing a logo on their shirt while they knock a little ball into a hole in the ground and being ignored by thousands of people pouring free drinks down their necks in the corporate hospitality suites. Too many similarities to some funerals, really - but not, I'm glad to say, this one.

The new tree house at Alnwick Gardens is every bit as wonderful as the publicity suggests. I can thoroughly recommend the Northumberland Sausages with Mustard Mash and Red Onion Gravy, enjoyed some 15 feet off the ground while watching others at the tops of the turrets or walking across the swing bridges on the treetop walk.

17 July 2005 A very pleasant day for a bit of pottering in the garden. Pulling weeds from the heather beds at the front of the house, a bit of log sawing (the cord of bendy beech branches is now down to less than half size) and planning an extension to the raftings by my pond. All this sun and hot weather calls for the creation of some extra shade near the pond. This is a particular problem in the late afternoon, when the only cool place to sit near the house is in the corner of the yard between the kitchen and the downstairs loo!

16 July 2005 Still hot, dry and sunny - but just a few degrees cooler, less humid and now it's downright pleasant. The tawny owls were quite noisy last night, which is said to indicate rain, but that seems unlikely. Perhaps it was just the young birds demanding food from the parents.

One of the old apple trees at the far end of the big orchard has collapsed down the hill. It was hit by the two big oak branches which snapped off last year but seemed to survive that ok. Now the sheer weight of its own full canopy seems to have been the final leaf and over she went. I will let it be until the autumn when all the leaves are off, the apples are picked and the sap has fallen - then it will be time to cut it hard back to the stump and wait to see if it will coppice...

11 July 2005 The new hedge trimmer made short work of tidying-up a couple more hedges, but the hot weather made even shorter work of me! The temperature has been up to 84º F already this month and that is just too darned hot for me...

Pulled a dozen ragwort plants out of the wildflower bank by the Stickery, also a few rosebay willowherbs from the heather clumps and trimmed back the daft young elm tree still trying to grow in mid-heather. I see there are half a dozen more ragwort flowering in the big orchard (which is long overdue for strimming) which will have to be pulled before they seed.

8 July 2005 A great spotted woodpecker flew into the orchard by Groves Dyke conservatory and lingered for a few minutes. Later in the day a green woodpecker was seen on the front lawn. Now all that is needed is a lesser spotted woodpecker and I'll have the full set...

7 July 2005 By late morning the rain had stopped, with 2¼ inches since the beginning of the month, almost all of that in the last 36 hours - and the strange thing was: no flooding! Not here, not locally and not anywhere else! It just goes to show how a different rainfall rate, not to mention longer grass height and much more tree leaf cover can account for a great deal more rain than earlier in the season.

An outing to Scampston Hall Walled Garden and Garden Restaurant, just East of Malton, was very interesting and enjoyable (now that the pollen count has fallen again!) and can be recommended to gardeners and gourmets alike. And especially recommended if you are a gardening gourmet or a gourmet gardener.

Nesting in the wall of the walled garden was a Spotted Flycatcher, the first and only ones I have seen this year.

6 July 2005 Today it rained from just after dawn until midnight. Sometimes hard and torrential, sometimes just a steady drizzle, but always rain, rain and more rain.

4 July 2005 A cloudy day for a trip to Runswick Bay with Flag. He seems to have recovered completely from his sore toe & covered a lot of beach at very high speed, ably assisted by my nephew FCW.

It seems that I was not the only one suffering from hay fever last month. Over one period of 12 consecutive days the UK pollen count was 'Very High' on 10 of those days, causing problems for even some adults who have never suffered before. 'Just a unique combination of prolonged hot weather and a late plant season' they said. I just hope it remains unique!